Today’s pundits tend to hype still-active gods Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, but you could make a reasonable argument that the greatest reliever in the history of baseball was Rich “Goose” Gossage. Why? Because unlike his modern-day peers, he was asked to enter the game before the ninth inning, often in a sixth- or seventh-inning situation where there were men on base. It was expected that he’d finish things out — and over the course of 22 seasons, he usually held up his end of the bargain.

Goose was in New York late last week touting the debut of Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout, the venerable brewer’s first new U.S. offering in more than 40 years. We sat down with him to talk baseball and beer. Yeah, it’s a rough job, but someone’s gotta do it.


On pitching Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout:
It’s totally different from their regular stout. We’re going to pour the first couple pints of it to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Guinness being in business. I didn’t know beer was that old.

On beer-related encounters with enemy fans:
I’ve had a couple of beers thrown in my face, which wasn’t all that bad. I tried to lick it all off before I had to wipe it off with a towel.

On his experiences in opponents’ ballparks:
Fenway Park was a very hostile environment, especially in the bullpen. You’re not protected. You’re kind of with the animals out there. That’s where I had one beer thrown at me. I’ve been spit on there, [heard] some pretty tough things. It kind of goes with the territory. Security took care of it.

On his once-tempestuous relationship with Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and the Yankee organization:
Mr. Steinbrenner is the greatest owner, I think, the game has ever seen. He’s kept the Yankees being the Yankees. He puts a tremendous amount of money back into the ballclub to win. I’ve played for nine different teams and I loved every moment with every team, but playing with the Yankees was a dream come true. I grew up a Yankee fan all the way out in Colorado, so getting to play for them was unbelievable.

On the supposed “jet stream” that made the new Yankee Stadium a hitters’ park during the team’s first homestand:
We’ll just have to wait and see. If the first week is any indication, it’s going to be a very interesting summer. We had kind of a jet stream out in right-center field in the old stadium. I think there’s more air in this stadium than the old stadium. It’s bigger. I hope it doesn’t end up being like what it was the first week. Time will tell.

On the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, and the suggestion that it might have eased since when he participated in it:
It’s a great rivalry. Nothing else even comes close. It’s been there for generations; it’s not something that just happened. There’s lots of energy in the air, lots of electricity. When I played, there was no fist-bumping with [Red Sox players]. Or maybe there was fist-bumping, but it was with somebody’s nose.

On the modern-era players he likes to watch:
I love [Derek] Jeter — he’s probably my favorite player. [Jim] Thome’s been a great player over the years. [Josh] Beckett, I love Beckett. [Grady] Sizemore for Cleveland, I love watching him play. [Dustin] Pedroia, he gets a lot out of that little body. It’s amazing. He’s the guy you love to hate. Being a pitcher, he’ll drive you crazy.

On the modern-era pitchers who most remind him of a circa-1978 Goose Gossage:
Probably [Jonathan] Papelbon. But no one really did it the way I did it. Nobody really comes to mind.

On the greatest hitters he faced:
[George] Brett was the greatest hitter I ever faced in his prime and my prime. I faced a lot of great hitters on their way out — Al Kaline, Tony Oliva, Hank Aaron, Harmon Killibrew, guys like that. They were at the end of their careers, though.

On some of the pitcher-unfriendly changes instituted in recent years:
It drives me crazy, really, the way the game has changed. Pitching inside — you can’t even scare these guys or you’ll get kicked out of the game. You throw anything up around the head, the umpire’s got his mask off either warning you or kicking you out of the game. These guys, the last thing they think when they go up [to the plate] is “Hey, I might get knocked on my ass.”

That doesn’t happen anymore. It used to be a part of the game. Hitters accepted it. They knew that if somebody hit a home run before they were up, they might get knocked on their ass.