Today I'm going to go ahead and make a little "fix" regarding Rich Gossage and his one season pitching in Pittsburgh, 1977.
His regular 1977 Topps card (#319) still had him as a Chicago White
Sox player, even though he was traded for Richie Zisk in December of
1976.
But by the time the 1978 cards were being produced, Topps had
enough time to go ahead and airbrush Gossage into a New York Yankees
uniform (giving us a nice card I might add).
So as you have it, except for I believe a 1977 Hostess card, there
was never a Rich Gossage card showing him as a member of the Pittsburgh
Pirates.
Kind of like Reggie Jackson and his one year in Baltimore, also in 1976.
So here below is my design for a 1977 Rich Gossage card, Pittsburgh Pirates version:
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| The "Goose" is loose in Pittsburgh! |
Man, I miss the "Goose"!
He was just hilariously intimidating when he came into pitch during
his years on the Yanks, and was a perfect fit for the Bronx in the
late-70's/early-80's.
We used to always try chatting with him at the stadium when he was in the bullpen.
We were annoying delinquents in the bleachers (when the bleachers
were grimy and pretty much a free for all!) and he'd always crack a
little smirk when we'd be screaming at the top of our lungs, throwing
out any vulgar phrase of praise in devotion.
We would just watch him "POP!!" every single warm-up pitch into the
catcher's mitt, looking like some biker at some roadside bar in the
middle of nowhere.
We loved that "brawler" persona more than anything!
When he left the Yanks via free agency after the 1983 season it truly was a dark day for us bleacher bums.
Really glad he made it into the Hall of Fame in 2008 after waiting for so long…
