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Goose Goslin

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Goose Goslin is one of the former baseball players who hold the honor of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Goslin was born on October 16, 1900 in Salem at New Jersey. He was just 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues as a professional, on September 16, 1921 with the Washington Senators baseball team. As a player, he listed a height of 5 feet 11 inches and weight of 185 pounds.

Although the sweet hitting Goslin played for the usually mediocre Senators and Browns for much of his career, he managed to squeeze his way into five World Series, making the most of each appearance. In the 1924 series, the Senators won their first world title, with Goslin batting 0.344 and contributing three home runs and seven runs batted in. The following year he hit another three home runs, although the Senators lost to Pittsburgh. After a subpar series in 1933 back with the Senators, he drove in the winning run in the second game of the 1934 series for his new team, the Tigers, who lost to the Cardinals in seven games.

During the 1924 and 1928 seasons, Goslin's lowest average was 0.334, yet his only batting title came in a rather unusual finish in 1928. Goslin went into his last at bat leading Manush, but did not want to bat for fear of making an out and losing the precarious lead. He ended up with an infield hit and the batting title, having gone seven for his final 15 to bat with a 0.379 mark. Goslin was also responsible for the first fine levied against an umpire.

Goslin spent his final years running a boat rental concession in Bridgeton, New Jersey which was his native state, and died just three days after his 1928 batting rival Manush. His career was true to that good hit, no field pattern. Besides being a feared slugger, he was renowned as a superior fielder, revolutionizing play at shortstop.

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