Baseball has seen a few significant rule changes in recent years but some believe that the game has changed even beyond that.
Hall of Famer Goose Gossage is one of those people. He ripped into MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and today’s players while appearing on Audacy’s “The Bret Boone Podcast” this week.
“Oh my God, Bret. I really don’t know where to start,” Gossage said. “Baseball, to me, is totally upside down.”
Gossage played in the league from 1972 until 1994 for nine different teams. It’s safe to say that he’s not exactly a fan of how the game is run today.
“There’s a lack of respect starting at the top with Manfred and everybody else that’s running the game,” he said. “This game has seen such a transition of all the changes that I don’t even really know where to start, Bret.”
Baseball has certainly changed over the past decade and even more so over the past 30 years since Gossage’s days.
“I will tell you this: your grandpa, Bob Feller, and all the greats that came before us, we didn’t event the game, Bret, they did, and they taught it to us,” Gossage said. “That torch that was passed for 100 years by your grandfather and all the great Boones and all the great players that came before them, that torch has stopped being passed.
“These nerds that are running the game today have no idea or respect. Manfred, starting at the top, he’s a nerd too. And that’s the bottom line that there is no respect from these people that are running the game. They wouldn’t know respect if it hit them in the face, Bret.”
Gossage played through multiple work stoppages, starting with his rookie year in 1972 and ending with his final year in 1994.
“These kids today have no idea, and they’re not being informed, of how they got to be making all of this money. I am not bitter at all; I am angry at the way that the torch has stopped being passed. Respect the game,” he exclaimed. “It’s like they have cut my heart out. That’s how passionate I am about this game. It’s not bitterness.”
The relief pitcher was able to earn a few million dollars late in his career but put the focus on the legends that came before him.
“I feel badly for the guys that came before me that didn’t get in on the good money. I got in on some great money. It was right at the start of free agency,” he said. “No one tells this story at all. The Players Association has no idea. These guys telling them about the respect of the game that everyone has lost.”
Gossage went on to rip into players in today’s game for a lack of fundamentals, among other things.
“They’re being turned into pu–ies because they’re run by a bunch of pu–ies that have no idea,” he said. “They don’t even train these players correctly today. If you’re a coach in the big leagues today you’re the most well-paid babysitter on the planet.”
The longtime relief pitcher then again turned his sights to Manfred and the rest of the league executives.
“It was an eye opener when I got into baseball how I was taught. You know what the first thing was, Bret? Was respect. Manfred has zero – he wouldn’t know respect,” Gossage ranted. “He’s making $20 a million a year, whatever he’s making, which is really really sad that this man is getting paid to destroy the greatest game on the planet.”
Different eras of baseball are viewed differently, and Gossage didn’t hold back in saying what he thought about today’s MLB.
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