Bruce Sutter?

By now, everybody's heard that Bruce Sutter was selected to the Hall of Fame yesterday. Sutter had a great career, and was clearly baseball's dominant reliever for at least half a decade. Nevertheless, I was shocked by his selection, especially since Goose Gossage, a much more worthy candidate, was on the ballot.

Whenever I'm puzzled by something in baseball, I turn to The Oracle (Vinny). I sent Vinny an e-mail asking how Sutter got in over Gossage, and he responded with the view that Sutter's selection was "utter lunacy." The man has a way with words.

Anyway, instead of boring you with my reasons for preferring Goose, I thought I'd link you to this article by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, who lays out the case for Gossage over Sutter very well. Verducci thinks the Goose will eventually get in, and so do I, but there's no way Sutter should've gotten in first.