Top 106 Baseball Players: #72 - Goose Goslin

Goose Goslin

Goose Goslin was a great offensive player who played before World War II who also had a great arm, but he earned his nickname due to his struggles with catching fly balls, as he would often flap his arms wildly while trying to position himself for the catch.

Goslin was called up to the Washington Senators during the final month of the 1921 season, and played well enough to become the starting leftfielder the following season. Starting in 1922, he batted at least .300 for 7 straight seasons, which also included 2 seasons leading the league in triples and one leading the league in RBI's.

When he led the league in RBI's in 1924, he also led the Senators to the World Series, and their only championship ever, by batting .344 with 7 RBI's in 7 games against the Giants. He got them back to the World Series again the next year, and still played just as well, but they fell to the Pirates in 7 games.

He won the batting title in 1928 in interesting fashion. He was tied with Heinie Manush for the lead heading into the final game, and they happened to be facing each other in that game. Goslin was leading when his turn came to bat in the 9th inning, and he told the manager to pull him from the game so he would win the title, but after his teammates called him a coward, he decided to take his turn at bat. After two strikes, he started to regret the decision, and tried to get thrown out of the game by arguing with the umpire so that the at-bat wouldn't count, but the umpire knew what he was doing and told him to finish the at-bat. He ended up getting a hit on the next swing and winning the batting title.

For the next year and a half, he struggled to regain that form, and the Senators decided to trade him to the St. Louis Browns for Manush. He spent two and a half years in Saint Louis, and his numbers rebounded somewhat, then he was traded back to the Senators, where he dropped back below .300, and was again traded away, this time to Detroit.

He had 3 solid years with the Tigers, helping them to two straight World Series, including the title in 1935, when he reached base on more than 40% of his plate appearances to earn his second championship ring. He played one final subpar year in Detroit before signing with Washington one more time to finish his career where it started.

Goslin was never an MVP, though he was in the conversation many times from the early 1920's to the late 1930's, and his RBI title and batting title were both very impressive. He was also very good in both of his World Series wins, and was the best offensive player in his first World Series loss. He is currently #22 all-time in triples and #36 in RBI's, and needs to be remembered as one of the all-time greats.