(Quote taken from article written by Barry M. Bloom of mlb.com. You may see the full article by clicking here.)
Rich "Goose" Gossage, who will be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame this summer, was interviewed after touring the Hall earlier in the week. Among topics discussed were his opinions about showboating in baseball (ie. Joba Chamberlain), and how the game has changed giving advantages to the hitters (can't back a hitter off the plate without getting into trouble).
Finally, he admitted that in all his years of playing in the majors that he intentionally HIT three batters: Ron Gant, Andrés Galarraga, and Al Bumbry. Why them?
"Because they had it coming."
Now, I did some research (thanks to baseballreference.com). Gossage hit 47 batters in his long career. While Gant and Galarraga do appear on the list of players he hit, Bumbry was not one of them. Both Gant and Galarraga were hit in 1988 (Gant on 08/28/1988, Galarraga on 07/27/1988). Al Bumbry faced Gossage 33 times, and not once was he ever hit by a Gosssage pitch.
Here is the list of players who have been hit by a Rich Gossage pitch:
Don Baylor (2 times)
Steve Braun (2 times)
Gary Alexander
Tony Armas
Sal Bando
Mark Belanger
Glenn Braggs
Chris Brown
Bernie Carbo
Dave Chalk
Julio Cruz
Glenn Davis
Doug DeCinces
Rick Dempsey
Alvaro Espinoza
Carlton Fisk
Greg Gagne
Andres Galarraga
Oscar Gamble
Ron Gant
Leo Gomez
Juan Gonzalez
Reggie Jefferson
Roberto Kelly
John Kennedy
Davey Lopes
Mike Marshall
Randy Milligan
Jerry Morales
Thurman Munson
Morris Nettles
Billy North
Ken Pape
Lance Parrish
Tom Poquette
Ellie Rodriguez
Joe Rudi
Bill Russell
Sonny Siebert
Jim Sundberg
Gene Tenace
Dave Valle
Tim Wallach
Frank White
Carl Yastrzemski
Maybe it happened in a spring training game. I couldn't find any info beyond that. Regardless of the research, you can't argue with his reasoning.
"Because they had it coming."
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
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