Goose Goslin Jumping High In Spring Training
Before Rich “Goose” Gossage another great “Goose” played pro baseball. Suiting up for the Washington Senators, St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers was Leon “Goose” Goslin. Here Goose leaps high to stab a ball at spring training in Lakeland, Florida.
In 1934 at age 33, Goslin was at the tail end of what would be an 18 year MLB career. By the time he hung up his spikes in 1938, Goslin had driven in 100 or more runs 13 seasons and batted over .300 in 12 seasons.
The five foot eleven left fielder had a career batting average of .316 with 2735 hits, 248 home runs with 1,612 RBI’s.
Th Senators lost the 1933 World Series in five games to the New York Giants. After being traded straight up to the Tigers for John Stone on December 20, 1933, Goose went to spring training anticipating helping his new team reach the World Series. Goslin was a “fading star” according to many reporters and Goose was out to prove his detractors wrong.
The Tigers additional acquisition of player-manager Mickey Cochrane and the emergence of slugger Hank Greenberg would bolster the team to the top. The Tigers chalked up 101 victories and for the first time since 1909, the Tigers won the pennant. Goslin’s contributions were a .305 average with 13 home runs and 100 RBI’s.
Unfortunately the Tigers fell short losing the World Series to the Cardinals in seven games.
But, the following year, Goslin and the Tigers won it all beating the Cubs in a six game World Series. Goslin batted .292 with nine home runs and 111 RBI’s. Pretty good for a “fading star.”
Goslin was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968 by the Veteran’s Committee. Goose Goslin passed away three years later on May 15, 1971 at the age of 70.
There was also a professional football player known as Goose Gonsoulin in the 1960s; he played for the Denver Broncos in the AFL and for the San Francisco 49ers for one season. His real first name was Austin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goose_Gonsoulin
Apparently any sports personality with a surname that appeared to match up well with the nickname “Goose” was named so. Kind of a stretch, in my opinion. Just think how lucky Paul Assenmacher was…
If one was asked to name as many baseball Hall of Famers as one can, Goose Goslin would likely be one of the ones 99 percent of the respondents would miss.