Goose Goslin
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Goose Goslin Stats & Facts

 

Goose Goslin

Position: Leftfielder
Bats: Left  •  Throws: Right
5-11, 185lb (180cm, 83kg)
Born: October 16, 1900 in Salem, NJ
Died: May 15, 1971  in Bridgeton, NJ
Buried: Baptist Cemetery, Salem, NJ
High School: Salem HS (Salem, NJ)
Debut: September 16, 1921 (5,069th in MLB history)
vs. CLE 3 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Last Game: September 25, 1938 
vs. PHA 1 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 1968. (Voted by Veteran’s Committee)
View Goose Goslin’s Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos).
Full Name: Leon Allen Goslin
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject

Nine Players Who Debuted in 1921

Goose Goslin
Kiki Cuyler
Bing Miller
Luke Sewell
Riggs Stephenson
Lu Blue
Earl Sheely
Ray Kolp
Lew Fonseca

 

The Goose Goslin Teammate Team

C:   Mickey Cochrane
1B: Hank Greenberg
2B: Charlie Gehringer
3B: Ossie Bluege
SS: Joe Cronin
LF: Al Simmons
CF: Sam Rice
RF: Heinie Manush
SP: Walter Johnson
SP: Schoolboy Rowe
SP: Tommy Bridges
SP: Wes Ferrell
RP: Firpo Marberry
M:   Bucky Harris

 

 

Notable Events and Chronology for Goose Goslin Career

Goose Goslin Biography

Leon “Goose” Goslin won batting titles in the minor leagues and the American League. He won World Series with the Senators and the Tigers. He drove in 100 or more runs eleven times, and was known as one of the best fastball hitters of his time. The Washington Post called Goslin, “Washington’s answer to Babe Ruth.” A clutch hitter, Goslin was famous for driving in the winning run in Detroit’s first World Series championship.

Biography
Leon Goslin was born on October 16, 1900, in Salem, New Jersey. At a young age his family moved to a farm in New Jersey, where Goslin grew up around livestock and among the crops. When he was 16 he defied his father and took a job with the local Salem Nine playing baseball. Ironically, as Goslin would admit later, he wasted little time getting as far away from the farm as he could, but once he made it big in the major leagues, one of his first purchases was a farm in rural Jersey.

Goslin earned his nickname in the minor leagues, due to his large nose and bird-like physical features. The left-handed hitter was purchased for $6,000 by the Washington Senators in 1921 after he led the Sally League with a .390 batting average. Senators owner Clark Griffith swooped in and bought Goslin before Jack Dunn, the patriarch of the Baltimore Orioles, could sign the slugger to a lucrative deal. After a 14-game trial in ’21, Goose began a string of seven straight seasons over .300, culminating in the American League batting title in 1928. That season he nipped the Browns Manush on the final day of the season with a single in his final at-bat.

In 1924 and 1925 the Senators interrupted the Yankees strangle-hold on the American League and won back-to-back pennants. The pitching staff was led by Walter Johnson, and Goslin led the offense, hitting .344 with a league leading 129 RBI in 1924. In the World Series against the Giants, he clubbed three home runs as the Senators prevailed. He led all players with 11 hits and batted .344 with seven RBI. In the 1925 Series loss against the Pirates Goslin again hit three home runs. This time he drove in six runners, scored six, and batted .308.

Goslin enjoyed his prime years from 1924-1928, batting .348 over that five-year period, while averaging 114 RBI, 100 runs, 194 hits, 32 doiubles, 15 triples, and 15 home runs. Despite playing in cavernous Griffith Stadium, Goslin managed to weild a heavy bat, finishing among league leaders in total bases and slugging annually.

In 1928, Goslin overcame a freak injury to battle for the AL batting crown. At the tail end of spring training, which Washington held at the Fair Grounds in Tampa, Goslin injured his throwing arm when he tried to throw a 16-pound shot put as if it were a baseball. Hampered by the sore right wing, Goslin still managed to hit well above .300 for the first part of the season. By September, it was a two-man batting race between Goslin and Browns’ outfielder Heinie Manush. On the final day of the season, the two adversaries started for their teams against one another. Manush banged out two hits in three official at-bats, but in the ninth inning Goslin came to bat with the title in hand by a slim margin. If he made an out he would lose to Manush, but if Goose didn’t record an official at-bat he would garner the crown. Goslin tried to beg off, realizing that no at-bat would give him the crown by a tiny fraction. At one point he reportedly bickered with the home plate umpire and stomped on his foot, but was not ejected. But his teammates, led by Joe Judge, goaded him on. When Goose fell behind 0-2 it looked bleak, but then he reached out and punched a single to right field to win the batting crown.

On June 14, 1930, the Senators traded Goslin to St. Louis for his old batting nemesis Heinie Manush, and pitcher General Crowder. Goslin immediately responded to his new surroundings – slugging 30 homers in 101 games for the Browns. In a decade in Washington’s Griffith Stadium, the left-handed slugger had hit just 27 home runs. He hit 71 homers for the Browns in his three seasons with St. Louis. His days spent playing in Griffith Stadium robbed him of many home runs, but he still managed 248 career longballs and a .316 batting average.

After returning briefly to the Senators for their 1933 pennant-winning season (he hit his seventh World Series homer in the loss to the Giants), Goslin was shipped off to Detroit. There he joined Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg in the famed “G-Men” lineup. In both 1934 and 1935, the Tigers won the flag. In the 1934 Series they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals as Goslin collected seven more hits in his stellar post-season career. The pinnacle of Goslin’s career occurred in the 1935 World Series. In the sixth game, with the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Goslin singled off the Cubs’ Larry French to drive in Mickey Cochrane with the series-winning run. Tiger fans went wild for Goose and the first championship in team history. Thus Goslin was part of both Washington and Detroit’s inaugural World Series winning teams. Adoring Tiger fans nearly rioted after the big hit by Goslin, straining to see their hero.

At the age of 35 in 1936, Goslin had one of his best seasons, hitting 24 homers, plating 125 runs, and scoring 122 for the Tigers. But the following year saw his talents decline as he hit just .238. He was released by Detroit and Clark Griffith gave him a third try in Washington. But this time their would be no pennants or batting titles for Goose. He retired in mid-season, unable to finish his final major league at-bat because of a strained back muscle.

Goslin was unpretentious and blunt. He often found himself in hot water because of his carefree attitude. Later in life, he reflected on his behavior in baseball:

“Heck, let’s face itI was just a bog old country boy having the time of his life. It was all a lark to me, just a joy ride. Never feared a thing, never got nervous, just a big country kid from South Jersey, too dumb to know better. In those days I’d go out and fight a bull without a sword and never know the difference…. It was just a game, that’s all it was.”

Goslin was repeatedly passed over by Hall of Fame voters, much to many of his peers dismay. In 1965 when Manush was elected, Goslin was bitter. But three years later he was finally elected to the Hall of Fame. The strange connection between Goslin and Manush continued to the end: on May 12, 1971, Manush passed away in Florida at the age of 69; three days later Goslin died in New Jersey at the age of 70.

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Factoids, Quotes, Milestones and Odd Facts

Played For
Washington Senators (1921-1930)
St. Louis Browns (1930-1932)
Washington Senators (1933)
Detroit Tigers (1934-1937)
Washington Senators (1938)

Similar: None

Linked: Heinie Manush

Nicknames: “Leon Goslin was tabbed “Goose” while still in the minor leagues, because of his beak-like nose and gawky physical features. Goslin used a closed batting stance, and once joked that he would have “hit .500 if he could have seen over his nose.””

Best Season, 1928
Goslin won the batting title in his famous race with Heinie Manush. His .379 average was a career-high, and he also clubbed 17 homers, had 102 RBI (his fifth straight 100-RBI season), and struck out just 19 times. Goslin, who made himself into a strong baserunner despite a lack of natural speed, swiped 16 bases in 19 tries, and scored 80 runs in 135 games. Had he been healthier he would have posted even better numbers. He slugged .614 with a .442 OBP.

Post-Season Appearances
1924 World Series
1925 World Series
1933 World Series
1934 World Series
1935 World Series

Factoid
On April 28, 1934, Goose Goslin grounded into four double plays in consecutive at-bats, but his Tigers still proved victorious, 4-1.

Where He Played: Left field (1,9490, right (170), center (84)… Goslin played all but two defensive games in the outfield, one at first base in 1937, and the other at third base in 1932. He was a left fielder almost exclusively. He played 88% of his outfield game’s in left, 8% in right, and 4% in center.

Big League Debut: September 16, 1921
A few days later, on September 21, Goslin was the hero, as he delivered a bases-loaded triple to defeat Red Faber and the White Sox, 3-2.

Post-Season Notes
In Game Four of the 1924 World Series, Goslin banged out four hits, including a long home run into the right field bleachers at the Polo Grounds. He drove in five runs in the Senators’ 7-4 victory, which knotted the Series at two games apiece. In all, Goslin slugged seven World Series home runs and hit .287 in 32 career Series games.

Feats: On August 19, 1930, Goslin belted three homers against the Athletics in Philadelphia. He hit the first off Rube Walberg, and the other two off Eddie Rommel, as the Browns won, 7-0.

Milestones
Late in 1935, Goslin collected his 2,500th career hit, while with Detroit.

Notes
The only time Goose Goslin was pinch-hit for came in his final major league game. When Goslin swung and missed at a pitch from Boston’s Lefty Grove in 1938, he strained a muscle in his back and was unable to finish the at-bat. His career was over.

Hitting Streaks
30 games (1934)
25 games (1928)

Transactions
June 13, 1930: Traded by the Washington Senators to the St. Louis Browns for Alvin “General” Crowder and Heinie Manush; December 14, 1932: Traded by the St. Louis Browns with Fred Schulte and Lefty Stewart to the Washington Senators for Sam West, Carl Reynolds, Lloyd Brown, and $20,000 cash; December 20, 1933: Traded by the Washington Senators to the Detroit Tigers for John Stone.

Lowest % of Homers hit in Home Park (min. 200 HR)
Goose Goslin… 37.0%
Tim Wallach… 38.7%
Sid Gordon… 40.5%
Bill Skowron… 40.7%
Joe Adcock… 40.8%
Joe DiMaggio… 40.9%
Pedro Guerrero… 41.8%
Roberto Clemente… 42.0%
Bill Nicholson… 42.1%
George Brett… 42.9%
Tony Oliva… 43.1%
Larry Parrish… 43.7%

Factoid
During the 1935 World Series against the Cubs, Goslin kept an entire rabbit in the clubhouse, figuring if a rabbit’s foot was good luck, then an entire rabbit must be even better. Goslin delivered the Series-winning hit in Game Six.

All-Star Selections
1936 AL

Replaced
Goslin’s first starting job came in 1922, as the Senators’ left fielder. The previous season, Clyde Milan and Bing Miller had shared that role.

Replaced By
Goslin’s inconsistency in the early part of 1937, cost him his left field job with Detroit. He was replaced with Gee Walker.

Best Strength as a Player
Hitting for power. The parks he played in hid this fact, but Goslin was an excellent power-hitter.

Largest Weakness as a Player
Throwing arm. After his 1928 injury involving the shot-put, Goslin’s arm was weakened.

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