The National Baseball Hall of Fame is proud to announce that the lone 2008 inductee is Rich "Goose" Gossage.

Gossage is best known for having surrendered the massive home run to George Brett in the 1980 American League Champisonship Series, which allowed the Royals to advance past the Yankees after three years of frustration. Brett's home run off Gossage is considered by many to be the most significant blast in Royals history.

Gossage is also responsible for what is arguably the second-most famous Royal home run, also surrendered to George Brett. On July 24, 1983, Brett hit the go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning off the Yankee reliever, only to find himself declared out due to excessive use of Pine Tar on the bat's handle. This sent the normally composed third baseman into a mad frenzy, the likes of which were not seen again until Joaquin Andujar melted down during the Royals' victorious Game 7 of the 1985 World Series. The ruling was eventually appealed to the president of the American League, who re-instated the home run, and the bottom of the ninth was played a month later, ending in a victory for the Royals' Dan Quisenberry, who for some reason didn't make it past his first Hall of Fame ballot, despite being a more dominant closer than Gossage for the shared years of their careers.

We congratulate the Goose for his induction, where he will join the man to whom he surrendered those homers, who incidentally had gotten in on his first election with over 98% of the vote.