Voting Station

Goose Goslin

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Baseball Player

The Resume

    (October 16, 1900-May 15, 1971)
    Born in Salem, New Jersey
    Birth name was Leon Allen Goslin
    Left fielder for the Washington Senators (1921-30,1933,1938), St. Louis Browns (1930-32) and Detroit Tigers (1934-37)
    .316 career batting average
    2,735 hits
    248 home runs
    1,609 RBIs
    American League batting champion (1928)
    Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee (1968)

Why he might be annoying:

    He got his nickname from his difficulty in judging fly balls: players said he resembled a bird flapping its wings as he ran after a ball with his arms waving.
    During spring training, he wandered over to an adjacent field where a track and field team was working out and showed off by throwing the shot put like a baseball. He damaged his arm and for the rest of his career had trouble throwing balls from the outfield (1928).
    On more than one occasion, he 'stole' a base that was already occupied. (Once explaining to the frustrated manager, 'Well, I had a good lead.')
    He had a long-running feud with Senators pitcher Walter Johnson, reportedly triggered by an argument over the score during a golf outing.
    He came to the plate with a striped 'zebra bat' intended to confuse the pitcher and fielders that was thrown out of the game by the ump and subsequently ruled illegal by the AL president (1932).
    He liked to say publicly that he loved baseball so much he would play for nothing, but he was a frequent holdout in salary disputes.
    He was badly burned after falling asleep while smoking (1969).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was considered a dependable clutch hitter.
    He swung hard and from the heels, turning nearly 180 degrees, with Shirley Povich noting, 'Even when Goslin wasn't meeting the ball, he was an exciting hitter.'
    He had such good hand-eye coordination that he once beat the New Jersey state skeet champion, hitting 50 out of 50 clay pigeons in a match.
    He was the only Senator to play every inning of the team's three World Series appearances (1924-25,1933).
    He holds the record for most career home runs at Yankee Stadium by a visiting player, with 32.
    He rescued two stranded boaters on the Delaware River (1936).
    He said about his baseball career, 'Truth is, it was more than fun. It was heaven.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 81.25% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 14 Votes: 28.57% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying