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Mike Mussina Deserves Baseball HOF Nod

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By @ogab_3

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Evan Habeeb – USA Today Sports

One of the interesting candidates for this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame class is former New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina. While he’s considered a bit of an outside candidate, I think he would be a very worthy Hall-of-Famer.

One of Mussina’s biggest strengths is his consistency. He didn’t quite reach the 300-win plateau, an important one for Hall of Fame candidacy, but he seemed to never have a bad year. He averaged 17 wins a year, a great number for any individual season, let alone a career average. He also had a 3.68 career ERA and nearly averaged 200 innings a season. He made five All-Star teams, won seven Gold Gloves, and finished in the top six in Cy Young voting nine times.

He also did all of these things while pitching in the AL East in the 1990s, which was pretty much a living video game for hitters.

It’s unlikely that Mussina will make it this year. His name doesn’t carry the weight or instant adoration like those of Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, Randy Johnson or Curt Schilling. However, none of this should discount what Mussina did. He put together one of the best pitching careers of the least 20 years, while doing it in one of the most difficult eras ever.

Fans might not see Mussina in Cooperstown for now, if ever, but that doesn’t mean he’s not worthy.

Owen Gabbey is a baseball writer who also contributes for the NFL for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ogab_3, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google. 

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