Gossage reflective, not bitter, about close call to Hall

"Bob Boone was catching, and I told him, 'You tell that mother------ that if I ever get the chance to hit him, I'm not going to miss him."

Alas, that was the end of it. Gossage, chuckling, said he never got the chance to drill Reed.

2. When Gossage was pitching in Oakland and former Phillie Greg Luzinski was an Athletics' coach and the two happened to be sitting together on the bus one day when Luzinski turned and said, 'Hey, Goose, do you remember when you knocked me down and undressed me with that pitch under the chin that one night in Philadelphia? I've never been so scared in my life.'

Gossage's reply: "It scared me. I can't imagine what it did to you."

Luzinski: "You hit me."

Gossage: "No I didn't. You took your at-bat. You popped up or grounded out or something.

Luzinski: "I popped up. When I went to the dugout I was shaking. I've never been so scared. I went to the bathroom and to look in the mirror, and before I got to the mirror I saw three or four droplets of blood on my shirt."

Though Gossage's heater had grazed off of Luzinski's chin, the Bull didn't want to lose his at-bat by getting hit by a pitch, so he simply stayed in to take his hacks.

On that bus ride while they were with Oakland, Luzinski told Gossage about the droplets of blood on his shirt, and that the ball left seam marks on his chin as it sizzled by.

"That's a shave," Gossage said.