By Matt Valentine
After a career spanning 18 seasons with two different ball clubs Mike Mussina announced his retirement yesterday from major league baseball.
Mussina is just the second pitcher in the last 100 years to retire after winning 20 games in a season. the only other pitcher to do so was Sandy Koufax in 1966. Mussina finished the 2008 season with a 20-9 record and an ERA of 3.37.
Now the question on everyone’s mind is whether or not Mussina should be headed to the Hall of Fame.
There are compelling arguments to be made on both sides of the issue, but its this writers opinion that while he will not be a first ballot hall of famer, Mussina will eventually find himself on the hallowed ground of Cooperstown, NY.
So let’s take alook at some of Mussina’s hall of fame credentials.
Over his 18 year career Mussina compiled a record of 270-153 with an ERA of 3.68. While not entriely dominant it should be noted that Mussina did all of this in the potent AL East where he pitched 10 years for the Baltimore Orioles and eight with the Yankees.
Furthermore, consider the era of baseball that Mussina played in, the so-called steroid era ,and Mussina was remarkably consistent. In fact, only one AL pitcher has had more consectutive 10 win seasons then Mussina who compiled 17 straight ten win seasons from 1992-2008.
Mussina reached 15 wins in a season 11 times and his .638 career winning percentage is sixth-best on the all-time list among major leaguers with at least 500 career starts.
He was also one of the best defensive pitchers in the game winning a total of seven Gold Glove awards as the leagues best fielding pitcher.
Also, Mussina’s win total markes him one of only 32 pitchers in the leagues history to have amassed that many wins. And while he never won a Cy Young award he finished in the top 6 in voting a total of nine times in his career.
Perhaps the biggest mark against Mussina will be his lack of a World Series ring, but he was instrumental in getting the Yankees there in their epic series with the Boston Red Sox in 2003.
Now that Mussina is officially retired from the game the debate will begin and i for one am hoping its a debate that ends in Cooperstown.