A Fond Farewell To Michael Cole Mussina

Although he hasn’t officially announced it yet, it appears as though Mike Mussina will call it quits after 18 seasons in the big leagues.

Back in October 2006, I wrote the following about New York Yankees starter Mike Mussina:

“There is no doubt that by the end of 2007, Mussina will be the top statistical pitcher to not make it into Cooperstown, supplanting Jack Morris from atop his perch as the current holder of the “Best of the Rest” trophy. But there is also no doubt that Mike Mussina is not a big game pitcher. He’s had some good moments in his post-season career but the truth is that he’s 7-8 in 21 starts. Sure he’s been bitten by some bad luck. After all, his career post-season ERA is still only 3.40. But when the Yankees needed him most yesterday, he crumbled.”

I grant that part of that was based in frustration after watching the Yanks put on a lackluster performance against the Tigers in the 2006 ALDS. To most, Mussina isn’t a “big game pitcher” the way Curt Schilling or Josh Beckett are reputed to be, but I also don’t believe in the concept of big game pitchers anyway. Playoff performances are overly scrutinized and individual success or failure in those situations often creates mythologies (both positive and negative in nature) that wouldn’t be true on their own merits. Mussina’s won plenty of big games in his career both in the regular season and in the playoffs.


The part of that paragraph that I do believe, however, is that Mike Mussina will now be his generation’s Jack Morris. Going a step further, Mussina will supplant Jack Morris in the following way: Mussina will now be the best pitcher in baseball history to not make the Hall of Fame.

In truth, there are definitely arguments in favor of his enshrinement:

-Mussina is one of 25 pitchers to have won 270 games since 1900. Only five – Lefty Grove, Christy Mathewson, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Grover Cleveland Alexander – have a higher winning percentage than Mussina’s .638;
-He’s finished in the top six in AL Cy Young Award voting nine times between 1992 and 2008;
-He’s finished among the top nine in AL ERA 11 times between 1992 and 2008;
-Mussina ranks 33rd all-time in wins;
-Mussina ranks 19th all-time in strikeouts;
-Mussina ranks 4th among active pitchers in shutouts and complete games; and
-Mussina ranks 6th and 9th, respectively, among active pitchers in BB/9IP and WHIP.

Essentially his Hall of Fame resume is based on having survived his entire career – during the steroids era, no less – as a pitcher in the dangerous AL East, demonstrating exceptional control but also pitching as a power pitcher in the early part of his career before changing his style and becoming a master of changing speeds and locations. According to Mussina’s Baseball-Reference.com page, of the 10 pitchers who most closely resemble his statistical profile, five are Hall of Famers (Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Carl Hubbell, Clark Griffith and Jim Bunning) and the other five are some of the better pitchers of their era (David Wells, Curt Schilling, Kevin Brown, Jack Morris and Andy Pettitte).

Despite that fact, the Hall of Fame is a baseball museum reflecting the best of baseball history. I don't consider Mussina as the best of baseball history; I consider him a good and occasionally great pitcher in his era, but not one for the ages. Like Jack Morris, both were very good, both had moments of brilliance, and both ultimately were overshadowed by other, better pitchers in their era. Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and Tom Glavine were this generation’s best pitchers and Curt Schilling and John Smoltz will both make the Hall of Fame with these other names because of how they distinguished themselves with legendary playoff performances.

I ran hot and cold on Mussina during his time in New York. He’s a notoriously prickly character whose sarcasm and wit don’t always fit in with the down-home, clubby aspects of baseball’s establishment. For many years, I thought Mussina aloof and selfish. That began to change as Moose himself saw the twilight of his career fast approaching. Over the past two seasons, Mussina was a mentor to New York’s young pitchers and he was a great teammate and representative for the Yankees.

On a personal note, as someone that truly loves good pitching, I always appreciated his idiosyncratic delivery when pitching from the stretch or the way he’d break off his patented nasty knuckle-curveballs, even when behind in the count. Other than Greg Maddux, you won’t find a pitcher that fielded his position better than Moose. Finally, since pitching is truly a thinking man’s art, the fact that Mussina was a master at solving crossword puzzles wasn’t lost on me. He was a Renaissance man on the mound.

And yet, as much as I wish I could say he will join the other great Yankees in Cooperstown, I just don’t see it. I guess the consolation (if you can call purgatory consolation) is that he’ll be – at least for the foreseeable future – the threshold by which Hall of Fame pitchers are measured. If you’re better than Mussina, you’ve had a pretty special career and you’re going to Cooperstown. If you don’t measure up to the Moose, well, take your seat in the line forming behind #35.