New York Yankees: Mike Mussina Hall call proves that greatness always emerges

Former New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina is a Hall of Fame player. While “Moose” didn’t quite make the hall with the bang Mariano did, he is still deserving. Here is something about Mussina’s legacy.

Mike Mussina pitched for the New York Yankees for eight seasons and he is now a Hall of Famer.

Unlike most Hall of Famers who played for the Yankees, Mussina’s path is much different.

Mussina never won a World Series with the Yankees. Almost every other Yankee in the Hall of Fame did.

He arrived in 2001 right after they had just won and left with a bang in 2008 right before the Yankees won another one.

Mussina never got the star treatment. His Yanks career often paralleled Roger Clemens or Andy Pettitte.

He was also never a Yankees lifer.

He spent more seasons and had more wins as a member of the Baltimore Orioles.

He never even made it to the All-Star game as a Yankee. All five of them came as an Oriole.

Mussina will likely never be the first name that comes to mind when talking about the New York Yankees but there might be reason to be.

Mike Mussina pitched in two World Series for the Yankees, in 2001 and 2003. He also had his first and only 20 win season as a Yankee and it was his last one in 2008.

This article is not a knock on Mussina. He was obviously very talented. It’s just that his path to the Hall of Fame is very unique.

His path as a Yankees all-timer is even more unique.

The number one thing that Mike Mussina will show baseball fans for eternity is that greatness always emerges.

If wasn’t the best, he didn’t win a lot of titles, he didn’t make a lot of all-star games, yet he got here.

He was still great, but for all the other reasons.

He was a brilliant pitcher who got the job done.

A lot of things in his career were well beyond his control.

After his debut season in 1991, Mussina never finished a season with less than 11 wins.

He finished his career with a winning percentage under .500 just two times.

His season ERA was only over 5.0 just one time.

He pitched over 200 innings in a season over 11 times in his career, over half of his career.

He was also a great fielder winning seven gold gloves in his career.

I’m not going to lie, I had doubts on whether Mussina would get in or not. I was not sure if he ever would.

But, that doesn’t mean I didn’t think he should have it just means I wasn’t sure if it would actually happen.

He just didn’t have the amount of World Series titles, or playoff moments, or really anything all that iconic to his name.

But he was a “boring” great.

He was fun to watch, but in a different way. He was a workhorse. He pitched deep into games, almost always ended up getting a result, and did that for almost 20 years.

The Hall of Fame committee got Mussina’s induction perfectly correct too. He gets to go in with his former teammate Mariano Rivera and another workhorse pitcher in Roy Halladay.

The committee gave him 76.6% of their votes. That too, is the perfect number. He got in, but didn’t overwhelm the 75% needed.

Mussina got it done with consistency. There were almost no differences or outliers between 1991 when he first started and 2008 when he retired gracefully and on top.

Mussina got it done having spent eight season as a fixture in the New York Yankees rotation, which is hard enough in itself.

Mussina might not have all the glory as guys like Jeter, Pettitte, or Mo, but he is still beloved and a Hall of Famer because you could always count on him.

Mike Mussina is in the Hall of Fame, and his number is not even retired by the Yankees, not yet at least.

This just proves that greatness always emerges. No matter what. No matter how much it seems, it does not go unnoticed.

Mussina might feel like one of the more quiet Hall of Fame players, but he got in the right way and at the perfect time.

The greatest ones sometimes never make a lot of noise. That is Mussina. He was great and he will forever be remembered for it.

Mussina eats sleeps, and breathes baseball too.

He was born where they play the little league World Series in Williamsport PA, and will now forever be where the Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown, NY.

Way to go, Moose. You might have never won a World Series, but being enshrined in Cooperstown is perhaps the greatest win of them all.