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Starting with the 2010 Major League Baseball season, the Goose Gossage Award will be a postseason award given to the top relief pitcher in each league.  “It’s hard to picture anyone more worthy of having his name on an award such as this,” said BBA founder Daniel Shoptaw. “Mr. Gossage embodies what so many people think of as the classic relief pitcher, and the BBA is honored that he has agreed to lend his name to this award.”

Richard “Goose” Gossage was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 after a 22-year major league career in which he had 310 career saves and recorded a 3.01 ERA in 1,002 games played. He was a nine-time All-Star, finished among the top vote-getters for the Cy Young Award in five different seasons, and was named the 1978 Rolaids Relief Man of the Year.

The Goose Gossage Award will be voted on by the membership of the BBA.  Team chapters will have two votes each for either the American or National League ballot.  The General Baseball chapter will vote in a manner determined by its members.

“At the end of the 2009 season, we voted on awards mirroring those of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, though we did not have a separate award for relievers,” stated Shoptaw. “Due to the popularity of that voting, we decided that it was important to differentiate ourselves from other voting organizations.  With the addition of the Goose Gossage Award we have taken the first step in that direction.“

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in 2009 and numbers 142 blogs across baseball, representing 29 of the 30 major league teams and including numerous general baseball blogs.  Award balloting for the BBA is a transparent process, as no ballot is counted unless it is posted on the voter’s blog.

The official website of the BBA is located at www.baseballbloggersalliance.com.  The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and the hashmark #bbba.  Members of the BBA may also be heard at Blog Talk Radio each Tuesday night with their call-in show, BBA Baseball Talk.

While no formal requirements for membership exist at the current time, participating blogs are asked to keep their blogs current and to link to other member blogs on their blog roll.

The BBA has, as a secondary aim, the goal of producing year-end awards in a similar fashion to the Baseball Writers of America.  These awards can be found here in October with links back to the voters, ensuring transparancy and, most likely, the onset of some good baseball arguments.

To find a list of all BBA Blogs, click here