GOOSE GOSSAGE SPURNED BY YANKEES, RIPS BRIAN CASHMAN
FLA.» Goose Gossage won’t be TAMPA, flying south to help the New York Yankees. He never received a call to become a guest instructor this season. And now the Hall of Fame reliever from Colorado Springs is ripping Brian Cashman: “With power … you turn into a (expletive). Is that it?”
Gossage has ruffled some feathers with controversial comments the past couple of years — taking shots at former and current players and questioning the use of sabermetrics — and now he has blasted Yankees general manager Cashman in an interview with the New York Daily News on Monday, saying he isn’t “a big fan” of him and that George Steinbrenner is “rolling over in his grave.”
“He would’ve been gone 10 years ago if George was still around,” Gossage said of Cashman. “He’d have been gone when he jumped out of that airplane. Do you think he’s a good baseball guy, really? He doesn’t believe in coaching.”
Gossage told the Daily News he asked Cashman last year what he had ever done to him: ‘We used to get along. I used to like you. And then something changed.’
“He didn’t answer,” Gossage said. “He didn’t say a word.”
Last year during spring training, the Bombers legend once again made controversial remarks, saying he didn’t want to be compared to closer Mariano Rivera, since Gossage pitched multiple innings and Rivera usually took the mound in the ninth.
“I’m not taking anything away from what Mo did, but don’t compare me to him,” Gossage said at the time. “It’s insulting. It really is.”
Serena stumbles in return.
The first step in Serena Williams’ comeback underscored how far she has to go after spending over a year away from the game.
In Williams’ first competition since giving birth five months ago, she and sister Venus lost 6-2, 6-3 to Lesley Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands in a Fed Cup doubles match Sunday.
• Australian Open finalist Simona Halep signed a deal with Nike after playing without a sponsor in Melbourne. Halep’s deal with Nike is worth $2 million a year.
British Open returns to Old Course.
The 150th British Open will be held at St. Andrews in 2021.
It will be the 30th time the Open Championship is played on the Old Course, and the first since 2015 when Zach Johnson lifted the claret jug after a three-way playoff.
It ends the cycle of St. Andrews staging the Open every five years since 1990. It first hosted the event in 1873.
Ole Miss coach stepping down.
MISS.» Mississippi men’s basketball OXFORD, coach Andy Kennedy and the school are parting ways after 12 seasons, effective at the end of the season. The decision comes two days after Ole Miss lost at LSU to extend its losing streak to five.
• The Southeastern Conference fined South Carolina men’s basketball coach Frank Martin $25,000 for comments about an official that issued him a technical foul during a home loss to Florida.
• Terry Mobley, who made one of Kentucky men’s basketball’s biggest baskets before serving the school in numerous leadership roles for over five decades, has died. He was 74.
The Harrodsburg, Ky., native was a three-year starter under legendary coach Adolph Rupp from 1962-65 and gained national fame for his 15-foot shot in the final seconds that lifted the No. 2 Wildcats past top-ranked Duke 81-79 on Dec. 31, 1963, in New Orleans.
Footnotes.
Academy Award winner Charlize Theron was named honorary starter for the 60th running of the Daytona 500. … Nevada’s football team reached an agreement to play at Penn State in 2020 for the first time in school history. — The Associated Press