Mike Mussina is one of the two New York Yankees elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019, but he doesn’t want the interlocking NY on his plaque.
Jay-Z says he can make a New York Yankees hat more famous than a Yankee can. As far as Mike Mussina is concerned, that’s famous enough.
Mussina was one of the six players elected to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday. Despite having two logo choices, he chose to enter Cooperstown in July with unadorned head gear.
The right-hander spent his first 10 years in the MLB with the Baltimore Orioles. He finished his career with eight years in the Bronx.
“Both the Yankees and the Orioles were instrumental in my reaching Cooperstown,” Mussina said in a statement released by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. “I am proud to have played for these great organizations, in front of the tremendous fans in Baltimore and New York, and I am honored to have the opportunity to represent them both in the Hall of Fame.”
Mussina went 123-72 with a 3.88 ERA for the Bombers. Overall, he was 270-153 with a 3.68 ERA. He was a five-time All-Star and a seven-time Gold Glove winner, three of which he collected while in pinstripes.
[membership level="0"] [/membership]The Pennsylvania native never won a Cy Young award. However, he did accumulate nine top-10 finishes.
Interestingly, Mussina signed with the Yankees following the team’s World Series championship in 2000, and then he retired in 2008, right before the 2009 championship season.
Mariano Rivera, Harold Baines, Lee Smith, Roy Halladay, and Edgar Martinez will also be inducted in July.
Rivera, the first-ever unanimous selection, will feature the Yankees logo on his plaque. Derek Jeter is sure to follow suit in 2020.
Halladay is the only other member of the 2019 class who will not have a logo on his hat. Like Mussina, he spent significant time with two organizations—the Phillies and the Blue Jays. His family made the choice for him, as he tragically passed in a plane crash in 2017.
As for Mussina, maybe he’d have gone in as a Yankee if he’d been able to retire Carl Everett for the final out of his near-perfect game against Boston in 2001. A ring possibly would have tipped the scale in the Bombers’ favor as well.
