NEW YORK -- Rich "Goose" Gossage was announced Tuesday as the newest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Gossage, one of the most intimidating pitchers of all time, was the only player elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He will be inducted at Cooperstown on July 27.

There were 543 ballots submitted by members of the BBWAA with 10 or more consecutive years of service. Players needed to be named on 75 percent of those ballots to gain election, meaning 408 votes were required this year.

Gossage, who spent 22 years in the big leagues with nine different teams, was listed on 86 percent of the ballots. He was 21 votes shy last year when Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gywnn were elected.

Former MVP outfielders Jim Rice and Andre Dawson again came up short. Rice, in his 14th year on the ballot, was named on 72.2-percent of the ballots.

Gossage, a nine-time All-Star, is perhaps best known for his first stint with the New York Yankees, as he pitched for them from 1978-83. He also spent parts of the 1989 campaign in the Bronx.

Over the course of his lengthy career, the right-hander compiled 310 saves - leading the league three times in that category - and was 124-107 with a 3.01 earned run average for the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Yankees, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners.

He also had 1,502 strikeouts in 1,809 1/3 innings.

After starting 29 games for the White Sox in 1976, Gossage began an incredible stretch of nine seasons that saw him amass 227 saves, while never seeing his ERA rise above 2.90. Many of those saves were also of the more than one inning variety, a novelty compared to today's one-inning specialists.

Gossage will be joined at the induction ceremonies by World Series-winning managers Billy Southworth and Dick Williams, along with former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and owners Walter O'Malley and Barney Dreyfuss, all of whom were elected last month by the Veterans Committee.

Williams, the only living member of the Veterans Committee quintet, was Gossage's manager in 1984 when the Padres won their first National League pennant, losing to the Tigers in a five-game World Series.

Gossage had one of the best seasons of his career that year, as he was 10-6 with 25 saves and 84 strikeouts in 62 games (102 1/3 innings).