Fast Break

Baseball

Gossage finally in Hall of Fame

Goose Gossage became only the fifth relief pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame, earning baseball’s highest honor Tuesday in his ninth try.

Known for his overpowering fastball and fiery temperament, Gossage received 466 of 543 votes (85.8 percent) from 10-year members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Jim Rice was passed over again in his next-to-last year on the ballot, getting 392 votes (72.2 percent), 16 short of the 75 percent needed. (See baseball notebook, Page C2.)

Gossage, just 21 votes short last year, joins Hoyt Wilhelm (1985), Rollie Fingers (1992), Dennis Eckersley (2004) and Bruce Sutter (2006) in Cooperstown’s bullpen.

Andre Dawson was third with 358 votes (65.9 percent), followed by Bert Blyleven at 336 (61.9 percent), Lee Smith at 235 (43.3 percent) and Jack Morris at 233 (42.9 percent).

NFL

Martz’s show moves to Niners

The San Francisco 49ers hired Mike Martz as their offensive coordinator, landing one of the NFL’s top offensive minds to fix a unit that floundered last season.

Martz tormented the 49ers for six years during his greatest success with their NFC West rival St. Louis Rams, but was fired by the Detroit Lions last week after two seasons as offensive coordinator.

He replaces Jim Hostler.

College basketball

WSU guard still in hospital

WSU freshman guard Stephen Sauls remained hospitalized following a concussion suffered during Monday’s practice.

According to a statement from the university, Sauls remains in the hospital indefinitely while doctors continue to evaluate his status and run tests.

“Right now he’s doing OK,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said. “They are going to run a lot of tests and make sure everything is good. … I saw him last night and he had a headache. … He felt better this morning. You never know when you get hit in the head and they want to be very cautious and very sure.”

Bennett said Sauls would not make the trip this week to Los Angeles.