COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — There was an almost around nearly every turn. Shortcomings used to identify Mike Mussina’s career.
Good, just not great.
He never won a World Series, despite reaching the final round of the postseason twice. He never won a Cy Young Award, though he finished in the top-six nine times. He failed to win 300 games, coming 30 victories short.
Perhaps, Mussina said, he was waiting for the right moment to reach the mountain top.
“Maybe I was saving up from all of those almost achievements for one last push,” the pitcher said Sunday, as he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, alongside former Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera, Lee Smith, Harold Baines, Edgar Martinez and the late Roy Halladay at Clark Sports Center.