BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJORS : Bittersweet Gossage Retires After 22 Seasons, 1,002 Games

Goose Gossage, whose Fu Manchu mustache and 95-m.p.h. fastball intimidated hitters in the 1970s, has called it a career, after 22 years.

Gossage, 43, was a setup man for the Seattle Mariners last season. He was released in October but said the team assured him he would have a job when striking players returned but has not invited him back.

“If there’s no job out there for me, I can’t play,” he told the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. “Everybody in baseball faces it sooner or later. Here I am.”

Gossage pitched in 1,002 games--third on the all-time list--with 310 saves and a record of 124-107, with 1,502 strikeouts in 1,809 1/3 innings and a 3.01 earned-run average.

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One day after losing starting second baseman Luis Lopez to injury, the San Diego Padres signed free agent Jody Reed to a $200,000, one-year contract. In the past two seasons, he has committed only eight errors for a .994 fielding percentage. Reed had a $350,000 contract last year with Milwaukee after turning down a $7.8-million, three-year offer from the Dodgers in 1993. . . . Free agent Felix Jose, Kansas City’s starting right fielder for the last two seasons, agreed to a minor league contract. Jose, 29, batted .303 last season with 11 home runs and 55 runs batted in. . . . New York Met outfielder Ryan Thompson will be sidelined for three weeks with a torn ligament in his right elbow. . . . The Colorado Rockies extended the contract of Manager Don Baylor through the 1996 season. . . . Umpires and owners exchanged new offers, but it wasn’t clear if the proposals meant major progress that could lead to a settlement before opening day.