This is a fun time of year. Spring training camps across Florida and Arizona open this week, and soon real live baseball games will be played. Meaningless spring training games, sure, but those games are fun in their own way. Point is, baseball will soon be back!

This is also the time of year when Hall of Fame Goose Gossage goes on his annual rant against the modern game. Last year Gossage railed against Mariano Rivera for being a one-inning closer. The year before he called Jose Bautista a "f---ing disgrace to the game" for his infamous ALDS bat flip.

Gossage's target this spring: Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. And there's a bit of a backstory. The Yankees declined to invite Gossage to spring training as a guest instructor this year.

Apparently the Yankees didn't want to outspoken Gossage around in camp because he can be a distraction. So, naturally, Gossage was asked about it and now it's a distraction. Brendan Kuty of NJ.com reached out to Gossage for comment. Take it away, Goose:

"I don't like (general manager Brian) Cashman," Gossage said in a phone interview with NJ Advance Media from his Colorado home. "That's all. It's not a secret." 

Gossage, a 66-year-old Hall of Fame pitcher, said Cashman would prefer to "have a nerd in uniform" as manager. Gossage also questioned Cashman's leadership.

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"If he had any balls, he'd do what he wants to do," Gossage said of Cashman. "He doesn't think he needs any baseball people around. Maybe he's right. The way the game is being run today, maybe you don't."

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Gossage added, "The game is so different today. Like I said, real baseball guys for years made a career out of baseball. You're not a coach anymore. You have to be their best friend."

The Yankees named Aaron Boone their new manager over the winter, and while he took an unconventional path to managing -- Boone went from playing to the broadcast booth to managing -- he did play 12 years in the show, and he comes from a family that has produced three generations of big leaguers. He doesn't qualify as "baseball people?"

Predictably, Gossage claimed he is the victim here, saying his generation of players get no respect.

Gossage said he was "sure" his comments had turned him into a "disruption."

"You'll have to ask Cash," Gossage said. "I didn't get a call either way. There is no respect for older players. There's no respect for anybody who has any real baseball knowledge. That's the way it is. That's what I don't agree with."

Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson and former Cy Young award winner Ron Guidry, both of whom are older than Gossage, will again be in camp with the Yankees as guest instructors this spring. It's almost like the problem isn't that the Yankees don't respect older players, it's that having Gossage around isn't worth the trouble given the headaches he creates each year.

Gossage played for eight teams aside from the Yankees in his career. Something tells me none of them will be inviting him to spring anytime soon.