Jim Rice, HOF?

[FreeTedWilliams]

We'll find out today at 2pm. I was always a big Jim Rice fan, once met up with him on a golf course (man can he hit a golf ball). If he doesn't get in this year, he will never get in.

 

[marty]

We'll find out today at 2pm. I was always a big Jim Rice fan, once met up with him on a golf course (man can he hit a golf ball). If he doesn't get in this year, he will never get in.

I've got my fingers crossed for him! This year should be it!!!

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Screwed again! Those baseball writers are ridiculous!

You should have kissed their arsses, I think that we can all agree that Jim Rice was a much better baseball player than Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett!

Sorry JimEd, it doesn't look like you will ever get in.

 

[dryheat44]

Screwed again! Those baseball writers are ridiculous!

You should have kissed their arsses, I think that we can all agree that Jim Rice was a much better baseball player than Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett!

Sorry JimEd, it doesn't look like you will ever get in.

If the Cubs or Cardinals called the Red Sox one day in the late 70s, early-mid 80s and offered Bruce Sutter straight up for Jim Rice, the Sox would have laughed in their face and hung up.

How HOF voters can fail to realize that is astounding.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

The mere fact that there has only been one unanimous vote for the HOF (Ruth) is all you need to know about these guys, some of them have left people like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays off their ballots! How can you be a baseball hall of fame voter and not vote for:

Henry Aaron
Wille Mays
Frank Robinson

What is your justification for not voting for one of these guys?

 

[bmf31c]

Like someone said on the main board, the writers don't take the voting seriously. If you have ESPN insider Buster Olney wrote about the exact same thing today:

Bruce Sutter accumulated 300 saves, and got 400 votes for the Hall of Fame. We understand. Hal Morris, who mustered 3,270 fewer career hits than Pete Rose, got five votes. We don't understand.

We see it every year, these odd little vote totals, with some writers exercising their constitutional right to fill out their ballot with guys who -- with all due respect -- should only enter the Hall of Fame after purchasing a ticket.

We try to make sense of it.

Ozzie Guillen, five votes. What you know is that he was a career .264 batter, with 1,764 hits. What you don't know is that he led the American League for 12 consecutive seasons in most interview words uttered, and had the highest artful cuss-per-word ratio of any player in history.

Hal Morris, five votes. What you know is that he had 76 career homers, or 679 fewer than Henry Aaron, and one season of more than 70 RBI. What some voters apparently didn't realize is that there is another more viable candidate with the same last name -- Jack Morris. Sorry for the confusion.

Walt Weiss, one vote. What you know is that the former shortstop had a lifetime average of .258, including two seasons of more than 130 hits. What you don't know is that one writer did, indeed, lose a 4 a.m. bet at a bar seven years ago, and finally paid up.

Gregg Jefferies, two votes. What you know is that the ex-Sports Illustrated cover guy never scored 100 nor drove in 100 runs in any season in the majors. What you don't know is that he is the greatest player ever to practice his swing underwater, and for two voters, that put him over the top.

Doug Jones, two votes. What you know is that Jones finished his career with more saves than Sutter and more All-Star appearances (five) than Bert Blyleven, but never appeared on a Cy Young Award ballot. What you don't know is that Jones is regarded as the greatest pitcher with a fastball clocked at under 75 mph.


http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryDate=20060111&name=olney_buster


What a joke! The Hall of Fame needs to really look at whom it is allowing to vote.

 

[bmf31c]

One more thing from Buster Olney's blog:

Note on the second-place finisher, Jim Rice. For a period of 12 years -- 1975-86 -- Rice led all American League players in 12 different offensive categories, including home runs (350), RBI (1,276), total bases (3,670), slugging percentage (.520), runs (1,098) and hits (2,145). When you add in all of the National League players from the same era, Rice still leads in five categories and finishes second in three others. Among all major leaguers, only nine retired players have compiled as high a career batting average (.298) and as many homers as Rice (382). They are: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, Hank Aaron, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Stan Musial. All are Hall of Famers.

 

[JoeSixPat]

I heard that 12 writers actually sent in blank ballots - which I believe had the effect of screwing Rice, whereas he might have attained the required percentage if they had only refrained from voting period.

Anyone who screws with the system like that should not be allowed to vote in the future

Naysayers say Rice's numbers are just slightly below those which should garnish a spot in the Hall.

More reasonable people recognize that he accomplished all that he did in a relatively short period of time, without the benefit of steroids like more modern players did

He should be in - no doubt about it.

Although he made no friends in the media as a player, and refuses to beg for admission today (I don't blame him but many other players do exactly that) we should consider creating a website for the guy that will act as his cheerleader

Someone should do that for the guy as he's not going to do it for himself!

 

[HoyaPats]

The mere fact that there has only been one unanimous vote for the HOF (Ruth) is all you need to know about these guys, some of them have left people like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays off their ballots! How can you be a baseball hall of fame voter and not vote for:

Henry Aaron
Wille Mays
Frank Robinson

What is your justification for not voting for one of these guys?

Actually, it's even worse than that, because even Babe Ruth wasn't unianimous. I believe the higest percentage ever belongs to Nolan Ryan, but it wasn't 100%.

Fact is, there needs to be a system in place that severely minimizes, if not eliminates, the writers' role in this process. I think Bill James wrote about an alternate system that includes statisticians, which to me makes a lot more sense.