Update: Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice have both received the amount of votes needed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Congrats to both former BoSox!
The 2009 Hall of Fame announced the results of its voting today at 1:30pm. Use this post to speculate on the voting leading up to its announcement, and commenting on the results from that point out. The 23 players on this year’s ballot are the lowest number ever, with only 13 players returning from last year’s ballot, also a record low. As you are probably aware, it is the last year on the ballot for Jim Rice to be elected from the Baseball Writers Association of America. The induction ceremonies will be on July 26th, 2009 in Cooperstown, NY.
We all know about Jim Rice, but how many of the 23 candidates for the 2009 Hall of Fame class spent part of their careers with the Boston organization? The answer might surprise you. Check the names and career statistics after the jump!
This post will be updated once the announcements are made, so check back anytime after 1:30pm EST!
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Why not Rice? Bill Mazeroski is in the Hall with a .260 BA, 138 HRs and 2,016 career hits. Yet, Rice batted .298, belted 382 HRs and collected 2,452 hits.
Rice led the AL in total bases three consecutive years. The only other player to do that in the AL was Ty Cobb! In 11 seasons Rice slammed at least 20 home runs and holds numerous Red Sox records for a right-handed hitter.
Rice carried on the tradition of great Boston Red Sox left fielders. Let’s get him the Hall! (Yes, I realize that Mazeroski was a second baseman.) Yet, when one compares the numbers of these two former players, there is no comparison.
I know its probably not the most popular viewpoint in the world on a Red Sox site, but I likely would not vote for Rice if I had a HOF vote. Like with Andre Dawson actually, his OBP is eye-catchingly low and his slugging/power numbers just don’t do enough to make up for it. I give him credit for putting up great power numbers for almost a decade, but his career just came to such a screeching halt by the end. That’s not really his fault, but I was also against putting Puckett in the HoF for the same reason.
Of course a lot of what drives me nuts is just hearing HOF voters use cliches like “most-feared” and how many MVPs/Cy Youngs/Gold Gloves that players won instead of voting on the statistics and how the players actually played. Plus I know some lunatic writers won’t vote for Rickey Henderson for the HoF despite the fact that he is the greatest leadoff hitter to ever play the game.
I certainly will be happy for Rice if he gets in because he is a class act and a great Red Sox player, but putting him in does open the door statistically for a lot of other players that I am not as convinced are HOFers. He the cream of the not-quite-but-almost-HoF crop, but putting him in gives a lot more undeserving people hope.
Not to mention the fact that Jack Morris and Dawson will probably get more votes than Burt Blyleven and Tim Raines. Don’t get me started on the idiocy of that…
Sorry for the anti-writers rant. Just after the Pedroia debacle (that idiot leaving him off his ballot) and the HoF screwy voting I see every year, I just have to vent.
Mazeroski shouldn’t be in either. That’s my point actually. Fringe people like him and Rice loosen the standards for the HoF more than I’d like. Rice certainly has his place in baseball history (as does Mazeroski actually), but I’m just not convinced that its enshrined in the HoF.
The two of them (plus Morris actually) should have their place at the Hall of Fame as important players in important moments of baseball history, but none of their careers match what I think (and I know that’s subjective) should be a HoF enshrinement standard.
I agree with you, Rice had a few great years, but his entire career just doesn’t stack up, if Rice gets in then I think you would also have to consider Mo Vaughn who has a higher career OPS+ and had a similarly short run of dominance. Mazeroski shouldn’t be in either.
In my mind, Blyleven, Raines, and Alan Trammell should all get consideration over Rice. Trammel not being in is my biggest complaint, since Jeter is likely to make it in with a very similar adjusted career OPS and Trammell was a far better defensive SS.
Agreed…plus with Rice I might have to stomach making an argument for Albert Belle (Joey! Joey!) for the HoF. You should look at his numbers. They stack up to be as good if not better than Rice’s and much better than Mo’s. I absolutely hate the guy, but if Rice is in than you can make a damn good argument for him to be in too.
Oh, c’mon now. You can’t compare Rice’s offensive numbers to Mazeroski’s. Maz is in because he was one of the greatest defenders ever at one of the most demanding defensive positions. His hitting is almost irrelevant to his HOF election. Rice is almost entirely reliant on offensive value for his HOF case. I’m not saying I’m anti-Rice, I’m just saying you can’t compare these two players.
Bill James has made a compelling argument that MVP voting IS an important consideration as to whether someone should be in the HOF. In Rice’s case, in six out of twelve years, the people most closely watching the game thought he was one of the five best players in the league (in 8 years of 12, he was one of the top 20). That’s a very high percentage of dominant years.
The guy was VERY dominant in his era, and much as I love Mo Vaughn (including all the good work building housing since he retired), I ddon’t think of him as a HOFer, but I do Rice.
Bill Mazeroski is the single greatest defensive 2B of all time. You may as well say that Rice is deserving because he’s a better hitter than Sandy Koufax.
Rickey, Rice, Rock, and Rik (Blyleven).
JIM ED1
Rice was a potent offensive force for the better part of a decade, and if he deserves to be enshrined then Andre Dawson is even more worthy. His offensive numbers, excepting his batting average, exceed those of Rice and he was a far superior fielder with much greater speed (over 300sb’s). Raines is deserving as well, though his chances are diminished because Henderson, also a leadoff hitter, is automatic.It’s time Blyleven, who pitched in a small market for a mediocre team, deserves the 75%, and what about Lee Smith, the all time saves leader until a few years ago?
Congrats to Rice.
BTW…you should check out the Baseball Writers Association of America website. It is possibly the worst website in existences and is quite fitting for one of America’s most backwards institutions. Its bright lime-green background literally leaves you seeing red (I’m not kidding!) after you leave it.
Check it out: http://www.baseballwriters.org/
See…this is exactly problem with putting Rice into the Hall of Fame. If you’re now judging the Hall of Fame by Rice standards, then it is very reasonable to make an argument for Dawson to get in. Nevermind the fact that you should discount his statistics to some extent because the guy wouldn’t know a base on balls if he saw one. Rice’s OBP numbers are slightly better, but not much…
Sorry for the repeats…I had trouble posting this. Evan…could you please delete two of those comments? The comment function was really screwed up for a bit and gave me no indication that the first one ever posted.
Bravo Jim Rice. You fully deserve this honor. I watched you play from day one. That you ran afoul of the often niggling Boston media is an another honor reserved for Beantown’s best, like Ted Williams. That you were a dominant player on a dominant lineup during a crucial era in Boston’s quirky civil rights history, combined with your stats and annual honors while a player, all say you’re the man. Congratulations. It’s about time.
Yaargh! My eyes! MY EYES!
The fact that Rice got in and Raines and Trammell didn’t tells you how absolutely idiotic the BBWAA is. Can’t wait for a few years down the road when people start talking about how feared Albert Belle and Mo Vaughn were. Truth is they were probably more feared then Rice, opposing players were probably afraid of Belle physically hurting them and afraid of Mo eating them.
Congrats to Rice all the same. My question is, now that’s he’s in, what’s he gonna do now? Take a permanent vacation to Disneyland? He’s spent so much time campaigning for his own cause for, like, the last decade that I’m not sure he’ll know what to do with himself anymore …
While I have enjoyed having Rice on NESN for years now, I can’t remember even once hearing him ‘campaign’ for himself there or anywhere else. Many writers, bloggers, and other members of the sports-fan universe have discussed his worthiness, or not, for the Hall, but I would be amazed to see any quotes from Rice himself.
I would have absolutely voted for him, having been a Sox fan during his tenure here. Managers use a ’shift’ against fearsome hitters all the time now (Ortiz) but until Rice had his incredible ‘78 season it had been many years before it had happened before, and then only once before. For Ted Williams.
Pretty good company.
Rice was indeed feared, and you had to watch him that season to understand it, and understand it in the proper context. The ’70’s was a pitchers decade, and the Sox somehow created a monster lineup, even having a #9 hitter with 30 homeruns and 100 RBI’s. And Rice led the charge.
Congrats Jim, you earned it.
Have to agree with Chris on this. Jim Rice is a very public figure who usually stays mum on the subject, and had little to say when asked.
I also agree that he was an incredible hitter on an incredible team. And it was Jim Rice, not Pumpsie Green, who played Jackie Roinson in Boston. Pumpsie started the process. Jim Rice demolished the arguments of the few remaining whackos of that era.