The Jim Rice Hall of Fame Watch Begins
The ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame have been distributed and while there are a couple of interesting new names up for consideration—Mo Vaughn, Rickey Henderson, and David Cone most prominently—this year’s talk will be all about Jim Rice.
This is Rice’s 15th and final year on the Baseball Writer’s ballot, and he fell painfully short last year. Rice needed 16 more votes to reach 75 percent, the number needed for induction, and the next month will be yet another referendum on Rice’s candidacy until the totals are announced, Jan. 12.
Truthfully, it boggles my admittedly addled mind as to how a writer could vote for Rice this year if they haven’t already (did he a couple of homers in an old-timer’s game we weren’t told about?), but Baseball Writers love to interpret voting rules as they go along, so here we are.
The case for Rice seemingly received a boost last year in the wake of the Mitchell Report. After all, Rice was a fearsome slugger without the aid of Victor Conte’s little helpers. On the other side, the estimable Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus (via SI.com) laid out the case against Rice last year. To sum up: Great for the first six years of his career, good but less than great for the latter six, painful for the final three.
Interestingly, the age-old saw that Rice was surly and uncooperative with the press hasn’t hurt him with the Boston writers who continue to vote for him and voice their support.
This may be his final season with the writers (he will be eligible for a vote with the Veteran’s Committee), but Rice is not alone in his absence from Cooperstown. The great players of the 1980’s have mostly all been excluded including Jack Morris, Andre Dawson, Alan Trammell, and Dale Murphy (a personal favorite).
I’m wondering if that isn’t a product of some weird age-discrimination thing. The majority of the Baseball Writers either covered those players or grew up watching them and that level of familiarity might breed some benign resentment. In other words, great players of the past were great because we heard (or read) about them being great, but thanks to television we saw the players up for discussion with our own two eyes, 0-for-4’s with three strikeouts and all.
Rice is exactly where he should be: a borderline Hall of Famer who put up some terrific numbers in a less offensively-inclined era. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen.
Jim Rice 1985 Topps baseball card for which I swapped a Mark McGwire Olympic card with pal Joey. Ironic.
