Jim Rice-- Finally may be a HOF

[japetus462]

Great ESPN article talking about Jim RBI Rice...the greatest living RBI hitter IMO.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=2268868

[BeefMaster]

Great ESPN article talking about Jim RBI Rice...the greatest living RBI hitter if you assassinate Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, and about a half-dozen other guys.

[BDawk]

I hope Rice gets in. He's a snappy dresser now.

[Stock]

"CLOSE CALLS
• Here are the five returning players who came the closest to Hall of Fame election in 2005. Players needed 387, or 75 percent, of the 516 votes cast.  
PLAYER  VOTES  PERCENT  
Bruce Sutter  344  66.7  
Jim Rice  307  59.5  
Rich Gossage  285  55.2  
Andre Dawson  270  52.3  
Bert Blyleven  211  40.9  "

Senior Smoke is very under rated.

[japetus462]

Great ESPN article talking about Jim RBI Rice...the greatest living RBI hitter if you assassinate Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, and about a half-dozen other guys.

With all due respect to Reggie, and the rest....If it's bottom 9th..2 outs...and I need a run...it's Rice for me all the way.

[BDawk]

Mike Schmidt

[Gantry]

Wow, that's a pretty compelling argument for Rice in the HOF.  He dominated the AL for a 12 year period.  He and Blyleven should definitely be in, and it's a tradegy that Bertus isn't in yet...

I think Japetus is talking about in the game itself, not in "real life"

[Mike D.]

He better get in.

[Gantry]

[BeefMaster]

I think he's talking about real life (which actually makes more sense than in the game, because Rice probably doesn't make the top 10 in the game)... I was mostly making a BDawk-ian attempt to be funny.

Rice has been hurt by the recent SABRmetric boom - for some reason (I think because he didn't draw a ton of walks like some sluggers), his numbers don't stack up all that well to a lot of Hall of Famers.  He also hit into a ridiculous number of double plays, although I don't know how much that factors into it.

Weird stat I just noticed while looking up his numbers: Every player with more career GIDPs than Rice is in the Hall of Fame, except career leader Cal Ripken, who certainly will be (if there isn't already a Hall of Shame entry for Ripken, that'd be a good one).  Julio Franco ranks 7th, right behind Rice, and Harold Baines is 8th.  That is a good stat for RBIers, apparently.

I go back and forth on whether he, Dawson, Murphy, and Jack Morris should make the Hall, but right now, I'm leaning toward "Yes" for all of them except maybe Murphy.  Whether Rice was or wasn't the greatest player in the league isn't necessarily the most important thing, nor is Morris's 3.90 ERA - it's the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Greatness, and these guys' reputations and (for Morris) big-game performances are enough to count for a boost to their stats.  Football has it right - Joe Namath and Lynn Swann weren't statistically great players, but they deserve their spots in Canton.

[BeefMaster]

I just checked the HoS Page, and while Ripken already has an entry, the career GIDP record would be a find addition.  The fact that Rice has the single-season record of 36(and the #2 single-season total, 35) would also be a good addition to his entry; I thought it was already there for some reason.

[Gantry]

Nice catch Beef, added the GIDP records for Ripken and Rice.  Two updates in a day, I'm on fire!

[japetus462]

For the record..I was talking about the game. 

[Mike D.]

Maybe I am a bit of a homer, but he did indeed dominate the AL for over 10 years.  His not so good relationship with the liberal media had something to do with it.

[fightonusc]

fkn liberal media...

[BDawk]

Fnk Onion

[fightonusc]

Fnk Onion

[Nacho]

Jim RBI Rice...the greatest living RBI hitter IMO.

IMO, Donnie Moore is the greatest dead hitter in RBI.

[Gantry]

Does Gene Mauch count?  If so, I put him over Moore...

[RedBarron]

Mike, you're not a homer.  Rice is a hall of famer.  He was feared.  He was an MVP.  He loved porn. 

Seriously I knew this shit would happen.  The stat geeks, nerds, and dweebs would pick apart every star player from the 80s because their OPSKDLSIHHASLASKDFLJ% wasn't to their liking.

I say there should be some way for actual players to vote on the hall of fame.  I'd imagine many of the writers wouldn't know Jim Rice if he walked up and bit them on the ass.

The BBWA can lick my chode. I hate them. 


I assume the stat heads will say Tony Gwynn is not a HoF'er because his high OBP was direclty related to his high batting average, blah blah blah blah blah blah.


Damn, I sound like Dusty Baker.


Time to go kill myself.