Jim Rice

[Raider Ronnie]

With all the talk about steroids and cheating in my opinion this time around Rice gets in !
My opinion, Pete Rose should be put in also !

[nightfighter]

No chit.... See how his stats stacked up vs. inductees since he's been eligible? In yesterday's Globe. He is deserving. (but he must have been some mean MFer to those reporters in his day) And Manny think he's the baaad man!

[BigFish]

A quiet 287-250.......not an exciting career for sure but rock solid for some pretty bad teams and a few good ones...."We Are Family"! He deserves in for sure!

[vineyardblues]

Rice was a black / white issue....................................
He should and will be in
VB

[BigFish]

Peter....are you saying race was a factor??? If so I have to laugh and say.....no it was not!

[ThomCat]

Check out Jim Rice's stats against Mickey Mantles, aside from the big difference in HR's, in just about every offensive catogory his numbers are at or better than the Micks. Mantle's numbers were the product of several more seasons. Rice's exemption from the Hall thus far is sad testiment to cedibility of the voters.

[BigFish]

Rice wasn't just one of the best power hitters of his time.....he was one of the best hitters period! The guy was driving in 120 on 38-40 homers a year, batting .300-.310 and putting 200 hits a season up!!! Only thing that kept his average down was the whiffs?! An injustice is putting it mildly Thom......this guy should have gone in 10 years ago!

[striperking70]

Originally Posted by ThomCat

Check out Jim Rice's stats against Mickey Mantles, aside from the big difference in HR's, in just about every offensive catogory his numbers are at or better than the Micks. Mantle's numbers were the product of several more seasons. Rice's exemption from the Hall thus far is sad testiment to cedibility of the voters.

I don't know about that. Rice had more career AB's and wasn't half the ballplayer Mickey was. Rice hit into over 200 more Double Plays then Mickey and scored 200 runs less. Mickey did it all. Rice was good but no HOFer.

[vineyardblues]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Peter....are you saying race was a factor??? If so I have to laugh and say.....no it was not!

Not to start a pissing match, But when I was in high school in the 70's they had forced busing in the 70's in Boston, Jim was a great player but Boston was a "white city" ,,,hate to say that
As I remember he had a huge pissing match when he left baseball and he never showed up or maybe it was never offered ? his fair well game. After that for years he was MIA
Jim lives in my home town and I have all the respect for him and his career .

He should be in the HOF
VB

[ProfessorM]

Go Jim Ed

[Mike P]

Rice wasn't the greatest performer in the clutch that I've ever seen. That's the negative on the field stat. What he was to the press shouldn't matter. Nobody in the history of baseball had a worse relationship with the press than Ted Williams, and the press didn't hold it against him come HOF time. Not that they credibly could. But when you have a borderline case like Rice's, everything seems to matter.

Interesting that Dave Parker is on there. He and Rice were kind of talked about in the same breath back then. Their careers almost paralled each other, and his career stats are right there with Rice's. Roughly the same career average (.290 for Parker to .298 for Rice), they both won MVP once and in fact, in the same year (1978), Rice had more HRs (382 to 279), Parker had more RBI (1493 to 1451), Rice had a better slugging percentage (.502 to .471). However, Rice grounded into 315 DPs over his career, which was another on the field nagative, to Parker's 209.

Also--when you recite Mickey Mantle's stats--bear in mind that he played on one leg for well over half of his career, and like Willie Mays, held on too long.

And the news that came in just a few minutes ago--Rice was passed over again, getting only 72% of the votes.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by Strike_King

In regard to the media..Eddie Murray wasn't exactly media friendly..

But he had one of the magic numbers that used to assure a place in the Hall--500+ career HRs.

[BigFish]

Not to mention he was a switch hitter Mike!

[Squid kids Dad]

Wait till next year again..

[Saltheart]

I probably attended 40 or more games a year from 75 to 77 and then not as many but regularly until about 1980 when tickets became hard to get and prices went way up. At that time , Rice was not even one of the biggest stars on the Red Sox. They had Lynn , Fisk , burleson , yastremski , Tiant , so many other guys who were that much better than Rice. Hell IMO even Dwight Evans was a better all around player.

I liked him cause he was a good hitter but just an average fielder and not a clutch hitter IMO. So , I'm not too surprised he is not in and think it could go either way as far as him ever getting in. .

[ProfessorM]

It's not the hall of pretty good as someone has said

[wrikerjr]

we will see how you guys feel when some of your pretty good pats are in the hall of fame, because they were on a dynasty.

[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Strike_King

With this ballot,he should get in this year
• Brady Anderson
• Harold Baines
• Rod Beck
• Bert Blyleven
• Dave Concepcion
• Andre Dawson
• Shawon Dunston
• Chuck Finley
• Travis Fryman
• Rich "Goose" Gossage
• Tommy John
• David Justice
• Chuck Knoblauch
• Don Mattingly
• Mark McGwire
• Jack Morris
• Dale Murphy
• Robb Nen
• Dave Parker
• Tim Raines
• Jim Rice
• Jose Rijo
• Lee Smith
• Todd Stottlemyre
• Alan Trammell

It's a realatively weak class.I'll say Blyleven and Gossage too.

I don't think Brady Anderson has a chance in hell of ever getting 1 vote.
He's the 1st poster child for steroids !

[BigFish]

Tiant belongs in...his numbers are right there with Catfish Hunter! Blyleven...probably a sub .500 winning percentage (have to check his stats and I will come back!)

Rice belonged in after his first couple years of eligibility! Stupid keeping him out because he was a big meanie to the media! He was the most devastating hitter of my youth!
Oh....and Rice numbers are as good if not better than Cepeda and Billy Williams!