Jim Rice in the Hall?

Does Rice make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his 15th and final try? Any voters out there are invited to weigh in. Yeah, he didn't hit 500 HRs or get 3,000 hits, but for about 12 years he was arguably and consistently one of the top 2 or 3 hitters in MLB. And not too shabby an OF when he played there.

 

How about instead we put this post in the Hall of Ridiculous?

 

Jim Rice in the Hall?

<a href="http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/12/17/kids-in-the-hall-part-i/">No</a> and <a href="http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2008/12/jim_rice_the_ha.php">no</a>.

But I'm pretty sure we've had a dozen threads on this, and not sure what this has to do with journalism.

 

Not a voter, but he'll get in b/c so many voters who rightfully have not voted for him will vote for him to disprove the foolish "the big mean HOF voters aren't voting for him b/c he was a jerk" theory.

Fourteen years and he's not in. It's not b/c he was a jerk. It's b/c he wasn't a HOFer.

 

I'm a voter, and I have never voted for Rice. Don't see him as a HOFer, though I did see him as a pain in the ass to deal with. My vote is based on the former, not the latter.

 

Liar!

 

OK, ya got me.

 

he was vicious toward media - now he's a media analyst.
if i had a vote i'd pass on him - not only because of his marginal stats - but because he's a phony.

 

Which is why I'm thankful you don't have a vote. It shouldn't at all be based on personality. It's what a player did (or didn't do) on the field. Period.

(Excepting, of course, those who were banned for gambling, etc.)

 

My two cents worth probably isn't worth that considering I don't have a vote and I'm not even a baseball guy, but I've noted several times that I grew up in that era rooting for the Yankees and Rice always seemed like a no-brainer for the Hall of fame at the time. He was clearly recognized as one of the game's dominant players and was one of those guys who defined a franchise, someone even casual fans knew all about. Frankly, I'm shocked he still isn't in after all this time and I'm amazed at the intensity of the opposition to him. At the time, it always seemed obvious he'd be in the Hall someday.

 

Two years ago, I thought Andruw Jones would one day be a no-brainer. Then he fell off the face of the earth.

 

Rice>Andruw Jones, no?