Jim Rice in the Hall?

Six top five finishes in the MVP voting might be what would lock it up for me.

How many times did Tony Perez finish in the top five in MVP voting? That would be once.

Rice should get in, and he should have made it years ago.

 

I'm just looking forward to the press conference with him and Rickey Henderson.

 

I don't mind outing myself; I'm a voter and have never voted for Rice, either. I long have voted for Andre Dawson and Jack Morris and this year add Henderson. My ballot has nothing to do with likeability...Jack was always a pain but a great competitor. Some players -- in my opinion -- just miss the mark and always will. In my mind one of those is Rice and (sadly for me) so is the very likeable and talented Alan Trammell.

 

If Jim Rice can't win over baseball guys like Joe Posnanski, that's good enough for me ...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/joe_posnanski/12/22/rice.thomas/index.html

 

A guy I used to work with has a Hall vote and here's his column telling who he voted for. He's voted for Rice each of the last 15 years. This year he's adding Ricky Henderson to his previous votes of Mark McGwire, Dale Murphy, Andre Dawson.
The column can be found here:
http://www.nj.com/sports/times/index.ssf?/base/sports-5/1229835915229520.xml&coll=5

 

I hope McGwire never gets in.

 

C'mon Dickens. Jim Rice is the only guy in the history of sports who was a prick to the media as a player, only to become an analyst after retiring.

 

For me, there's not a lot of intrigue with this year's ballot since Henderson's a lock and Rice is off the ballot whether he gets in or not.

I can't wait till the next ballot, especially if no newcomers can hang on (If anyone does, it'll be David Cone). With Tommy John joining Rice falling off the ballot and no absolute first-ballot locks among the newcomers -- although Alomar, Larkin McGriff and Edgar Martinez hop on -- there could only be 11 holdovers at most.

And in looking ahead, I really can't wait to see what happens in 2013 -- Bonds, Biggio, Clemens, Sosa, Piazza and Schilling would all be first-timers.

 

Paging Sterling Sharpe and Mark Schlereth. ;D

 

I'm sure he just forgot the blue font.

 

Oh, I know... There are tons of them.

I'm half-expecting Albert Belle to surface as an analyst.

 

I'm a Posnanski fan, but he lost me at Win Shares, whatever the hell that means.