With the Baseball Hall of Fame vote only a few months away, its time once again to question the baseball writers, who continue to overlook a man whose induction was once considered automatic by many of them during his career.
Jim Rice should be in Cooperstown. Most who know the game and had the pleasure of watching Rice play for the Boston Red Sox during the 70s and 80s are well aware of his contribution to baseball.
First off, there are the intangibles that separate Rice from other statistical giants whose careers were built on numbers alone, rather than a combination of numbers, personality, and a respect for the game. I speak of times like the afternoon at Fenway Park when a Dave Stapleton foul ball struck young Jonathan Keane in the head, fracturing his skull. Rather than waiting for stadium first aid to arrive on the scene, Jim Rice rushed into the stands, cradled the young boy in his arms, and brought him to the Red Sox club house where trainer Charlie Moss could tend to Keane immediately. I speak of the time during the Bruce Kison/George Bell beanball incident that cleared the Red Sox and Blue Jays benches. Rather than joining another unsightly melee, Rice approached the scrum, picked up the Blue Jays skipper Bobby Cox, and escorted him back to the dugout, where the two sat quietly and talked while others brawled. Rice was one of the games true gentlemen. His quietness in the dressing room, often mistaken as arrogance or conceit, was really a reflection of his solitary demeanor. He was always more interested in playing the game, cleaning up, and going home to his family than churning out the sound bite banalities that pervade todays post game coverage. But he swung a mean bat, too, and as we all know, the numbers are what encyclopedias record and voting members consider.
That being said, here are Rices numbers, gauged against many of the games greats, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame:
- Jim Rice has more career home runs (382) than Tony Perez (379), Carlton Fisk (376), Joe DiMaggio (361), and Yogi Berra (358). He was in the top 10 seven different seasons and led the league three times. He is still 45th all time in home runs.
- Rice has more career hits (2,452) than Mickey Mantle (2,415), Enos Slaughter (2,383), Mike Schmidt (2,234), Willie Stargell (2,232), Dimaggio (2,214), Willie McCovey (2,211), and Harmon Killebrew (2,086). He finished in the top 10 eight different seasons, leading the league in 1978. He is 90th all time in hits.
- Rice has more extra base hits (834) than Orlando Cepeda (823), Cap Anson (820), Joe Morgan (813), Joe Cronin (803), and Johnny Bench (794). He led the league in 1978 and was in the top 10 six times. He is 66th all time in extra base hits.
- He has more total bases (4,129) than Rod Carew (3,998), Morgan (3,962), DiMaggio (3,948), George Sisler (3,872), and Duke Snider (3,865). Rice was in the top 10 in this category nine times, inlcuding number one four different seasons. He is also one of fewer than 25 players to accumulate 400 or more total bases in a season. His 406 in 1978 marked the first time a player achieved the 400 mark since Dimaggio did it in 1937- a 41-year span. He is 56th all time in total bases.
- He has more runs batted in (1,451) than Berra (1,430), Robin Yount (1,406), Snider (1,333), Fisk (1,330), Bench (1,316), and Roberto Clemente (1,305). He led the league twice and was in the top 10 a total of nine times. He is 46th all time in runs batted in.
- His RBI average per game (.69) is higher than those of Berra (.67), Schmidt (.66), Stan Musial (.64), and Ty Cobb (.64). It is the 32nd highest average ever.
- His career slugging percentage (.502) is higher than those of Ernie Banks (.500), Tris Speaker (.500), Reggie Jackson (.490), George Brett (.487), and Al Kaline (.480). His eight seasons in the top 10 included two where he led the league. He has the 84th highest percentage in major league history.
- Although he is 42nd on the all time strikeout list (1,423), Rice fanned fewer times than Dave Winfield (1,686), Mantle (1,710), Lou Brock (1,730), Perez (1,867), Stargell (1,936), and over 1,100 fewer times than Jackson (2,597).
- His career batting average of .298 beats Kaline (.297), Frank Robinson (.294), Winfield (.283), Stargell (.282), Banks (.274), McCovey (.270), and buries Schmidt (.267), Jackson (.262), and Killebrew (.256). He hit over .300 in seven different seasons and was in the top 10 six times.
- His career sacrifice fly total (94) bests Willie Mays (91), Killebrew (77), Stargell (75), Cepeda (74), and Billy Williams (73). He was in the top 10 six times. He is 39th all time in sacrifice flies.
- Rice is one of only two only right-handed batters in American League history to record consecutive 200 hit seasons (Kirby Puckett was the other). He had three straight, in fact, from 1977-1979.
- He had 200 hits in four separate seasons, a feat not matched by Henry Aaron (3), Babe Ruth (3), Brett (2), Mays (1), Kaline (1), Yount (1), Luke Appling (1), Winfield (0), Carl Yastrzemski (0), or Mel Ott (0).
- Rice was selected to eight All Star teams, finished in the top 10 of MVP voting six times, and was the AL Most Valuable Player in 1978.
- He is the only player in major league history with three consecutive 35 HR/200 hit seasons, with 39/206, 46/213, and 39/201 from 1977-1979. His batting averages during those seasons were .320, .315, and .325.
- Jim Rice is the only player ever to lead the major leagues outright in home runs and triples in the same season (46 and 15 in 1978).
Rice was a more than capable fielder, playing the Green Monster as sagely as Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski before him. His lack of speed was more than compensated for by his defensive savvy. Rice would often decoy batters on balls hit high off the wall, throwing them out at second. He managed an impressive 21 assists in 1983. He saved the day, and the series, for Boston in game 5 of the 1986 ALCS by making an unlikely leaping grab at the top of the wall with men on, a tie score, and two out in the bottom of the tenth against the Angels.
So whats missing? He could field, he could certainly hit for power and average, and he is the kind of man that baseball would be lucky to have as a representative in its Hall of Fame.
Perhaps those with the vote could share their hidden criteria with the rest of us, or are we to believe that a career that fails to yield 3,000 hits or a World Series is sufficient cause for a Cooperstown snub? Neither Babe Ruth nor Lou Gehrig managed 3,000 hits, yet both are justifiably in Cooperstown. Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and even Ferguson Jenkins sit rightfully in the Hall, but none of those men has a World Series to show for it.
In a game that rewards statistical leaders while chastising players for their personal misbehavior, Jim Rice has been inexplicably cast away. His career numbers, although limited by ineffective knee surgery in the late 80s, stand ably with the best ever, while his demeanor is one of which baseball should be proud. Excluding Jim Rice from the Hall of Fame is no way to treat a man who treated the game and its fans to so much for so many years.
The man belongs in Cooperstown.