Jim Rice is (finally) in the Hall of Fame

Most people who know me know I really don't follow professional sports, I've been a bigger college sport fan as an adult. There are a number of reasons for that, but at one time I was a huge fan of pro sports- including major league baseball. The Red Sox were always my team growing up and Jim Rice was always somewhat of a hero to me (I did get to meet him once- when the Red Sox used to train in Winter Haven, Florida which was only 11 miles from where I grew up during my teen years). I found him to be a very nice person and down to earth, unlike some of the professional athletes I've met over the years.

So it is with some happiness that someone who was an idol of mine has finally made it to the HoF after the 15th (and final time) eligible. What took so long ? I think it was a few things. His lifetime average (see lifetime stats here) was .298. Take out his final three injury plagued years (.277,.264, and .234) and he would have been comfortably over .300 and probably would have been close to automatic. He was consistently one of the leaders in home runs every year, yet he had the misfortune of becoming eligible for the Hall of Fame in the "juiced" era of major league baseball. Jim Rice never took steroids- he had natural power. Rice's 46 home runs in 1978 (the second best was only 34 and the tenth best was 27) is much more impressive than the steroid soaked 2001 season in which Bonds had 73, Sosa had 64, and number ten was at 38. Get a time machine, transport a 25 year old Jim Rice to 2001 and give him steroids and he would have hit 100 home runs that year. But I suspect Jim Rice would have never taken steroids even in an era where everyone else did.

Another thing about Jim Rice is that he stayed in Boston his entire career when he probably could have gone elsewhere and made more money. How many of today's baseball stars are happy spending their career with one team instead of "playing the field" ? Oh, and Rickey Henderson made it, but that was sort of a no brainer...