As many of you know, a great injustice was committed yesterday—Jim Rice was elected to the Hall of Fame. Don’t get me wrong; Jim Rice was a fine player, a Red Sox Hall of Famer to be sure…but National Baseball Hall of Fame? Please. When I read that Rice was selected over Bert Blyleven, the third best player to not be in the Hall of Fame, was again omitted and that Rice was granted entrance, I had to double take thinking that my PDA was lying to me.
Let me say this, Jim Rice, Hall of Fame, 2009. That’s right; Jim Rice is now mentioned in the same breath as the best left fielders in baseball. His main metric that separated him from the rest? Fearitude. Yes, that’s right fearitude. Because Jim Rice scared pitchers, he is a Hall of Famer. Do you know what else scares a lot of pitchers? Spiders and needles. Should they be in the Hall of Fame? No. Jim Rice was a product of his environment greatly benefitting from Fenway Park. Below will clearly demonstrate why Rice is NOT a Hall of Famer. You’ll notice that there is no statistic for fear factor; because that’s one of the most ridiculous arguments I’ve heard in a very long time. Honestly, it sounds like a drunken Mel Gibson rant.
Looking at Rice’s numbers, we find that he has an OPS of .920 at home, while a .789 road OPS. Rice, who combined managed a career OPS of .854 was merely .110 points better than his league average. Yes, that’s certainly above average, but not exactly Hall of Fame worthy. His adjusted OPS+ is 124, good for 177th all time. Does 177th predicate a Hall of Famer at a skill position where numbers are expected to be inflated? Jim Rice is a tremendously talented player, certainly one of the best players in the Hall of the Very Good. However, he is not a Hall of Famer.
In fact, Rice against Hall of Famers was a shell of his career numbers against the best. For his career, Rice hit .298/.352/.502, while against Hall of Fame pitchers he hit .253/.295/.463, hardly dominating, and hardly evoking the fear supposedly there. We often gauge our own ability by measuring against the best. Against the best, Rice came up small. Rice is now a Hall of Famer while the other feared player, the one who obliterates Rice on every level, is again ignored by the Veterans Committee. Jim Rice – .298/.352/.502 128 OPS+ .854 OPS .744 League OPS Dick Allen – .292/.378/.534 156 .912 OPS .707 League OPS Jim Rice is hardly the first player who was selected to the Hall of Fame who should not have been, however, he is most assuredly one of the worst choices in recent memory. It’s as if the Baseball Writers of America have an agenda, and the fans are subject to their will. For years we had to watch Goose Gossage suffer, while we now watch Dick Allen and Bert Blyleven suffer while hacks like Bruce Sutter and Jim Rice make the Hall of Fame. Yet it appears the writers control the fate of these men in their uninformed hands. Allow me to be one of the many who calls for a massive overhaul to the voting for the Hall of Fame. Allow the writers their vote, but have a panel of truly learned individuals a vote: Bill James, Rob Neyer, Keith Law and others who truly understand how to evaluate a player objectively. Having the writers allow their personal bias to affect their voting is an absolute joke. The writer who didn’t vote for Rickey simply because “he wasn’t a Rickey guy” should be the first step of many to having a healthy portion of the baseball writers’ votes stripped.
