Article by guest blogger Sam
Right, as you may well know due to the lack of any action in Major League Baseball at the mo what with Winter and all, I felt it’s time to turn our attentions to the voting for the Hall of Fame. Of course, the key Red Sox player in this thing (in fact, the only Sox player in this thing) is Mr. Jim Rice. Personally, I reckon his loyalty to the Red Sox is fantastic, playing 15 years with the Red Sox. He was also a great power hitter, and, on Wikipedia mentioned in the same breath as Carl Yastrzemski and Teddy Williams. Now, in my personal opinion, anybody mentioned in the same sentence as Yaz and Teddy deserves us to sit up and take notice. This I did, and looking at some of the things Rice achieved at Boston, I believe he deserves to be named in Cooperstown.
Rice won the American League Home Run crown three times in his career, something I feel deserves a mention and possible enshrinement in the Hall, and in 1978 he won the MVP award for the American League playing all 163 games that season (there was a one-game playoff at the end). OK, so it’s not beating Cal Ripken Jnr.’s record of games played in a row, but I think it’s worth noting he managed to play the entire season without taking a break with even the tiniest of injuries (Manny Ramirez anyone?). Should Rice get into Cooperstown, he will be 6th Highest ranked Left Fielder there, out of 20. Pretty impressive I feel. Rice was elected to the All-Star team a grand total of 8 times, impressive in itself, had a career average of .298 (.007 higher than mine with the ladies! Haha) hit 382 career homeruns and drove in 1451 runs off his bat. I feel his successes on the field alone cause him to deserve a place in the Hall, as well as his loyalty to the Sox, as they reached the 1975 ALCS and World Series, but Rice was injured throughout these games, but still turned up. Good man I say. Can we see Gay-Rod or Derek Jizzer doing this for the Yankees when injured? I don’t think so. They’d probably turn up on opening day, collect their rings and say ‘thank you very much’ even though they didn’t really earn them, and I doubt they’d turn up to the WS games either. It is because of reasons such as this I feel Jim Rice NEEDS to be in the HOF. Here’s to you Jimmy!
Right, as you may well know due to the lack of any action in Major League Baseball at the mo what with Winter and all, I felt it’s time to turn our attentions to the voting for the Hall of Fame. Of course, the key Red Sox player in this thing (in fact, the only Sox player in this thing) is Mr. Jim Rice. Personally, I reckon his loyalty to the Red Sox is fantastic, playing 15 years with the Red Sox. He was also a great power hitter, and, on Wikipedia mentioned in the same breath as Carl Yastrzemski and Teddy Williams. Now, in my personal opinion, anybody mentioned in the same sentence as Yaz and Teddy deserves us to sit up and take notice. This I did, and looking at some of the things Rice achieved at Boston, I believe he deserves to be named in Cooperstown.
Rice won the American League Home Run crown three times in his career, something I feel deserves a mention and possible enshrinement in the Hall, and in 1978 he won the MVP award for the American League playing all 163 games that season (there was a one-game playoff at the end). OK, so it’s not beating Cal Ripken Jnr.’s record of games played in a row, but I think it’s worth noting he managed to play the entire season without taking a break with even the tiniest of injuries (Manny Ramirez anyone?). Should Rice get into Cooperstown, he will be 6th Highest ranked Left Fielder there, out of 20. Pretty impressive I feel. Rice was elected to the All-Star team a grand total of 8 times, impressive in itself, had a career average of .298 (.007 higher than mine with the ladies! Haha) hit 382 career homeruns and drove in 1451 runs off his bat. I feel his successes on the field alone cause him to deserve a place in the Hall, as well as his loyalty to the Sox, as they reached the 1975 ALCS and World Series, but Rice was injured throughout these games, but still turned up. Good man I say. Can we see Gay-Rod or Derek Jizzer doing this for the Yankees when injured? I don’t think so. They’d probably turn up on opening day, collect their rings and say ‘thank you very much’ even though they didn’t really earn them, and I doubt they’d turn up to the WS games either. It is because of reasons such as this I feel Jim Rice NEEDS to be in the HOF. Here’s to you Jimmy!
1 comment:
I totally agree Sam. Its about time. Results are going to be released today at 2pmET-7pmGMT. TMB will be covering the results and we will see if featured greats Jim Rice and Mark McGwire will be making it into Cooperstown.
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