Jim Rice Belongs in the Hall of Fame

I am a New York Yankees fan, I will admit, but that does not stop me from recognizing that Jim Rice, who played for the Boston Red Sox from 1974 until 1988, belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame. There was no more feared slugger than Jim Rice in the American League during the latter half of the Seventies and first half of the Eighties. Jim Rice hit for power, hit for average, and he hit in Yankee Stadium as if they built the park in his honor. The fact that Jim Rice is not in the Hall of Fame is a travesty, one that needs to be corrected in the future.

The media and Jim Rice mixed like oil and water, which is what is keeping this African-American former Red Sox star out of the Hall. The grudges of reporters who were always looking for quotes, and coming away empty, have not gone away and Jim Rice is now paying the price for not being a darling to the press. The numbers that he accumulated over his sixteen seasons in Beantown will have to speak for themselves until someone actually listens. When they are examined in the light without bias, it is clear that Jim Rice is a Hall of Famer.

Born in Anderson, South Carolina in 1953, Jim Rice became a six-foot two, 205 pound muscular left fielder who debuted for Boston on August 19th, 1974. He hit only one home run in his first 67 at bats, hardly a sign of things to come. He broke out in 1975, when, along with fellow rookie Fred Lynn, he pounded American League pitching. He batted .309, with 102 RBI and 22 long balls, but a broken wrist suffered when he was hit by a pitch in late September kept him out of the World Series that year. Jim Rice and Fred Lynn were given the nickname of “The Gold Dust Twins” during their early days in Boston, and Jim Rice showed off his prodigious power on July 18th, 1975, when he became only the sixth man to hit a home run over Fenway Park’s centerfield wall to the right of the flag pole. Bosox owner Tom Yawkey called it the longest home run he had ever seen at Fenway.

Jim Rice put up solid numbers in 1976 and 1977, but his best season was his MVP campaign of 1978. Besides batting .315, Jim Rice poled 46 home runs and knocked in 139. He led the American League in hits with 213, and triples with 15. Jim Rice also posted the incredible number of 406 total bases in 1978, the most by any player since Hank Aaron in 1959, and most by an American Leaguer since Joe DiMaggio’s 418 in 1937. He became the first player to ever lead his league in triples, homers, and RBI in the same season. The Red Sox were denied a trip to the World Series in 1978 when they collapsed late and then lost a one game playoff to the Yankees. In that game, Jim Rice flied out to the right field warning track with men on first and second in the bottom of the ninth. Had he hit the ball perhaps ten feet further, it would have been impossible to deny him entry into Cooperstown; but such is baseball’s fickleness.

He posted similar numbers in 1979, actually hitting for a higher average. Jim Rice wore number 14 while he patrolled Fenway’s left field, and he became adept at playing the various angles of the Green Monster, the high wall that is unique to Boston’s home field. His career total of 137 outfield assists compares most favorably to Ted Williams’s 140. Various ailments kept his numbers in check for the next three seasons, as Jim Rice was limited to 124 games in 1980, 108 in 1981, and 145 in 1982. But his career was not over by a long shot, as Jim Rice would put up one hundred plus RBI seasons in each of the next four years. His 1986 campaign would be his best of these, as he hit .324 with 200 hits and 110 runs batted in.

Knee injuries would force Jim Rice out of baseball in 1989 at the age of 36, after three sub-par years for the slugger. In July of 1988, Jim Rice was suspended for three games by the Red Sox after he shoved manager Joe Morgan, who had embarrassed Rice by pinch hitting weak hitting shortstop Spike Owen for him in a 9-7 win over the Twins. The Red Sox would not renew Jim Rice’s contract the following year, so he retired. He had accumulated 382 home runs and 1,451 RBI to go along with a lifetime average of .298. He led the American league in home runs three times, slugging percentage twice, RBI twice, and total bases four times. He had a propensity for hitting into double plays, a natural by-product of his hitting the ball hard right at people and having lots of men on base in front of him. Jim Rice is the only player in baseball’s long history to have 200 hits and 35 plus homers in three consecutive seasons. An eight time All-Star, Jim Rice once broke his bat by checking his swing, so powerful were his wrists and forearms.

Jim Rice was the best slugger in the American League for a period of a dozen years. He knocked in over 100 runs eight different times and did it while hitting for a high average. His career numbers compare more than favorably with many players now in the Hall of Fame. Here are a few comparisons.

Jim Rice- 8,225 at bats 2,452 hits 382 home runs 1,451 RBI .298 average
Al Kaline – 10,116 at bats 3,007 hits 399 home runs 1,583 RBI .297 average
Kirby Puckett- 7,244 at bats 2,304 hits 202 home runs 1,085 RBI .318 RBI
Enos Slaughter- 7,946 at bats 2,383 hits 169 home runs 1,304 RBI .300 average
Orlando Cepeda- 7,927 at bats 2,351 hits 379 home runs 1,365 RBI .297 average

It is obvious that Jim Rice’s career statistics easily measure up to Hall of Fame standards. Here’s hoping that within the next couple of years, this awesome hitter is given the respect he deserves from the Baseball Writers of America and voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.