#14

After watching the All Star game yesterday, I thought about how the players today compare to the players of my youth. I am not yet old and cynical enough to say that players today are not as good as players when I was a kid, some of the players today are among the best players of all time. However, the game today almost makes it impossible to look at players from the past and appreciate how good they really were. The numbers that hitters like Barry Bonds, A-rod, Vlad, and others have put up make it hard to look at the career numbers of a player like Jim Rice and realize how dominant he was for 10 years.
Jim Rice has been on the Hall of Fame ballot for 14 years. Next year is his last year of eligibility. Yesterday when searching for something else I came across this site (http://members.shaw.ca/Rice4HOF/Main_analysis.html). It makes a compelling case that Rice belongs in the hall. There are 19 other left fielders in the HOF, if compared against these players, Rice would rank sixth in home runs, ninth in RBIs, and 14th in both batting average and hits. Rice is the only hitter in history to have more than 39 homers and 200 hits in three straight seasons. Big Jim has had over 3100 HOF votes during his eligibility which gives him the second most of any player.
Every sports fan has a favorite player growing up, mine was Jim Rice. The Pawtucket Red Sox are having a campain to get Rice the votes he needs to get elected next year by having fans sign a giant T shirt petition at home games this year. Although he can still get voted in by the veteran's committee, it would be a shame if he misses it his last year of eligibilty.