No real surprise, given Keith Law basically tallied the votes beforehand: Goose Gossage made it in to the Hall, Jim Rice didn't. But Rice fell short by only 16 votes; next year he'll almost certainly get in because of the "sympathy vote" arising from his last year of eligibility. Here is Rob Neyer's argument that Rice doesn't belong in; he got almost 800 comments, yet no one disagreeing with him made a very strong point. Thoughts?
In any case, you have to wonder how much Gossage, Rice, etc. are benefiting from the weak field. As we've discussed before, there are many (20+) active major leaguers who are very likely to make it into the Hall, but only a couple retired ones (Rickey and Alomar) who are. I think this gives the borderline players a huge boost.
Clearly I am biased when it comes to rice. He was one of my favorite two-three ball players growing up. The Neyer argument has its points. But I tend to disagree in that Rice was dominant. Neyer hates words like feared, but Jim rice was one of those guys that you wanted to see play (well, mostly hit, but whatever). And again, that is another one of those things that Neyer hates.
ReplyDeleteI also generally dislike the compairsons to other players already in - that would be like saying that just because George W Bush got into Yale, everyone as smart as him should be admitted (nice quote, feel free to use it so long as you reference me), but compare Rice to Kirby Puckett and I'll take Rice any day. Kirby sailed in b/c he was likeable and played on two WS teams.
Rice's 5 top finishes in the MVP are pretty damn impressive. Then again, I also think Albert Belle should have gotten more consideration for the Hall. I'm not saying he should be in, just that his one and done on the ballot are too bad.
The voting is a strange thing - the slam dunk guys sail in, and then everyone else sort of staggers along and builds momentum (thus the very few retired, but lock as HOF guys list - too which I might add Biggio, Bagwell (if remians clear of the roid headlines), and because the Hall needs more overrated Yankees, Bernie Williams)
The part about Neyer's column that I can't really argue with (and never really appreciated) are those home/away splits. Holy shit. OPS of .920 in Fenway, .789 everywhere else. 789! He wasn't even Benny Friggin' Agabayani outside of Fenway... Surely opposing pitchers knew this?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, your Yale analogy is awesome. Well done.
And I swear I just made that up on the spot.
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