Breaking: No Hall for Rice
Former Red Sox great Jim Rice came agonizingly close to Hall of Fame induction, but came up just short. Again.
Another of Rice’s contemporaries who had faced close calls in the past, Rich “Goose” Gossage was inducted with 86 percent of the vote. He is the only player inducted into Cooperstown by the Baseball Writers.
Rice received 72.2 percent of the vote, just shy of the 75 percent mark for induction. Also left out were Andre Dawson, Alan Trammell and first-timer Tim Raines.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
The MVP Quotient is determined as follows. 1 point for a 20th place finish, 2 points for a 19th place finish, and so on up to 19 for second place. A win nets 21 points, one bonus point for the win. That score stands alone as an amassed number to address longevity, or it’s averaged by seasons played to establish dominance.
Admittedly I had to keep out Ruth, Cobb and some others who played before the MVP was ever awarded, but here are the players with a higher MVP quotient than Jim Rice, there are only 16. DiMaggio, Williams, Musial, Greenberg, Gehrig, Mays, Aaron, Schmidt, Berra, Mantle, Boudreau, Frank Robinson, Puckett, Cochrane, Campanella & Foxx. Not just all Hall of Famers, but essentially, a who’s who (save for Puckett). Sixty-two (62!!) Hall of Famers rank below Rice, and they include names like Clemente, Kaline, Killebrew, Banks, Stargell, Jackson, Yastrzemski, Brett, Murray, Winfield & Gwynn.
The point of longevity is understood, and agreed upon as to it’s relevance. However, it didn’t seem to stop (or even slow) the induction of Puckett, Kiner, Wilson, Sandberg and so many others. And taking longevity into account is addressed simply by looking at the total MVP points amassed in a player’s career. In doing so, the number of players above Rice rises from 16 to 24. And, you guessed it, they’re all Hall of Famers. This could be seen as a possibly anomaly if the names ranked in order didn’t look like such a widely accepted ranking of the all time greats. The only anomaly is the ignorance (not meant in an ugly way) of Rice’s spot among them.
I guess I see the MVP award as an annual, mini-HOF. It’s takes most of the same factors into consideration. And as much as I respect the likes of Andre Dawson, 62 players rank above him by this quotient, nine of which are non Hall of Famers. I’m not arguing that Rice be considered the greatest ever, but an institution that welcomes Tony Perez and Robin Yount to the bottom of an otherwise nice pile, is completely remiss in not welcoming Jim Rice to his rightful spot…the middle of an awesome pack.