Rickey runs to the Hall, As Henderson, Rice get elected
BOSTON – Down to his last at-bat, Jim Rice made it into the baseball Hall of Fame.
The former Boston Red Sox slugger was elected to the Cooperstown shrine on Monday in what was to be his final year of eligibility, getting seven votes more than needed. He is the third player elected by the baseball writers in his final year, joining Red Ruffing (1967) and Ralph Kiner (1975).
“I don’t think it matters what ballot I was on as long as I got in. That was the key thing right there,” he said in a conference call. “Everything was timing, because my numbers have not changed over the last 22 years. The only thing I can say is I’m glad it’s over with. I’m in there and they can’t take it away.”
Rice will join career stolen bases and runs scored leader Rickey Henderson at the July 26 induction ceremony. Also to be honoured are former Yankees and Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, elected last month by the Veterans Committee, as well as broadcaster Tony Kubek and writer Nick Peters, the winners of the Frick and Spink awards, respectively.
Rice received 412 votes of the 539 ballots cast for 76.4 per cent, topping the required 75 per cent. Last year he was 16 votes shy, sending him back to the members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for a 15th and final time before he would be relegated to the Veterans Committee.
“It’s about time,” said former teammate Fred Lynn, who edged Rice for the 1975 rookie of the year award. “Throw out the statistics. Jimmy was the dominant force in his era. That’s really all you can say when you’re trying to compare guys that played in the ’70s and ’80s to the guys that are playing now. … In his heyday, Jimmy was a feared hitter.”
Henderson, who received 94.8 per cent of the votes, appeared in 72 games for Boston in 2002. Rice and Henderson will be the 20th and 21st left-fielders to be inducted and the first since Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski, who preceded Rice in the shadow of the Green Monster and entered Cooperstown in 1989.
Rice joins Yaz, Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr as the only Hall of Famers who played their entire careers for Boston. “It was long overdue,” Yastrzemski said.
From 1974-89, Rice batted .298 with 382 home runs and 1,451 RBIs, earning eight all-star selections and finishing in the top five in AL MVP voting six times. He won the award in 1978 when he batted .315 with 213 hits, 46 home runs, 139 RBIs, a .600 slugging percentage and 406 total bases – the only AL player to top 400 since Joe DiMaggio in 1937.
“It was the most dynamic offensive year that I have every played with anybody,” Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley said.
Rice drove in 100 or more runs eight times when runs were more scarce than today, batted over .300 seven times and topped 200 hits four times. He is the only player in major league history with at least 35 homers and 200 hits in three consecutive seasons (1977-79).
He helped Boston reach the World Series in 1975 and 1986.
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