Rice Pudding

So Goose Gossage made the Hall of Fame. An excellent choice, I think-it's pretty inarguable that Gossage was dominant for a very, very long time.

Jim Rice fell short, in his next to last year on the regular ballot. Tom Caron said, on Globe 10.0, said that Rice was "the most feared hitter in baseball for a decade". Well, that's a subjective statement. I want it to be true-I rooted for Jim Rice-but I don't think there is a ten year period where he is the best hitter in baseball.

From 1975-1986 is really Rice's whole career-1974 he only played in 24 games, and from 1987-1989 he was a shadow of himself.

So, from 1975-1986, Rice was:

10th in Runs Created Above Average
27th in Runs Created Above Position (Below Dwight Evans, a teammate and my favorite player)
19th in Isolated Power
3rd in Home Runs (Below DAVE KINGMAN, who is no more a Hall of Famer than I am a turnip)
2nd in Runs
1st in RBI
1st in Total Bases
3rd in Slugging Percentage
33rd in Intentional Walks
28th in Home Runs/100 PA
2nd in Extra Base Hits



Interesting. In most sophisticated stats, he fares poorly. In most conventional stats, he looks great. So why the resistance?

According to most accounts, he was a jerk to the media, but it seems like there should be more than that to keep a guy out of Cooperstown.