Last call: Jim Rice is not a Hall of Famer

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Rickey Henderson was elected to the Hall of Fame today, and deservedly so. He is the greatest leadoff hitter in history, and the people who didn’t vote for him should have their right to vote revoked.

But Jim Rice? No way. Don’t get me wrong, Jim Rice was a very good player, but not a Hall of Famer, and Rice’s numbers were inflated greatly by playing half of his games in Fenway Park. Take look at his home and away numbers:

Category Home Away

Games 1,048 1,041

Homers 208 174

Avg. .320 .277

OB% .374 .330

SLG% .546 .459

Take him out of Fenway, and Rice suddenly becomes an average hitter. And a guy who was an average hitter half the time is not a Hall of Famer.

By the way, I notice Corky Simpson, who didn’t vote for Henderson (You can see his ballot here), told Megan Garber of the Columbia Journalism Review:

‘I think of the literature on the Internet in the same way that I think of the literature on the walls of public bathrooms. With the exception that the literature on the walls of public bathrooms is a little higher class.’’

Don’t look now Corky, but you write for the Internet too.

-- Houston Mitchell