Dr. Shaq

Ummm.....715th? Al Downing was the pitcher, BTW. And yes, that was Billy Buck climbing the fence. Ever the gamer. (Not really an HOF candidate, but he did have more than 2,500 hits and one batting title.)

 

Damn my attempts at speed typing....yes, 715th, absolutely correct.

Someone, I believe it was Sports Illustrated, had a drawing of Buckner climbing the fence as the ball left the yard, with a faint superimposure of Babe Ruth shedding a tear on top of it.

 

Damn my attempts at speed typing....yes, 715th, absolutely correct.

The HOF voting is such a high school-level popularity contest sometimes, it's so aggravating. Even Ted Williams didn't receive a unanimous first-ballot vote in 1966, which is absurd.

Also, when the BBWA were arrogantly refusing to induct Jim Rice several years ago, Orlando Cepeda (who played 5 more years and had inferior numbers to Rice in every category except doubles) had already been ensconced in the HOF about 10 years earlier. It was just that Rice didn't care for the media (I don't blame him), and didn't grant many interviews.

 

Rice was a borderline candidate. Cepeda played in a different era, mostly in the '60's--a dead-ball era where pitching dominated. The hitting stats from his time are low across MLB. It was Cepeda's ordinal standings in hitting categories that got him in. However, of the 10 players who had careers most like Cha Cha's, only one is in the HOF: Jim Rice. Go figure.

 

I have to disagree about Rice.....of the hitters with comparable numbers, he played less years than most of them, while having better numbers, not to mention he was the most feared hitter in MLB during his prime; his 406 total bases in 1978 is still a Major League record, and was also the same year he won the AL MVP award, leading the league in HR's, RBI's, hits, total bases, and triples.

I've met Rice more than once, and his reputation for being surly with the media doesn't translate to his real persona; he's very nice and gracious towards fans. Then again, the times I've met him were his post-retirement days, so I can't say what he was like when he was playing.

What I do know is that Fred Lynn would have joined him in Cooperstown by now if he stayed with the Red Sox, which is something he freely admits. With left field (Rice) and center field (Lynn) in the HOF, right field (Dwight Evans) might have joined them with the protection of Lynn in the lineup (not to mention Dewey's cannon-like right arm that few base runners would challenge).

 

Rice was a defensive liability and benefited from hitting in a bandbox of a ballpark. Generally speaking, I'm more for inclusion in the HOF than exclusion. I'm glad he's in.

 

I agree about his defense...he probably would have been the everyday DH if Yaz wasn't on the team. I also agree he benefited from the short left field Green Monster, although he is one of only 2 players to launch a HR that cleared both sides of Lansdowne Street (now Yawkey Way) and landed on the Mass Turnpike. The other hitter was Jimmie Foxx, although the Turnpike wasn't there back then. The exact landing spot of Rice's blast is unknown, but some think it went further than Ted Williams' "red seat" HR, which was 502 feet.

And....he did it without steroids, HGH, or any other drug assistance.