Rickey Henderson was a game changer. Never before had a leadoff hitter combined the keen eye and understanding of the strike zone with incredible speed and very good power. Henderson was an on-base machine as evident by his .401 OBP. Over 25 seasons Rickey played for 9 different teams, some of them multiple times. His average 162 game season included 74 steals and 18 caught stealing for an 80.4% rate. Reflecting on base stealers over the years and projecting forward, it is rare that a season produces a single 70+ steal player never mind averaging that many over 25 years. Rickey won the MVP award in 1990 and produced over 3000 hits in his career. Both of these points are nice but he would have made it in without either of them. My lasting personal memory of Rickey? In 2002 he played for the RedSox, I made it to a single game (living in Atlanta) and snapped this picture of Rickey during a pitching change.
I like it. Lastly on Rickey - watch the batting stance guy do Rickey when he was on Letterman, classic :
watch here
As for Jim Ed Rice, there are many thoughts to be written and shared. Having taken notice of baseball in 1975 as a 9, soon to be 10 year old I thought that the two young outfielders (Rice and Lynn) would be the centerpieces of my favorite team for years to come. Well one stayed and one left. That's baseball. Jim Rice, during his career, never received the adulation he has received after retirement heading up to today's ceremony.
Rice didn't make it to 3000 hits or 400 homeruns like most players needed prior to steroid use becoming popular. He suffered through a decline due to age that many or most players endured and his effectiveness was limited to about 13 seasons. His lifetime batting average of .298 is very good for a player considered a power hitter. With the number of at bats he had, Rice needed 16 more hits in his 16 year career to end at .300, one more flair or seeing eye ground ball per year would have inched his career mark up to .300 , shame it didn't happen.
Six times Rice was in the top 5 in voting for the MVP, winning it once in 1978. Every article out there this week and today heading into the induction talks about the monster year it was for him. The stat that stands out to me is the 15 triples. As a line drive hitter, Rice would smash balls to parts of ballparks that were far away (centerfield) and in Fenway's case, had odd angles to bounce the ball around a bit. If Rice had even good speed (not ever mistaken for fast) he probably could have converted a couple of those triples into inside the park homers.
Check out this picture of Rice, notice those massive baseball bodies from the late 70's vs. the physiques of today.
There is a great story and account on espn yesterday read here about an incident when Rice helped out a little boy struck with a foul ball next to the dugout in a game. Another great article here from the Herald
The biggest regret as a fan is that Rice wasn't available to play in the 1975 World Series against the Reds. Rice had been hit in the hand/wrist in September 1975 by Verne Ruhle of the Tigers breaking it. Long considered the greatest World Series played, it was played without one of the most significant offensive players on either team. Maybe Bernie Carbo doesn't get his moment in game 6, maybe things turn out dramatically differently, who knows. My instincts tell me his presence allows the RedSox to beat the Big Red Machine and end the Curse of the Bambino (would the curse ever be known if they had won in 75?) 29 years earlier.
Jim Rice deserves to be in, it is somewhat fitting however that he made it in his last year of eligibility for the normal voting process. Jim Rice HOF, nice ring to it.
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