Why Jim Rice Deserves to Be in the Baseball Hall of Fame

On January 8, the Baseball Writers' Association of America voted on whom they believed was deserving of entering the Hall of Fame. The only player who was selected into the Hall of Fame was Goose Gossage, leaving slugger Jim Rice off of the ballot of the fourteenth straight year. Rice missed the cut by a mere 16 votes.

There has been great debate over whether or not Jim Rice deserves to enter the Hall of Fame and I am here to make the case that he deserves entry. It is still noteworthy to point out, as ESPN analysts have done so, that no baseball player has ever missed entering the Hall of Fame who has received more than 70% of the votes from the Baseball Writers' Association. This fact is important because next year in 2009 will be the final year that Jim Rice's name can be on the Hall of Fame Ballot since a person's name can only be on the ballot for 15 consecutive years. Next year Ricky Henderson will appear on the ballot for the first time and figures to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Rice had received 392 votes which made up 72.2 percent of the vote. Players need to receive 75% of the vote to enter the Hall of Fame.

Jim Rice deserves to enter the Hall of Fame because he dominated the era in which he played. He finished his career with a .298 career batting average, 382 home runs and 1451 runs batted in to go with 16 years of playing service. He won an American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1978 when he hit 46 home runs and had 139 runs batted in. He also made 8 All Star games and played his entire career with one team, the Boston Red Sox.

Jim Rice was one of the best hitters of the 1970s and the early part of the 1980 decade. His stats also match up favorably with Orlando Cepeda who made the Hall of Fame. Cepeda finished his career with a .297 career average, 379 home runs and 1365 RBIs. Accordingly, Cepeda finished with a lower batting average, fewer total home runs, and fewer RBIs than Jim Rice had during his career. In addition, Jim Rice played one less year than Cepeda did, meaning his individual yearly averages were higher than Cepeda's.

Jim Rice's statistics also compare favorably to Duke Snider who is also in the Hall of Fame. Snider had a career .295 average, 407 home runs, and 1333 RBIs. Billy Williams also made the Hall of Fame, posting career totals of a .290 batting average, 426 home runs, and 1475 RBIs. When deciding if Rice is a hall of famer, you need to take into account that he did not play in the steroid era and his hitting totals are impressive compared to the contemporaries of his era.

The only conceivably argument that pundits can make is that the Boston Red Sox play in a hitters ball park and therefore, Rice's statistics are higher than they would normally be. However, I don't believe that such an argument should be held against Rice and for such an amazing hitter of his era; he should be let into the Hall of Fame.