Cooperstown will welcome at least two more into the National baseball Hall of Fame this coming summer. One of the new Hall members was a no brainer. The other needed fifteen years to get the blessing of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Even though he was accused of not always giving his all, even though he complained about his contract, and even though his career ended far away from the bright lights of the big show, Rickey Henderson revolutionized the modern game. He was a leadoff hitter who killed you with speed and power. If he led the game off with a walk he was on third in a matter of pitches. Never before had Major League Baseball seen a leadoff hitter who had his kind of power.
Sure he was flaky, but it didn't matter. Sure he was (at one point in time) the definition of a me first athlete. But he never let his antics or his ego destroy a locker room. I covered Henderson when he was with the Mets in 1999. The media might have needed their own dictionary to translate what we would call 'Rickey-isms,' but he was one of the most respected players in that clubhouse. Young players wanted to learn from him and sought him out for advice. Veterans respected the way he changed the game. Even when he was in his forties and clearly overmatched by big league pitching you knew you were watching a Hall of Famer.
Jim Rice, on the other hand wasn't always seen that way. Make no mistake, Rice was a great player. I'm 37 and I remember watching him in his prime. He was a fearsome power hitter and run producer. He made the Red Sox dangerous. There might have been bigger names, like Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn and Yaz, but Rice was the straw that stirred the drink (with apologies to Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson). He was the guy opposing pitcher feared. He was the guy kids hoped would strike out when he walked up to the plate.
So, why didn't Rice get in until now? Well, there are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, he wasn't always media friendly. He wasn't like Jeter or A-Rod, great players who know how to play the media (i.e. get along with us). He wasn't Ryan Braun, who always, and I mean ALWAYS, speaks in perfect fifteen second sound bytes. If Rice didn't like what someone wrote, he let them know about it. He wasn't always accommodating in terms of giving interviews. We media are a pretty fickle bunch if you haven't figured it out by now. We hold grudges. Rice ticked off the wrong people, and for fourteen years it cost him.
Another thing that left Rice on the outside looking in for so long was a changing of the guard as far as the writers were concerned. A lot of the old, crusty veterans retired, and they were replaced by younger guys. Guys who didn't see Rice until he was past his prime, if they saw him at all. To those writers, Rice wasn't much of a player.
So, why now as opposed to then? Pretty simple, actually. The Steroid Era. Now that the game of the 90's has been exposed for what it was (a whole bunch of cheaters), the writers went back and re-evaluated Rice's numbers. They found that what he did in his career, without the benefits of using anything stronger than a cup of coffee, was worthy of being recognized as one of the best to play the game.
You can count me as one who hopes the writers continue to keep cheats like Mark McGwire out. I would much rather see players like Andre Dawson get in (why he didn't get in this year is beyond me, frankly). Dawson had some great years in Montreal, one really incredible year with the Cubs, but is seen as not worthy because he held on too long. Hopefully, he'll get in next year. He certainly deserves it. He doesn't do the campaigning before the voting is announced like some (Bert Blyleven) do. He doesn't complain when he gets bad news year after year (unlike a certain Mr. Blyleven). In fact, I remember calling Dawson a few years ago for comment when he didn't get into Cooperstown. He politely declined. If we had wanted to talk about baseball, he would have come on. But he didn't want to make it about him, so he chose not to complain about something he had no control over.
Rice didn't complain either. Neither did Bruce Suter or Goose Gossage, great players who had to wait longer than they should have for the honor of being called a Hall of Famer.
I can only hope that McGwire's wait is just as long, if not longer.
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