Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009

Last Hall at-bat for Rice a hit

Red Sox slugger gains entry in 15th and final try; Henderson will join him

BOSTON -- Down to his last at-bat, Jim Rice made it into the baseball Hall of Fame.

The former Boston Red Sox slugger was elected to the Cooperstown shrine Monday in what was to be his final year of eligibility, getting seven votes more than needed. He is the third player elected by the baseball writers in his final year, joining Red Ruffing (1967) and Ralph Kiner (1975).

"I don't think it matters what ballot I was on as long as I got in. That was the key thing right there," he said on a conference call. "I guess everything was just timing, because my numbers have not changed over the last 14 years. The only thing I can say is I'm glad it's over with. I'm in there and they can't take it away."

Rice joins career steals and runs scored leader Rickey Henderson at the July 26 induction ceremony. Also to be honored are former Yankees and Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, elected last month by the Veterans Committee, as well as broadcaster Tony Kubek and former Sacramento Bee writer Nick Peters, winners of the Frick and Spink awards.

Rice was selected on 412 of the 539 ballots cast for 76.4 percent, topping the required 75 percent. Last year he was 16 votes shy, sending him back to the members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America for a 15th and final time before he would be relegated to the Veterans Committee.

"It's about time," said former teammate Fred Lynn, who edged Rice for the 1975 AL Rookie of the Year award. "Throw out the statistics. Jimmy was the dominant force in his era. That's really all you can say when you're trying to compare guys that played in the '70s and '80s to the guys that are playing now. ... In his heyday, Jimmy was a feared hitter."

Henderson, who received 94.8 percent of the votes, appeared in 72 games for Boston in 2002. Rice and Henderson will be the 20th and 21st left fielders to be inducted and the first since Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski, who preceded Rice in the shadow of the Green Monster and entered Cooperstown in 1989.

Rice joins Yaz, Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr as the only Hall of Famers who played their entire careers for Boston.

Andre Dawson fell 44 votes short with 67 percent. He was followed by Bert Blyleven (62.7 percent), Lee Smith (44.5), Jack Morris (44.0), Tommy John (31.7) and Tim Raines (22.6).

Mark McGwire, stigmatized by accusations he used performance-enhancing drugs, received 118 votes (21.9 percent) in his third year of eligibility, down from the 128 votes he got in each of his first two tries.

Henderson, the 1990 AL MVP, was a 10-time All-Star who swiped 1,406 bases. Henderson batted .279 with 297 homers, 1,115 RBIs, 2,190 walks and 2,295 runs. He owns the modern-day season record with 130 steals in 1982, and the career mark with 81 leadoff homers.

From 1974-89, Rice batted .298 with 382 home runs and 1,451 RBIs, earning eight All-Star selections and finishing in the top five in AL MVP voting six times. He won the award in 1978 when he batted .315 with 213 hits, 46 home runs, 139 RBIs, a .600 slugging percentage and 406 total bases -- the only AL player to top 400 since Joe DiMaggio in 1937.

"It was the most dynamic offensive year that I have ever played with anybody," Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley said.

Rice drove in 100 or more runs eight times when runs were more scarce than today, batted over .300 seven times and topped 200 hits four times. He is the only player in major league history with at least 35 homers and 200 hits in three consecutive seasons (1977-79).