I really, really, really, really hope that Jim Rice does not get into the Hall of Fame. He is quite simply NOT a Hall of Fame caliber player.
The simplest argument is just this, “If Jim Rice played for any team other than the Boston Red Sex, no one would even suggest him for the Hall of Fame.”
Look at Rice’s splits:
Fenway:
2B - 207
3B - 44
HR - 208
OBP - .374
Slug - .546
OPS - .920
Outside Fenway:
2B - 166
3B - 35
HR - 174
OBP - .330
Slug - .459
OPS - .789
Keep in mind that rice had 4075 ABs at Fenway and 4150 outside of Fenway. He loses .044 off his OBP, .087 off his Slug, and .131 off his OPS.
Do you know how many outfielders in the history of baseball have gotten into the Hall of Fame with a .330 OBP? A .459 Slug? Or a .789 OPS?
NO outfielder has ever gotten in with an OBP as low as .330.
It’s not that Rice is the only guy who has ever benefited from his home park, he isn’t. But he’s a very clear case of a guy who benefited from his home park so much, that he is just genuinely not a Hall of Famer if he players anywhere else. Someone shouldn’t get into the Hall of Fame just because of a ballpark.
Babe Ruth was aided immensely by the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium, however even Ruth’s “diminished” away splits are still out of this world. Ruth also set home run distance records in every ballpark he played in during his career–something which shows he had genuine power (he definitely earned a lot of home runs because he pulled them, but he had genuine power and could knock balls out of any park in either league.)
It’s one thing if a genuine Hall of Famer is getting a boost from his home ballpark, but Rice’s entire HoF credentials are entirely based on the fact that his home ballpark produced a ton of offensive statistics for him. In neutral parks he is just an average player–and average doesn’t cut it for the Hall of Fame.
Also factor in that Rice was very popular and played for a big media team, even WITH his numbers, he’d probably NOT get into the Hall of Fame if he had spent his entire career playing for a midwestern team. Even when you give him all the credit from his production at Fenway, he’s still not a Hall of Famer. He’s not even a borderline Hall of Famer, he’s rather, someone who is about 80% of the way to being a HoFer but never got that last 20%. He would lessen, not enhance, the average quality of HoF players if inducted. He would not be the worst Hall of Famer (especially since the VC has inducted some very, very questionable players on top of a few of the extremely questionable players the BBWAA has inducted.)
Rice was known as a power hitter, but his power numbers are relatively mediocre. He had three really good season, and then a lot of average ones (even with the boost from Fenway.) Several other power hitters of his era put Rice to shame. It’s honestly disgusting how some people in the media have been campaigning for Rice for so many years. I think a huge part of it is based on Rice’s reputation as the “most feared batter” in baseball. I remember hearing people say that at the time, I also remember thinking it was bullshit then and I still think it is bullshit now.
There’s no way to quantify that kind of claim, we can look at intentional walks, but those are somewhat situational (Rice was nowhere near the leader in IBBs in his era, nor did he really get many IBBs at all.)
I think of Jim Rice like I do Dale Earnhardt, the media labeled Earnhardt the “intimidator.” But when asked about that stuff most NASCAR drivers that competed against Earnhardt said “no one out there is afraid or intimidated by Dale Earnhardt.” It was a gimmick created entirely by the media with no basis in reality, just like the persona of Jim Rice as an “intimidating” hitter.
About the ONLY thing Rice has going for him is power. He was not a good fielder, he wasn’t a particularly productive batter aside from a few nice season where he put out good power numbers (his OBP was nowhere near HoF caliber.) But even as a power hitter we’re talking about a guy who has under 400 career home runs.
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