On Monday current NESN Red Sox commentator and would-be Hall of Famer Jim Rice sat down for a Q & A session with fans in Watertown, New York, as recounted by an article in the “Watertown Daily Times” and despite the fact that the article’s author takes a glowing, hagiographical tone with regards to Rice, and expresses complete bafflement that Rice is not in the Hall of Fame yet, Rice still manages to come across as selfish, delusional, and basically a jackass.

The biggest surprise was when Rice, despite being arguably and employee of the Red Sox, rips Manny Ramirez when apparently asked to comment on Manny’s 500th homer:

“I’m tired of people saying, ‘Manny being Manny,’” Rice said. “It’s not like I’d take my 11-year old kid to go out and watch ‘Manny being Manny,’ that’s not baseball. (Sunday) he hit home run 501, but, even though he hit 501 they still almost lost the game. Did you see those two plays he made out in left field? Now, do you want your kid to be ‘Manny being Manny’ missing those balls?

Apparently in an attempt at subtlety, Rice also took a less direct shot at Manny by discussing how he had the pressure to be a team leader, and just so happening to mention the time he allegedly saved the life of a kid who was struck by a foul ball in 1981.

Other surprising comments from Rice included the assertion that the only reason he is not in the Hall of Fame is because all the writers who saw him play are dead, despite the fact that most people think the only reason Rice has gotten as much support as he has is because the BWAA actually has too many old writers who are looking back through rose-colored nostalgia-tinted glasses.

Rice also claimed that the only people tainted by the steroids scandals are the players who took steroids, that those players alone are to blame for the infiltration of steroids in baseball, and that the game is entirely clean today.

Perhaps most bizarrely of all, Rice ranted that the major leagues today are “too big” and that this means that the quality of play is much lower, and that only a single player on the 2007 world champion Red Sox would *maybe* have made the 1975 squad that lost the World Series to the Reds:

“The only one that would’ve made it, is maybe Papelbon,” Rice said. “Because we had Dick Drago out there, Papelbon has a little more velocity than him.”

Overall, Rice seems to have a massively over-inflated sense of himself and appears to be more than a little out of touch with reality.

I feel like I’ve written about Jim Rice’s Hall-of-Fame qualifications many times before on UmpBump. But technically, this is the first time I’m compiling a post on the topic. And most likely, it will be the last one until next year.

So why am I doing it now? After all, the votes for Cooperstown enshrinement have been tallied and announced. I suppose I’m doing this as an exercise in catharsis. Basically, I’ve slowly come to realize that I’ve been a bit of a hypocrite regarding this issue. I often feel like many of my fellow baseball fans work off of too many assumptions. We let the writers of the local papers and major media outlets dictate our thoughts and opinions far too often and to far too large an extent. I found myself doing just that when it came to Jim Rice. I relied far too much on the data that the naysayers wanted me to look at instead of what I thought was important:

1. His career home/road split. Would Rice have been a Hall-of-Fame caliber player if he didn’t play 1/2 his games at Fenway Park?
2. Career intentional walks. Were managers and opposing pitchers/catchers really “fearful” of Rice?

Oddly enough, it was another baseball writer who indirectly convinced me to look at something else.

In his blog over at ESPN.com, Buster Olney wrote today:

During Jim Rice’s incredible 1978 season, a total of two American League players had on-base percentages over .400: Rod Carew, with .411, and Ken Singleton, at .409. In 2007, eight AL players achieved an OBP of .400 or higher.

In fact, in the seven seasons played since the start of 2001, there already have been 42 AL players who have posted OBPs of .400 or better; in the entire decade, of 1970-79, there were only 36 AL players who achieved OBPs of .400 or better. It was a time of less offense and fewer runs, a time when teams didn’t value walks the way they do now, a time when the strike zone was larger, a time when hitting 20 homers and driving in 80 runs was an excellent year.

So it’s almost laughable to hear and read about how Rice was nothing more than a very good player in his time. Look, if you stick his statistics into offensive formulas tailored for the way the game was played in the ’90s, he’s not going to look as good… But if you look at him within the context of his time, he was exceptional…

Olney goes on to add up the points that each player had received throughout their careers in the MVP voting process to make the case for Rice in comparison with his peers. I for one am not a big fan of this particular methodology since all it does is rehash all the poor choices that the MVP voters had made in the past.

But I do think Olney has a point (and I don’t agree with him all that often) worth investigating. Chances are, you’ve recently seen the severe home/road splits that Rice maintained throughout his career, but I wanted to see how every other hitter during his 16-year career collectively fared at and away from Fenway Park. So I spent some time looking at the statistics from Rice’s playing days (1974-1989) and tried to figure out if this could possibly give me a better perspective. Thanks to the magic of the day-by-day database over at Baseball Musings, I took the data of everyone who even walked to the plate during those 16 years and crunched the numbers. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Jim Rice is the 21st player to win over 70% of votes in the Hall of Fame balloting but fall short of the 75% needed for election. The other 20 players have all ended up in Cooperstown. (Bugs and Cranks has a great rant on the caprice of BBWAA members and the mysterious rise—and occasional fall—of HOF-eligible players’ vote totals.) Rice has the support of this year’s only inductee, Goose Gossage: “I think Jim Rice does belong in the Hall of Fame. No hitter scared me, but Jim Rice came the closest.” As for Nick’s contention that Rice has no place in the Hall, I clearly disagree. But Nick’s post has convinced me that Dwight Evans belongs in Cooperstown as well, something I was on the fence about previously. Come on, Veterans Comittee!

2. What with all the Roger Clemens coverage, the NFL playoffs, and this little election-thingy going on right now, you might have missed this story, but the new Yankee Stadium is going to cost New York taxpayers a pretty penny—including $70 million for free VIP valet parking. Even more irksome to New Yorkers, while the poobahs will get 40 years of parking courtesy of the taxpayers, Joe Yankeefan will still have to pay out of his own pocket. That’s preposterous. However, I must throw cold water on the notion that fans are being gouged by a rate increase from $14 to $17 this year, and again to $19 at the new stadium in 2009, and up to $35 bucks by 2014. Most of the parking at Fenway is already at least $30. Yankee fans, suck it up.

3. After a successful workout for several teams in LA and offers from “three or four” clubs, Gabe Kapler has chosen to play for the Brewers next year. He’ll get 800k. Kapler managed Boston’s Single A affiliate last year to an uninspiring record of 58-81.

“Gabe brings versatility and athleticism to the outfield position,” said Brewers GM Doug Melvin. “He has always been a great teammate and possesses the determination to bounce back and become a valuable player to our club.”

This also elevates the already impressive hotness quotient of the Milwaukee Brewers, who field such eye candy as dreamy-eyed third baseman Ryan Braun and cutie-patootie Prince Fielder.

4. Also in the former-Red-Sox-making-a-comeback category, MLBTradeRumors reports that at least the Diamondbacks will be watching as Keith Foulke throws later this month. As for the idea that Foulke “may have special interest in” the Red Sox, I can guarantee right now that the Red Sox will not have any interest, special or otherwise, in Keith Foulke, who is (perhaps unfairly) less remembered for being part of the 2004 championship team than for being the perennially injured and ineffective closer of ‘05 and ‘06, speaking dismissively of Red Sox fans as “Johnny from Burger King” types that meant nothing to him, licking his World Series ring with groupies, and for (allegedly) sleeping with one of the Red Sox ball girls, (allegedly) in the clubhouse no less, and (allegedly) getting caught in flagrante delicto by Dawn Timlin, who (allegedly) promptly told Mrs. Foulke, who (most definitely) demanded a divorce.

5. Just to go back to the Hall of Fame for a minute, I would like to personally apologize to Goose Gossage. No, I don’t have a Hall of Fame vote. But I do have an Unfortunate Facial Hair vote. And there is absolutely no excuse for me to have overlooked Goose’s contributions in the field of facial hair when I wrote this retrospective of the fu manchu. Clearly, Gossage had a historic impact on the place of the distinctive moustache in baseball lore, and I was remiss not to formally recognize this sooner. I’m sure Goose will be as thrilled to be included in our UFH category as he is to be elected into Cooperstown. “It was very emotional I’ll tell you, off the charts. I can’t describe the feeling.” Yes, Goose, I’m sure. Only the lucky and the few get such recognition. But are you sure you really can’t describe how it felt? “A shock wave went through my body like an anvil just fell on my head.” On second thought, I think maybe calling it indescribable was fine.