Absolute Zero
No, that is not the title of my autobiography. “Absolute Zero” is a scientific term which describes the current air temperature in the greater Boston area. My daily commute involves about 1.5 miles of walking, and I am now fairly certain that my testicles are frozen. They are as useful as a pair of click clacks; I am now sterile. No children in Jimmy’s future. Mission accomplished!
Since I will have freed myself of any major future obligations, I might as well post my thoughts on Jim Rice’s election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the past few years, I told myself that I’d be indifferent to the vote, either way it went. There’s certainly a strong case to be made that Mr. Rice is not a Hall of Famer (his .789 road OPS being Exhibit #1 in that case), but I also believe there was a strong argument to be made for his inclusion. The Hall is painted in shades of gray, and the bottom layer is molded in the eye of the beholder. Rice now joins the Catfish Hunters, the Phil Rizzutos, and the Herb Pennocks…players who will forever be referenced when other fringe candidates make their case.
When someone like Matt Holliday retires 10 years from now with a career 130 OPS+, Rockies/A’s fans will use Jim Rice’s resume to build his Hall of Fame case. So it will be for dozens of other players, similar to the “Tony Perez Argument” you have doubtlessly heard for dozens of recently retired sluggers. That will be the curse of Jim Rice’s legacy. He is now part of the benchmark.
Other than that, I’m actually pretty damn happy about the whole thing. I listened to the announcement live, and found myself making a vigorous fist pump when the word “and” came up after Rickey Henderson’s name. You could tell that Jim really, really wanted this, even though he tried his hardest to feign indifference at times.
There’s definitely a few more guys who should have been given the call before number #14.
Ron Santo
Bert Blyleven
Rock Raines
Mark McGwire
Dwight Evans
However, the injustices of a few shouldn’t preclude other players of similar value from getting the call.
To this day, I’m not really sure if I would have voted for him had my fan allegiance been to a different franchise. It’s another “B” in Cooperstown, and that’s all right with me.
Great stuff latey Jimmy. I especially liked your Kotsay write up… really does make you wonder why they didn’t just call up the guys in AAA.
I was hoping you might add The Bottom Line blog to your blog roll. We recently teamed up with Fire Brand of the AL at MVN and could sure use the help… I’ve link “Dewey’s House” on my links page.
Thanks and Go Sox!
I definitely dig the Bottom Line blog, but alas we (myself and Jeff) have no control over changing the blog roll. That’s something we’re working on this year, along with fixing the e-mail links above. You guys are on the short list of new blogs we are planning on adding, as soon as we sort out some technical stuff.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll definitely be checking out the Bottom Line.