Hall of Fame Debate: Is Jim Rice Worthy of Being Inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame?

One of the greatest individual accomplishments in all of sports is to be elected into the Hall of Fame. Cooperstown, NY is the most well-known city that holds a Hall of Fame, and it is baseball's that resides there.

I was recently working out at my local gym, and I heard three of the guys training in there talking about Jim Rice. Two of the athletes in this discussion were African-American, the other was Caucasian, along with the trainer. The conversation was actually more of a debate of two separate questions.

1) Should Jim Rice be in the Hall of Fame?

Let's analyze Rice's stats from all angles (source: baseball-reference.com). Rice played 16 seasons, all for the Red Sox. His career batting average was .298, he smacked 382 home runs, and he totaled 2452 hits. Rice was an 8-time All-Star and the AL MVP in 1978. In that magical season, Rice led the AL in home runs with 46 (the most of his career) and drove in 139 runs. He won the AL Silver Slugger Award in 1983 and 1984 and had seven seasons with a batting average higher than .300.

Below is a list of all the players elected to the Hall of Fame in the 14 years that Jim Rice has been on the ballot in order of selection:

Mike Schmidt, Phil Niekro, Don Sutton, Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Robin Yount, Carlton Fisk, Tony Perez, Dave Winfield, Kirby Puckett, Ozzie Smith, Eddie Murray, Gary Carter, Paul Molitor, Dennis Eckersley, Wade Boggs, Ryne Sandberg, Bruce Sutter, Cal Ripken, Jr., Tony Gwynn, and Goose Gossage

The players in bold qualified for one of the three "automatic tickets" into the Hall of Fame, which are: 500 home runs, 3000 hits, or 300 wins. Now let's see why Rice was not elected and these other players were.

Carlton Fisk: Fisk has comparable stats to Rice (374 HRs), but played a much more demanding position. He also played an astounding 25 seasons as compared to Rice's 16.

Tony Perez: Also a player with a considerably longer career, Perez played 23 seasons and racked up 2732 hits along with his 379 HRs. Perez was most likely selected over Rice since he was such an essential part of "The Big Red Machine" from the '70s. Voters like players who have won championships.