Hall of Kinda-Fame

After relatively few Theorem-worthy articles to start the week, I was sent and/or stumbled upon an inordinate number of winners this morning. I'll try to quickly touch on a few in the next hour or so.

The first is Dan Shaughnessy's iron-clad persuasive piece in favor of electing Jim Rice to the Hall of Fame. The arguments for (Rice's magical ability to strike "fear" into the hearts of pitchers) and against (Rice wasn't good enough) are well-documented, but Shaughnessy provides a nice overview.

Rice has never been a certified Cooperstown lock. That's why he's fallen short.

[Not sure what a "certified" Cooperstown lock is, but I am pretty sure that there are LOTS of performance-related reasons why Rice has fallen short, right?]

It's because his window of greatness was a tad short, he failed to hit 400 homers, his numbers are inflated by playing half his games in Fenway, he was a corner outfielder with little speed or range, and he didn't do much in his few postseason opportunities.

[Exactly. Seems pretty obvious that Rice does not belong in the Hall.]

But he belongs in the Hall.

[Ugh. Need we even read the subsequent sentences?]

He could hit for average....

[.298 career BA. Wake me when I'm supposed to get excited.]

[H]e could hit for power....

[Didn't we just establish that he failed to hit 400 HRs?]

Twenty other players have gathered between 70 and 75 percent of the vote and every one of them ultimately made it to Cooperstown.

[This is my favorite argument, by far. Comparing Rice to other players-- only, not based on their baseball merits, but on how they fared in Hall elections (ignoring the fact that those players may have played different positions, been far more qualified than Rice, etc. Any closing points?]

Rice was dominant. Rice was feared.

[Check. And. Mate.]