tem2 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tem2) wrote,@ 2009-01-13 00:34:00 |
|
WOTD: Finally!
Today's word of the day is Finally, an expression of relief after years of outrageous injustice.
When I was growing up, Jim Rice was one of my all-time heroes. Rice played left field for the Boston Red Sox from my childhood through my teen years. He never played for any other team. Rice put up some totally sick numbers during his career, including a tremendous MVP year in 1978, when he powered the Sox to a regular-season tie for the AL East pennant (and we won't get into the result of that tie-breaker game right now, thank you).
When I was twelve I made a complete fool of myself in an attempt to get his autograph. Meeting Jim Rice was the closest I've ever come to meeting Superman in person.
Then Rice had the bad luck to retire just before the start of baseball's "steroid and growth hormone era." By the time Rice's name came up for Hall of Fame eligibility, guys with artificially pumped-up forearms were crushing previous records for hitters. Suddenly it no longer seemed as impressive to have 382 career homeruns, 2452 hits, 1451 RBIs, and 4129 total bases, all juice-free.
So Rice was overlooked for the Hall of Fame. And again. And again. 14 years in a row. He could have "campaigned" for a spot in the Hall, because other players apparently do that. Votes are cast by a relatively small group of baseball writers, and it's entirely possible to plead your case to them all individually over the course of a year.
But that's not how Jim Rice wanted to earn his place in history. He let his numbers speak for themselves, and for the past few years he's gotten more and more votes each time. These are votes cast by, substantially, the same small pool of BBWAA members, based on career numbers that do not change over time--so it's a big deal that the "experts" have been slowly changing their own minds in Rice's favor and coming to the same conclusion I did when I was 8. My childhood memories demand that Jim Rice should be a Hall of Famer.
Finally, today, in his very last year of eligibility, Jim Rice was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame. I just have to ask, what took them so long?
Today's word of the day is Finally, an expression of relief after years of outrageous injustice.
When I was growing up, Jim Rice was one of my all-time heroes. Rice played left field for the Boston Red Sox from my childhood through my teen years. He never played for any other team. Rice put up some totally sick numbers during his career, including a tremendous MVP year in 1978, when he powered the Sox to a regular-season tie for the AL East pennant (and we won't get into the result of that tie-breaker game right now, thank you).
When I was twelve I made a complete fool of myself in an attempt to get his autograph. Meeting Jim Rice was the closest I've ever come to meeting Superman in person.
Then Rice had the bad luck to retire just before the start of baseball's "steroid and growth hormone era." By the time Rice's name came up for Hall of Fame eligibility, guys with artificially pumped-up forearms were crushing previous records for hitters. Suddenly it no longer seemed as impressive to have 382 career homeruns, 2452 hits, 1451 RBIs, and 4129 total bases, all juice-free.
So Rice was overlooked for the Hall of Fame. And again. And again. 14 years in a row. He could have "campaigned" for a spot in the Hall, because other players apparently do that. Votes are cast by a relatively small group of baseball writers, and it's entirely possible to plead your case to them all individually over the course of a year.
But that's not how Jim Rice wanted to earn his place in history. He let his numbers speak for themselves, and for the past few years he's gotten more and more votes each time. These are votes cast by, substantially, the same small pool of BBWAA members, based on career numbers that do not change over time--so it's a big deal that the "experts" have been slowly changing their own minds in Rice's favor and coming to the same conclusion I did when I was 8. My childhood memories demand that Jim Rice should be a Hall of Famer.
Finally, today, in his very last year of eligibility, Jim Rice was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame. I just have to ask, what took them so long?
