Now that Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice have been elected to the Hall of Fame, the discussions begin in earnest once more. Did they deserve it? Who is going in next year? Which player not in deserves it the most? Murph or Hawk or neither?
Rickey was a lock. Period.
Rice was a great player and, in my opinion, a Hall of Famer. He led MLB in hits, runs, and RBIs from 1975-1986. Enough said.
Those not in:
Dale Murphy is a Hall of Fame ballplayer. He dominated the early 1980s, winning back-to-back MVPs and a NL West pennant on an otherwise bad ballclub (which was nonetheless fun to watch).
Andre Dawson was a phenomenal player though rightly at the fringe of making the Hall. Though his 1987 MVP year was sheer anomaly, the numbers of today’s supplemented players have rendered The Hawk’s statistics like they are written in disappearing ink. During the time he played, he was a dominant force until the twilight years in Boston and Florida.
Tim Raines, Dawson’s teammate in Montreal for a time, deserves to be enshrined in Cooperstown more than Dawson, I believe. Though marred for a time by drugs, his career speaks for itself. A true superstar in Montreal, Raines remained a serviceable and incredibly productive player in Chicago, New York, Oakland, and elsewhere.
Jack Morris. Four time World Series Champ. 1991 World Series MVP. A nasty splitty. Super moustache.
All of these players kill in R.B.I. Baseball to this day (save Rickey, who was not in it). With this Nintendo measuring-stick, Harry Spilman should have been first-ballot.
