why isnt Jim Rice in the Hall of Fame ??

Question

or Dale Murphy ?

both have stats equal to those in HOF..

maybe not..

as far as getting along with the media, both rod carew, and steve carlton were very negative towards them, infact ignoring them all together..yet they are both in ?? I know thery stats are great, but come on..

Answer 1

Rice:

Rice suffers in two regards. First, he was never the best in baseball at his position. While Rice put up very good numbers, he was never dominant. Many HOF voters will reject him for that, as they do Santo.

Second, Rice was really overshadowed on his own team. When he arrived on the scene in 1975, a guy buy the name of Fred Lynn arrived in the OF next to him. Lynn overshadowed Rice in almost every way, winning ROY and MVP in his early years. That took away a lot of Rice's thunder, as Lynn really was a better hitter and much better fielder. Yaz was also there, and Yaz took a lot of publicity as well.

HOF voters just don't see Rice as a dominant player, even on his own team. Had Lynn come up with someone else, things may be different.

If you factor in Rice's mediocre defense, and average career length, that makes him a hard sell.


Murphy is probably a tougher call. He won MVP awards, and really could be considered the best at his position for a brief period of time.
However, he gets dinged in part because he played for such awful teams. He never won a WS. He never even came close.
Also, his numbers really tapered off at the end of his career. Had he stayed productive into his later years and approached 500 homers, he might be in.

There are also arguments that his D wasn't great. He did make some nice catches, but didn't have the best range for a CF.

Overall I think you could make arguments for both of these guys, and perhaps as people begin to quantify what steriods did to power numbers in the 1990s, their homer totals will be looked at in a more favorable light in years to come.

Answer 2

Neither player had that take over a game Hall of Fame style, Rice for most of his career was the second or third best player on his team and Dale Murphy was not known by 3/4 of the league until Turner started broadcasting games all over the country. Both were good players and great at times but not HOF type players. Right now Rice would not play in the Red Sox OF!

Answer 3

Rice hit 382 career home runs with a very close LF wall, was a terribly slow runner, was a mediocre fielder, and had his last HOF-worthy season at age 33, retired at 36, and just doesn't have the career stats.

In fact, from 22 to 26 he was one of the best hitters the game has ever seen. From 27 to 29, he was just another good hitter. From 30 to 33 he was great again, but after that declined sharply. If this had happened 10 years later, we'd all be suspecting him of steroid use. I don't know what the explanation is. Maybe injuries.

But he's not a Hall-of-Famer. His teammate, Dwight Evans, hit more home runs and was a great fielder, but hardly anybody ever talks about him for the Hall.

Dale Murphy doesn't make it, either. He hit 398 home runs in a stadium whose elevation made it "the Launching Pad." But he had fewer career hits than Rice... or even Don Mattingly, and as crazy a Yankee Fan as I am, I know Donnie doesn't belong, either. From 22 to 25, Murphy was very good. From 26 to 31, he was great. From 32 to 35, he was very good again. But after his 36th birthday, he played in just 44 games and hit 2 home runs.

Neither Rice nor Murphy nor Mattingly makes it. Don't forget their career total of World Series won: Zero. And a combined 2 Pennants, both by Rice (1975 and '86, lost both Series in Game 7, although Rice was hurt in '75 and '86 was hardly his fault). So they don't even have winning on their sides.

Answer 4

Rice really does not stack up, nor does Murphy. They had careers which were too brief and their peaks weren’t high enough.
Black Ink measures league leading stats and Grey Ink measures top ten. In Black Ink, there are 8 eligible players ahead of Rice (10 for Murphy, including Rice) who are not yet in. In Grey it is 6 and 16. In OPS+ (the single best number for measuring offense in context of its time), Jim Rice ranks #173 all-time; Dale Murphy ranks 291. While Murphy was a good fielder, Rice was not.

To me that suggest that there are scores of players who were better in their day, both in their careers and at their peak.

That’s why they are not in.

P.S. Rice dominant? That’s the perception/wish more than reality. He led in slugging just twice, RBI twice, home runs three times…those are good. They are hardly the most dominant hitter of his time. In the AL, Jackson and Brett were much better over the same time frame.

Answer 5

I have always maintained that both Jim Rice and Dwight Evans both belong in the hall of fame. Rice was a great ball player but made a lot of enemies with the media. Dwight Evans was the greatest right fielder of his day and among the 5 greatest right fielders of all time. Except for Roberto Clemente and Roger Maris, Evans had the greatest throwing arm in baseball history

Dale Murphy was a good player but not a great player. Two MVP's but his .265 lifetime batter average in not impressive.

Answer 6

Jim Rice not dominate? Not the best on his team? Look at the record. For 10 years he had virtually no competition in the AL for consistent power stats. He's a Hall of Famer, no question. The problem is that he didn't dress in an evening gown and court the press enough. He was his own man. The writers hate that kind of guy, especially if he's, well, dark, if you know what I mean.
Murphy is one of only two two-time MVPs not in the Hall. I'm not sure about his presence or not, but it seems to me he should go.
Rice no doubt.

Answer 7

Rice was impressive in many ways however i feel he is borderline HOF. He hit into so many double plays and was a terrible fielder. The line up around him was stacked with hitters, so he got to see plenty of good pitches. As to Fenway being an easy place to hit homers for righties - I just don't think it is as favorable as many think. I bet more line drives are hit that would be homers elsewhere, than high fly balls that creep over the 37 ft. wall. Rice hit a bunch of balls that became singles in Fenway - because he hit hard line drives.

Answer 8

Rice should be. Murphy is a lot like Don Mattingly who had a great career but just not Hall of Fame. Jim Rice was the heart and soul of the 70's/80's Redsox teams and should be in.

Answer 9

Dale, he was sopose to be the next Mickey mantle and when you don't live up to the expectations, you rarely make the hall.

Jim Rice can't win a popularity contest at his old high school, so he has a long way to go to win the hearts of the men he snubbed.

Answer 10

I'd vote for him, and I'm a Yankees fan.

I can't believe people say that Rice wasn't dominant at his position. He was widely regarded as the most feared hitter in the American League for about 10 years.

Later, when SABRmetrics became the fad, people began to recognize that he hit into a heck of a lot of double plays and didn't walk as much as a slugger should and that both of these factors made him less productive than people thought. But, really, I think it was his surely nature and his rapid decline in skills that voters hold against him.