Congratulations On Entering the Hall of Fame, Jim Rice

When I heard earlier this year that longtime Boston Red Sox left fielder Jim Rice made it into the Hall of Fame on his 15th and final try, I could only think of one response: "It's about time!" I grew up in the '80s and watched Rice play. In his era, he was most certainly one of the most feared hitters in baseball. His lifetime stats of a .298 batting average, 382 home runs, 2,452 hits and 1,451 RBI in 16 seasons show he was certainly the anti-Dave Kingman*: a power hitter who could also hit for average. Rice was also a great fielder also, having a .980 career fielding percentage despite playing his career at the tricky confines of Fenway Park (a lot of teams would work extra with their newbie left fielders to get used to fielding balls of the Green Monster). On a few occasions, I even saw Rice show how much of a scam artist he was in left field. I don't remember the hitter, but someone hit a high drive to left field. Rice stared up at the wall, as if seeing ho...