When I was growing up in late 1970s, if you were not a Reggie fan, you certainly were a Jim Rice fan. Rice went on to play his entire career with the Boston Red Sox. In little league, we would imagine we were Jim Rice and try to emulate those home run blasts. I am not sure why it took Jim Rice this long to enter Cooperstown, but I guess his relationship with the writers played a big factor in all of this. Sometimes how you finish your career, is how everyone remembers you by. As he mentioned in his speech today, Jim Rice had his career batting average drop below the .300 mark his last year in the majors. Also, had he reached the 400 home run mark, he certainly would of been in quicker as 382 just fell short. However, a career slugging average above .500 is probably what got him into Cooperstown.
As for Rickey Henderson, I remember him coming up in the late 1970s, and he was the talk in most baseball circles with the flat out blazing speed. I didn’t get to see much of Lou Brock’s career, but Henderson and the 100 bases stolen in a season sure made him a star. Back then, you didn’t hear as much as you do today about what the ideal lead off hitter must possess. But, Henderson transformed the lead off batter position with the speed and power combination. As we saw today in his speech, Henderson has the type of personality you’ll never probably see again. His references to people like Tom Trebelhorn, Charlie O, Billy Martin, George Steinbrenner, Dave Winfield and others shows us how long he was part of the game.
