BOSTON -- Over the last few years, Jim Rice has watched several former teammates make their way to the Hall of Fame. In 2000, it was Carlton Fisk. Last year, Dennis Eckersley got that rich honor. On Tuesday, Wade Boggs, the five-time batting champ who teamed with Rice from 1982-89, was elected on the first ballot with an impressive 91.9 percent of the votes.

But Rice, who is considered a Hall of Famer in the minds of many of those he played with and against, again fell short. However, this time he did it with 307 votes (out of a total of 516 ballots), giving him the highest percentage (59.5) he's had since first being eligible for voting in 1995.

Rice fell 80 votes shy of the necessary 75 percent. Boggs and Ryne Sandberg were the two players who gained entry this year, with closer Bruce Sutter finishing in third place and Rice finishing fourth.

"I'll be really candid. Wade is a Hall of Famer, but I really have a hard time seeing Wade go in the Hall of Fame and not seeing Jimmy go in the Hall of Fame, to be very honest with you," said left-hander Bruce Hurst, who pitched for the Red Sox from 1980-89. "Both were my teammates and I know what Jimmy meant to our team and I know the kind of player that he was. Jimmy was a great threat, an incredible hitter. He made a lot of people around him better because a lot of people didn't want to pitch to Jimmy. A lot of guys didn't pitch to Jimmy. I just think that Jimmy's a Hall of Famer."

The fact that Rice's total went up by four percentage points could be a sign that he will continue to gain momentum heading into his final four years on the Baseball Writers Association of America ballot. Consider that Rice received just 29.78 percent of the votes in his first year on the ballot.

During Rice's years as a prolific slugger, he seldom went through 0-for-11 stretches at the plate. But that's what he now is when it comes to his years on the Hall of Fame ballot.

In the minds of some, it simply doesn't add up.

  2005 Hall of Fame
  voting results
The complete vote (516 ballots, 387 to gain election, 26 to remain on ballot):
 Player  Votes   %
 Wade Boggs  474  91.9%
 Ryne Sandberg  393  76.2%
 Bruce Sutter  344  66.7%
 Jim Rice  307  59.5%
 "Goose" Gossage  285  55.2%
 Andre Dawson  270  52.3%
 Bert Blyleven  211  40.9%
 Lee Smith  200  38.8%
 Jack Morris  172  33.3%
 Tommy John  123  23.8%
 Steve Garvey  106  20.5%
 Alan Trammell   87  16.9%
 Dave Parker   65  12.6%
 Don Mattingly   59  11.4%
 Dave Concepcion   55  10.7%
 Dale Murphy   54  10.5%
 Willie McGee   26   5.0%
 Jim Abbott   13   2.5%
 Darryl Strawberry    6   1.2%
 Jack McDowell    4   0.8%
 Chili Davis    3   0.6%
 Tom Candiotti    2   0.4%
 Jeff Montgomery    2   0.4%
 Tony Phillips    1   0.2%
 Terry Steinbach    1   0.2%
 Mark Langston    0   0.0%
 Otis Nixon    0   0.0%
  Sights and sounds:

• Boggs photo gallery
• Boggs highlights: 56K | 350K
• Boggs conference call
• Sandberg photo gallery
• Sandberg highlights: 56K | 350K
• Sandberg conference call
• Official announcement: 56K | 350K
• HOF president Dale Petroskey
  announces Class of 2005

"Look at the numbers: he was awesome," said Bob Stanley, the all-time leader in saves for the Red Sox. "And it wasn't just the Green Monster. He hit a lot of his home runs to center field and right field."

In Rice's prime years (1975-86), he was as feared a right-handed hitter as there was in the game. He hit for both average and power. Rice played his entire career (1974-89) with the Red Sox. Until Christmas Eve, when Jason Varitek was named the captain of the Red Sox, Rice was the last Boston player to hold that honor.

"Jimmy is a very, very talented player, probably one of the most special offensive players we had in Boston for a long time," said former Sox catcher Rich Gedman, who called Rice a teammate for a decade. "Hopefully, in time, he can persevere and get there. The problem is, he just needed a little bit more longevity I would think. In terms of being a special player, he was very, very good and certainly Hall of Fame caliber. The thing with Jim Rice, for the time he played, he played as well as anybody."

Never was Rice better than in 1978, when he won the American League MVP for a 99-win team that fell one run short in a one-game playoff against the Yankees, of winning the American League East.

He played in all 163 games that year, leading the American League with 213 hits, 15 triples, 46 homers, 139 RBIs and a .600 slugging percentage.

In those days, Rice was a slugger's slugger. He topped 200 hits in three straight seasons (1977-79), drove in 100 runs eight times in his career and bashed 382 homers in 8,225 at-bats. Rice was a career .298 hitter.

Perhaps one thing that has kept him from Cooperstown was, in fact, that issue of longevity. After hitting just three homers in 1989, Rice retired at the age of 36. In his last three seasons, he produced a total of just 31 homers and 162 RBIs.

But when he was at his best, few hitters were in his class. Someday, that fact might be enough to land Rice in the Hall of Fame.

"I know that someday he'll be in the Hall of Fame, maybe when he's old and grey if it's not done in the next four years," said Gedman, "but I think it will happen eventually."

All-time saves leader Lee Smith, who pitched for the Sox from 1988-90, finished eighth in this year's balloting with 38.8 percent of the votes.