News
Rice proud to join elite in Hall
Success in simpler era defines former Sox's greatness
05/15/09 5:50 PM ET
COOPERSTOWN, N. Y. -- Jim Rice walked to a cubicle in the Hall of Fame where plaques of the first five players inducted hang alone. For Rice, this was an altar and he did everything but bow when he stared at the biographies of these five legends.Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson -- Class of 1936.
"They were men -- men that played the game," he said, obviously in awe. "We were just kids. Those guys went back home and probably a lot of them were on the farms. They never worked out or lifted weights. These guys grew up at an early age."
Rice was in Cooperstown on Friday, getting his private orientation tour of the Hall of Fame prior to induction ceremonies on July 26. Rice, 56, who played all 16 of his Major League seasons with the Boston Red Sox, was elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America in January -- his 15th and final year of eligibility.
Rickey Henderson, the greatest leadoff hitter of all time, had a similar tour a week ago and will be inducted along with the late Joe Gordon on the same day.
Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote when Rise was elected: "And so the handoff is complete -- Boston's left-field torch of immortality is passed. Ted Williams to Carl Yastrzemski to Jim Rice."
"This is all about history of the game," Rice said, with wife Corine by his side. "I saw things I never dreamt of. All of a sudden I was able to touch some of the memorabilia of players who made the game what it is today."
Rice warmed my heart when he talked about how today's players are so weak in fundamentals, so unable to play baseball the way people in his era and before him did.
I've been commenting about how poorly many of the games I've seen this spring have been played -- how foolishly players get themselves out wasting at-bats, how outfielders often throw to the wrong bases, how pitchers make stupid pitches. It's a total disregard or lack of basic fundamental skills.
"Instead of being more [for the] team, [baseball is] more for the individual now," Jim said. "When I played we were not an 'I' person. We traveled as a team, fought as a team, we played as a team."
He said during his era, as an example, players such as Yastrzemski would give himself up and hit the ball to the right side to advance a runner. Carlton Fisk did the same thing.
"And so would I," said Rice. "You don't see that anymore. It's because the agent is saying what his guy accomplished. The team might be 20 games out, but the agent will say, 'Yeah, but my kid had a great year.' And it's more bucks for the kid, more bucks for the agent."
Rice shook his head and said he's bewildered why players today might use steroids. He believes Major Leaguers of this generation are pampered too much.
"The game has changed," he said. "We are apt to not be rough enough with these players. You have to be very gentle with these young guys.
"They weren't gentle with the Babe, Cobb, Gehrig and all those guys, were they? They went out and played every day. Now, some guys come in and say, 'Hey, I don't feel like playing today.' They get two days off."
I mentioned this goes along with one of my pet peeves of today's game -- the over-publicized pitch count.
"That's right," Rice said, his eyes bright. "Even [Rangers president] Nolan Ryan, one of the best pitchers in the history of baseball, says his team isn't going on pitch count. He wants his pitchers to throw. The more you throw the stronger your arm becomes, the better location you'll have."
Rice was on a roll now, swinging like he did when he crushed all 382 of those home runs.
"I'm not cutting you up," he said looking straight in my eyes. "There are no fundamentals in the game of baseball."
That said, Rice got his point across, but contradicted himself.
"If you look at some of the low-market teams like Minnesota and Tampa Bay. [Rays manager] Joe Maddon will go out and have his guys do fundamentals and be able to execute. I'll say this about the Red Sox. This is one of the worst teams at being able to execute a play when it comes to advancing a runner -- being able to handle the bat, being able to hit the ball to the right side.
"When I came up [in 1975] one of the first things Yastrzemski told me was 'Jimmy, to be successful in the American League you have to learn how to hit breaking balls.' The kids today are taught how to hit one pitch -- the fastball. No one hits breaking balls anymore. All they want to hit are fastballs."
Rice hedged when asked if players of his era are gaining more respect now because their achievements were without the use of performance enhancing drugs. They didn't cheat.
"I don't know about getting more respect, but I think we should get respect because when we played we didn't have the things the guys have right now," he said. "We didn't have steroids, we didn't have weight rooms, we didn't have video and computers. You had to learn by experience. You had to learn by talking to a guy like Yaz."
Throughout the conversation steroids wouldn't go away.
"With guys making the money they're making right now, the equipment they have such as video, weights, special trainers -- you don't need it," he said. "Steroids are supposed to make you get stronger. So what if you hit the ball maybe 15 rows deep instead of 10 rows? What's the difference? I don't see why they're doing it.
"Look at the Manny Ramirez situation. He's losing close to $8 million. It's just dumb. You know you're going to get tested, so if you're going to get tested why are you going to use it?"
Rice turned and pointed to the plaques of the five original Hall of Famers.
"These guys here never used steroids and they're in the Hall of Fame," he said emphatically. "They probably went back to the farm and probably lifted hay and all the other work they did. They didn't need steroids."
And, finally, should players implicated with steroids be in the Hall of Fame?
"The writers who vote have to decide that," he said.
After debating the question for a moment Rice summed up his thoughts this way: "If you talk to the Hall of Famers they're going to say, 'Hey, he used drugs to cheat the fans, to cheat the opposing team and cheat everything else.' They may not [think they should be admitted in]. I think it's more of that than anything else."
There's a notion Ramirez, who played left field for the Red Sox (2001-2008) has tarnished the position at Fenway Park, which Shaughnessy so aptly discussed. Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice.
"The first three guys -- I'm lucky enough to be in that category and lucky enough like them to have played my entire career in Boston.
"And another is to be in the Hall of Fame."
Enough said.
Hal Bodley is the senior correspondent for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
