Jan
18
An undeserved Hall of Famer takes aim at the Boss
ByJim Rice, newly elected to the Hall of Fame after doing nothing for fifteen years that really should have improved his chances of enshrinement, doesn’t like the Yanks’ spending. While ignoring the fact that the Red Sox have spent more money to win a title than any team in baseball history, Rice slammed the Yankees for their spending ways. Talk about your sour grapes…
81 Comments»
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The Mason Williams Watch
No hat tip?
*shrugs*
Sorry, Steve. To be honest, I wrote this one about six hours ago, well before your tip. In fact, I didn’t even see your link until now.
Still, it’s a good one. Thanks for the heads up.
Let him have his sour grapes.
We’ve got better champagne.
Yeah, but it’s been on ice for a long time now…
Sorry, couldn’t resist
Wow, Jim Rice, wow. You finally get elected to the hall, and the first thing you do is take a swipe at Steinbrenner for the ineptitude of the Red Sox during your career? Shame on you, I thought hall of famers were supposed to have class?
No, he thinks now that he is in the Hall Of Fame, whatever he says can’t be criticized, and is always right.
That’s all right. I blame Jim Rice for Global Warming.
Global warming, world hunger, the war in iraq, gaza. I could go on.
Remember the NYC blackout of 1978?
Jim Rice.
Well that isn’t a little racist.
Wait, how did the Red Sox spend the most to win a title? Is it because we never actually won with a payroll this high?
Correct.
I remember reading that the only two teams in history to win a WS with a payroll over $100 mil are the 2004 RS and the 2007 RS.
So in addition to being a bitter old man, Rice is obviously not a student of baseball history.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c....._payrolls/
Yanks payroll in 2000 was over 100 mil
“So in addition to being a bitter old man, Rice is obviously not a student of baseball history.”
Neither are you.
This is not the first time I’ve said this to you: You have to tone it down. You have to interact with other people around here in a respectful manner. I’m sick of your attitude and the way talk to others on this thread. Be nicer. That’s the one major rule we have around here. Learn it.
Correct. The Red Sox have paid more and won than any other team. The Yanks had higher payrolls but they never won.
Plus they bought Dice-K, Drew, and Lugo. That led them to a title and they spent over 200 mill that offseason.
“Plus they bought Dice-K, Drew, and Lugo. That led them to a title and they spent over 200 mill that offseason.”
Yankee math.
The best part of this is his total Red Sox bias, which blinds him to the facts about his own team. I know they love to portray themselves as ‘The Little Train That Could’ but it doesn’t wash. I hate to break it to you (and the rest of RS Nation) but the Sox outspend every other team in Baseball except the Yanks, typically by a significant margin.
This is like Bill Gates complaining that Warren Buffet has a bigger Gulfstream Jet than he does.
Warren Buffet deserves the bigger jet.
Why? How many jobs has Buffett created? He is a very astute investor, perhaps one of the best of all time. But does that create jobs?
Gates has basically created an entire industry, and all the jobs that go along with it. HE deserves the bigger Gulfstream.
Ironically, they are best of friends.
Wild guess. You skipped Econ 101 in favor of a computer programming class.
Moneyball?
Somewhere, Joe Morgan is mad becasue someone mentioned this book.
I like to think that Mr. Morgan has a sort of Moneyball-inclined Spidey Sense.
“Jon..I can feel it! Someone… someone nearby is using the power of the human mind to… to INFLUENCE BASEBALL DECISIONS!!!!!! OH THE HUMANITY!!!!”
You know what the irony is? Morgan is just the type of player Beane would like–great on base skills with some pop and a good fielder…
Yeah bro… man, look at his 1975 season! He drew a few walks that year, and this is a little second baseman we’re talkin’ about! Wow.
????
I think he’s trying to say that you know what you’re talking about.
If you think you can create jobs without investors, then . . . . . I don’t even know where to start.
First, it IS possible to create jobs without investors. Professionals, such as doctors, CPAs and attorneys create jobs all the time without investors.
Second, although investors are required to create jobs on the scale that Gates did, the investors don’t create the jobs, Bill Gates’s IDEAS created them. Without IDEAS, investors wouldn’t have anything to invest in.
So if you think investors create jobs, well then I don’t know where to begin.
‘Twas only a jest, mon amie.
Jest shmest! Warren Buffet doesn’t create jobs?!
He’s pulling a ‘Jim Rice’!!!
when the soxs finally ended their 86 years of stinkability and won a world series they only had 1 of their starters who they drafted–trot nixon—explain that jimmy boy
when the soxs finally ended their 86 years of stinkability and won a world series they only had 1 of their starters who they drafted–trot nixon—explain that jimmy boy
Sounds to me like they used their system wisely, as opposed to dealing prospects for over-the-hillers. And guess what they did AFTER they won that championship? Unlike the Yankees, who got carried away with the deft work Gene Michael did, the Red Sox then decided to replenish their system and use those players to make another run.
From ’04 to ’07, the Red Sox had only 6 repeat players on the roster:
Varitek, Schilling, Ortiz, Ramirez, Wakefield, Mirabelli (after being re-aquired from SD).
The only homegrown players on the ’07 squad were:
Lester, Pedroia, Youkilis, Ellsbury, Delcarmen, Papelbon
I may have missed some, but Jim Rice needs to get his head checked.
Forgot Timlin as a repeater.
http://www.milspecmonkey.com/s.....a12483.jpg
This underachiever gets into the hall and all of a sudden he thinks he can come and start giving his unwanted opinions lol.
Let’s be fair: his career line is not an underachiever. I think you would take Jim Rice as a #6 hitter on a championship team, right? Although he is only a #6 hitter in my view, that is not a bad player by any stretch of the imagination.
Just because he doesn’t deserve to be in the HOF doesn’t mean we have to relegate him to a #6 hitter. I’m sure he could bat clean-up on many WS champions.
I mean, Paul Konerko batted 4th for the 2005 ChiSox, and I certainly hope the closest he gets to Cooperstown is when he takes his kids.
I know! Who does he think he is, Goose Gossage?!
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07.....120388.htm
Now, I get it.
Jim Rice is most feared when you give him 15 minutes of fame and he decides it’s not enough.
Seriously, I thought it was the Hall of Fame, not “Where Are They Now?”
Can anyone more irrelevant than Jim Rice please chime in to falsely belabor a dead horse?
No, really. He sounds like Joe Morgan.
I now blame Rice for allowing above average players into the HOF.
How about this year whenever someone makes a stupid, ill-researched comment, we call it pulling a Jim Rice?
I’m in!
No. Let’s call it pulling a Mike Francesa.
That would be having a local team (Islanders) moving to KC and staying put by the end of the show.
It didn’t take any research to remember that George Steinbrenner had a boner for Free Agents in the late seventies and early eighties. It is factually true and well documented after all…
However, even being a huge Jim Rice fan, I disagree that the Yankees signing Free agents was why Boston couldn’t beat them in the seveties. It was their lack of signing Free Agents that hurt them and them letting their top players leave via Free Agency didn’t help either.
Their FO didn’t help matters, by trading Sparky Lyle to the Yankees for Danny freekin; Cater.
I wonder if it can be statistically proven that Jim Rice is the worst player in the Hall of Fame. haha
Bill Mazerowski says hello.
(resisting urge to also mention Rizzuto . . . resisting. . . . resisting. . . .)
Jim Rice, while not deserving t be in the HOF (IMO), is in no way the worst player in there.
Worse than Ray Schalk? Doubt it.
Ok, I’m tired of the Red Sox being held up as the example of doing things the “right way”. In the off season between 2006-2007 the Red Sox spent well over 200 million dollars (including their bid to negotiate with Matsuzaka) on new contracts and won the World Series the next season. I did not hear anyone accuse them of “buying” their championship. On the flip side the number of home grown players between the two teams is very comparable. Looking at last years teams the Yankees fielded a lot of products from their farm system. Hughes, Cano, Wang, Chamberlain, Cabrera and half the bullpen. We may not think of them this way anymore but Jeter, Posada, Pettite and Rivera are all also homegrown Yankees. In fact if the two teams were stacked up side by side I’m not certain that Boston would feature more players from their farm system than the Yanks. It’s very likely that the Yankees will have three “homegrown” pitchers in their starting rotation while the Red Sox will have…one. Each team figures to have 4 homegrown position players (Varitek, Pedroia, Youkilis and Ellsbury vs. Posada, Cano, Jeter and Melky/Gardner). Both teams have homegrown closers. I just fail to see where Boston has this reputation for having more homegrown players. It’s a myth.
preachin to the choir dude
Amen.
(what? I thought it was a theme thing…)
Is Tek really a homegrown player?
Technically, no.
He came up through the Mariners system, but he has never played a ML game for any team other than the RS (so far).
depends on ur definition. Wasn’t drafted by the sox but made his ml debut with them
“Ok, I’m tired of the Red Sox being held up as the example of doing things the “right way”. In the off season between 2006-2007 the Red Sox spent well over 200 million dollars (including their bid to negotiate with Matsuzaka) on new contracts and won the World Series the next season. I did not hear anyone accuse them of “buying” their championship.”
As long as there is another team in the sport…..no……..SAME DIVISION who spends more than you, you will never be accused of buying a championship.
I thank Jim Rice for opening the door (or lowering the bar, which ever you prefer) to the hall of fame to Albert Belle, Frank Thomas (no doubt), Fred McGriff, The Hawk Dawson, and Dale Murphy….. they should all be shoe in’s…
His induction is befuddling beyond belief…. the only argument I have seen that makes any sense is the generation that watched him and knew that he wasn’t a hall of fame’r when he retired is now older, nostalgic, and soft…..
Frank Thomas >>>>> Jim Rice. He did not need Rice’s induction to get into the Hall.
McGriff is also better than Rice, but he won’t get in because he was 7 homers short of 500. And if he stuck around to get those 7 extra, people wouldn’t vote for him because he hung on and became a “compiler.”
I think I resent that last statement of yours but, I’m not sure. I watched him play many times, may I reiterate what I said at the time he was announced; “Bull Shit!’, the guy was very good for a few years (4 to 5) but…he wasn’t anywhere near being the most feared hitter of his era or any-other.
Don’t get me wrong, he was a very good player but not even close to “The Hall” type of player. At least not the players that should be included in that august hall of greats.
I don’t think anyone can bunch me in with those older (I am), nostalgic (nope), and soft (not close) people, so I guess I do take a small bit of exception to your comment…not much though.
“His induction is befuddling beyond belief…. the only argument I have seen that makes any sense is the generation that watched him and knew that he wasn’t a hall of fame’r when he retired is now older, nostalgic, and soft…..”
Bullshit! It’s the other way around. The generation who watched him knew what a dangerous hitter he was, but over the years his numbers looked softer and softer due to the roid maniacs watering everything down.
The kind of hitter he was, if it was adjusted for today’s game, I’m sure he would have turned down a 18million dollar contract….come on guy, pipe down.
Na, he would of went where he felt most comfortable.
which would probably be a luxury penthouse in Manhattan
Saying the Red Sox have the two highest payrolls to win a World Series is true, but it’s completely retarded point to focus on because as Ben mentioned, the Yankees have had higher payrolls and lost. It just keeps shining light on the fact the Yankees haven’t gotten what they’ve tried to pay for. When the payrolls are 70 million dollars apart it’s also rediculous to compare them. Several teams have payrolls at or above the level of Boston’s. The Mets, Angels and Tigers all come to mind, but you cannot compare any of then to the Yankees either because New York’s is so much higher, it’s on a completely different level.
Also, I’ll defend Jim Rice the same way I defended Goose Gossage last year. If they’re asked a question they should respond honestly, otherwise they’d be bashed for side stepping the questions. These guys can’t win either way which is why they don’t care what you or I think.
The point is not to say that the Red Sox spend more. The point is to say that any focus on who has a higher payroll when, to your point, several teams are spending ridiculous amounts of money on payroll, is ludicrous. You’re splitting hairs when trying to make the payroll argument — unless you are from one of the small market teams that can’t afford to spend the ridiculous amounts of money that the big market teams spend.
So Red Sox fans (and other big market teams fans, including us Yankee fans) should just shut up about payroll and focus on who puts the better team on the field — and wins. Period.Unfortunately, for us Yankee fans, that team has NOT been the Yankees so far this decade. Hopefully, that changes next season.
As for Jim Rice. It’s very sad. I thought he had more class than that. So very sad. I guess he figured it was safer to blast Steinbrenner than to take on the racism he faced in Boston during his career?
But if he mouths off about the team he played for they might not retire his number!
“You’re splitting hairs when trying to make the payroll argument”
LMAO!!!!!!!
A 70 million dollar-a-year payroll difference is “splitting hairs”?????
Who’s head of hair is that, Bill Gates?
That’s a difference of 5 BLUE CHIP ALL STAR PLAYERS!
Or, if you gave the Red Sox three CC Sabathia’s, that would about even things out.
“Saying the Red Sox have the two highest payrolls to win a World Series is true, but it’s completely retarded point to focus on because as Ben mentioned, the Yankees have had higher payrolls and lost. It just keeps shining light on the fact the Yankees haven’t gotten what they’ve tried to pay for.”
All it does is prove Rice’s point……..that the Red Sox are currently operating their organization intelligently, while the Yankees are just tossing money at holes. He’s dead on about that.
Now, it’s no excuse as to why HE PERSONALLY never won a WS, but he is correct about the modern state of both teams.
You know what? F*ck the red sox (obviously) and their reputation for “doing things right”. WE do things right, or at least in 2-3 years we will have the blueprint that everyone wishes he could follow. Stock up the farm system for in-house position replacements, pitching depth and trades (Cano a few years ago; Chamberlain has shown glimpses of stardom while Hughes and Kennedy remain promising young pitchers; the acquisition of Nick Swisher brings in a player who will lengthen ABs while providing power and versatility – the perfect complimentary player for our team). And then whatever our farm system and trades can not provide for us we acquire via free agency – beating out competitors not only with more monetary capital but by offering the opportunity to play for the greatest franchise in American sports. What are the red sox going to do and say when our player development, their only proclaimed “advantage” over us, is as strong as, if not stronger than, our ability to bring in league high revenues? R.I.P. AL East.
“WE do things right, or at least in 2-3 years we will have the blueprint that everyone wishes he could follow. Stock up the farm system for in-house position replacements, pitching depth and trades”
Yeah, that’s a real original “blueprint”. Nobody’s ever come up with that before!
If the Yankees really cared so much about that “blueprint”, they would have never tossed it into the East River after Gene Michael utilized it!
Haha, yea, you’re definitely right there. I wasn’t stating anything revolutionary. The main point is we’ll have a combination of money and prospects that can not be matched.
What a tool
Jim Rice was always a guy I did not like. I have not heard him speak too much but every time I do he says something dumb. Not unlike quite a few other ballplayers.
You can remind fried Rice that when his team choked away the division in ’78…there were a couple of guys named Guidry, Munson, White, randolph, Nettles, Chambliss, Rivers, Figueroa, Holzman, Tidrow, Lyle (hmmm…where’d he come from?),Dent, Blair, Piniella…
Who were NOT free agents!
“But it was interesting to hear Jim Rice, finally elected to the Hall of Fame after a 15-year wait, blame George Steinbrenner’s checkbook for The Curse of the Bambino. When asked about Boston’s failure to win a World Series during his career – 1975 to 1989 – up to the Bambino-busting 2004 season, Rice pointed directly to the Bronx.”
Yeah, because Bill Buckner’s error was clearly due to the spending of the Yanks in ’86. Ass.
The Hall of Fame has become the Hall of Very Good. Jim Rice Shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame.