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’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 55
anyone interested. His case for Rice’s inclusion in Cooperstown focused on the fact that in his 16 seasons Rice led the AL in homers and RBIs, and that the only players with career averages and home run totals as high as his were baseball Olympians Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mel Ott, Stan Musial, and Babe Ruth. In 2005 Bresciani started sending a report — a case for Rice’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame — to voters, and the voting percentages started a steady climb. On January 12, 2009, the day the vote of his nal year of eligibility was announced, Rice was sitting at home watching soap operas when he received a call from Jack O’Connell of the Baseball Writers Association of America. With 76.4 percent of the ballots naming him, he was nally in.11
In his Cooperstown speech in July of that year, Rice was in a re ective mood. He thanked Bresciani, “who kept my stats in the public eye,” Mitch Brown and Sam Mele for signing him, and mentors ranging from his seventh-grade Westside High coach John Moore through Johnny Pesky and Don Zimmer. And he said, in a voice that grew husky with emotion:
“I am a husband, called Rice. I am a father, called Dad. I am a brother, called Ed. I am an uncle, called Uncle Ed. I am a grandfather, called Papa. I am a friend that doesn’t call—some of my friends know that—and sometimes best not call at all. Finally, I do mean nally, I am Jim Rice, called a Baseball Hall of Famer.”
Note
A version of this biography was originally published in ‘75: e Red Sox Team at Saved Baseball, edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan, and published by Rounder Books in 2005.
Notes
1 Baseball-Reference (baseball-reference.com/r/riceji01.shtml).
2 BaseballLibrary (baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ ballplayers/R/Rice_Jim.stm).
3 Je Goldberg, “ e Day Rice Made Contact: One of His Memorable Moves Was to Aid an Injured Young Fan, Hartford Courant, August 7, 1997.
4 e in elder was, of course, Bucky Dent.
5 Yastrzemski was injured, however, and unable to make a start in the out eld; he was moved to rst base instead, replacing also-injured Rod Carew. He was replaced in the out eld by Don Baylor.
6 Goldberg.
7 Paul White, “My 2002 Hall of Fame Ballot: Slot #4, Jim Rice,” posted on Baseballlibrary.com on December 11, 2001.
8 White quotes Stark as saying, “He was a one-dimensional player whose career thundered to a halt just as he was on the verge of cementing his sure place in the Hall (only 31 homers, 162 RBIs after age 34). And you essentially have to vote on him as a hitter only, because he DH-ed extensively. He gave you no speed, no Gold Gloves, no o - eld ‘character-and-integrity’ points.” is is from Stark’s (reposted) November 19, 2003 ESPN.com article
“Stark: My Hall of Fame Ballot.”
9 Peter Gammons, Beyond the Sixth Game (Boston: Houghton Mi in, 1985).
10 Andrew Ne , “Rice Enjoys TV Analyst Stint,” Bangor Daily News, April 1, 2005.
11 Adam Kilgore, “Rice Elected to Hall of Fame,” New York Times, January 12, 2009.