Travesty

Jim Ed, denied again. Jim Rice the finest power hitter over a twelve year period from 1975 thru 1986, has been denied his rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Every year at this time it hurts a little more when I hear the bad news that my first pro sports hero hasn't been voted in. I have to see players who weren;t nearly as valuable as Rice such as Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter and Ozzie Smith get voted in, while Jim has to sit on the outside and do his best to hide his well deserved acrimony. If the GMs from St. Louis or New York had called up and offered any of the aforementioned players for Rice during their careers they would've been laughed off the phone, in fact the Red Sox may have stopped taking their calls. But they were the finest in History at their little niches. They were the finest relievers or the best fielding shortstop, but Jim while not the greatest power hitter of all-time was still much more valuable than many players who are already in the Hall. Gossage, Sutter and Smith combined never won an MVP, they only have two combined top five finishes, for the most part they played at the time as Rice and Jim Ed had 6 top five finishes in the MVP voting including winning the award in 1978. If Rice was considered more valuable during his career and no GM would've dared trade him for these "Hall of Famers" wouldn't this mean that Rice was better? I think too many writers get caught up in numbers, they spent too much time in their basements theorizing about baseball and not enough time playing it. But, the Rob Neyers of the world aside, I also think that some writers sub-consciously still hold a grudge against Rice because he was a real SOB in post-game interviews. The Boston writers who saw his greatness every day realize that his attitude with the press had no effect on the field; but the writers in other markets were left with just enough of a bad taste that they choose to keep out Rice with his borderline numbers. Whatever the reason is I really hope he gets in next year, no one has ever received such a high percentage of votes (72%) and not made it in eventually. 2009 is Rice's final chance and it will break my heart if he isn't in there.

So on a much more positive note for me, I was reading about the most anticipated movies of 2008, and I couldn't help but get a little giddy. There are lots of cool sequels, (Indiana Jones, Batman) remakes, (Star Trek, Get Smart) Jud Apatow Comedies, and the first movie of the new year that I'm really dying to see Semi-Pro which combines two of my favorite things: Will Ferrell and Basketball. You oughtta check out the trailer here.

While I'm throwing in links the best online game I've been wasting my time on right now is a good one for anybody who feels like they missed on the Dungeons and Dragons era it's called Monster's Den, and it's good for at least a couple hours of wasted time.

That's all I've got for today, for all the young posers out there, keep it rizneal, 'til next time.

-Bender Out