It's always so much fun when old ballplayers feel the need to remind us that today's players couldn't carry their jockstraps. Especially when part of their argument seems to be that the current guys are more interested in promoting themselves at the expense of winning games. That's part of Jim Rice's approach in an interview with the Watertown Daily Times. He slams today's MLB as being watered down by too many teams and says that of the current Red Sox, only Jonathan Papelbon would be good enough to replace the guy who played on the 1975 club. My immediate thought was that Rice was forgetting that he wasn't as good as Manny Ramirez but Rice has a nifty argument all lined up for that.
"I'm tired of people saying, 'Manny being Manny. It's not like I'd take my 11-year old kid to go out and watch 'Manny being Manny,' that's not baseball. (Sunday) he hit home run 501, but, even though he hit 501 they still almost lost the game. Did you see those two plays he made out in left field? Now, do you want your kid to be 'Manny being Manny' missing those balls?"
Rice, no great fielder himself, isn't nearly the hitter that Manny is and certainly wasn't in 1975. He could hit into a hell of a double play, though. Which is how you help teams win games! Or maybe Rice is just the self-serving one.
I'd love to meet the GM who prefers the Doug Griffin/Denny Doyle second base combo over Dustin Pedroia so I can sell him a bridge to Brooklyn. Mike Lowell is better than Rico Petrocelli and Cecil Cooper may be a better manager than David Ortiz (or might not) but he wasn't a better hitter.
No 1975 starter is better than Josh Beckett and, no matter how amusing you might find his name, Dick Pole wasn't a better pitcher than any of the guys the Sox have run through the back of the rotation. Daisuke Matsuzaka would probably have found a spot in their rotation too although the influx of players from Asia is probably part of that watering down Jim Rice hates so well.
The most amusing thing about the whole article is that most of it is about Rice's continuing failure to make the Hall of Fame. On top of the many legitimate statistical arguments against his candidacy, many feel that writers hold Rice's sourpuss and poor attitude against him in the voting. It's so hard to see where they'd get that impression.
(H/T BBTF)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-03-2008 @ 10:01AM
ken said...
you know listening to Rice and reading this article and others on what he say's i hope now he never gets into the HALL OF FAME the 75 team should and could have won the 75 SERIES ( as i remeber RICE did not even play a inning cause he was suppossively hurt ) the REDOX of today will wipe the feild with the 75 team and believe me that in my eyes was if not the best WORLD SERIES EVER PLAYED PERIOD but MR RICE needs to get over himself and stop living in the past he was a great hitter but he did hit into so many double plays that cost the RED SOX many many games
SO BIG JIM SHUT UP !!!!!!!!!!
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6-03-2008 @ 10:24AM
Howard said...
I appreciate your attitude but as a lifelong Yankee fan I can tell you one thing, Jim Rice could play on any team of mine. He was a GREAT hitter in his day and should have been elected to the Hall of Fame years ago. The hall has players who are in their for their cumulative efforts over decades. However, they were never out and out stars. Jim Rice was feared by the opposing side. On top of that Manny and today's players are playing in band boxes of stadium's. Obviously Fenway is the exact same ballpark but Cleveland's Jacob's field was a great hitters park. It is much easier to put up statistics today then it was in Rice's day and he should never be looked down upon because he had a questionable personality. Ted Williams wasn't exactly Joe Friendly
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6-04-2008 @ 5:24PM
mike augisfat said...
What you also failed to mentioned was some of the rest of the interview:
Rice's most memorable moment on the diamond wasn't a home run or a spectacular catch in left field. It was being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing for a boy in the stands on August 7, 1982 at Fenway Park.
A line-drive off the bat of Red Sox first baseman Dave Stapleton struck 4-year old fan Jonathan Keane in the face during the nationally televised game.
"His dad was just like, shocked," Rice said. "Everybody just stood there. I was in the dugout, so I came out and picked the kid up and took him to the clubhouse."
After the game, team doctor Arthur Pappas said that Rice could have saved the boy's life.
"I got a letter from the kid maybe three years ago," Rice said. "He graduated from Duke with honors. We have that picture up there in the main lobby of the Red Sox."
For Rice, it was second nature to go the extra step that day, to be the hero. But Rice just saw it as a job he had to do.
"Every day I'd go down to the ballpark and they'd put that "C" on me as captain of the ballclub," Rice said. "I had to set an example."
Do you think Manny will ever remotely say anything
close to that statement and story? I think not.
Leave Rice alone and remember, most sportswriters that were around when Rice was breaking bats will
tell you compared to today's stars he was a gentleman
to interview. Eddie Murray was a HORRIBLE person and he got in. Stop abusing Rice for being old school when most of today's star could not hold his jock.
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