Anderson native Jim Rice was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame Monday in his final season of eligibility in the writers' voting. I see it as the biggest election surprise since Truman beat Dewey.
I figured Rice's surly attitude toward the writers had prevented him from being elected the first 14 times, and would continue on the 15th. Then, he'd have to rely on the Veterans Committee.
I've only been around him a couple of times -- once on a competing team at a charity basketball game and the other time while covering a charity golf tournament.
Around the time of the golf tournament, there had been recent wire reports that the Red Sox were about to hire a manager. I think it was Ralph Houk, which would have made the tournament between the 1980 and '81 seasons. After his round, I approached Jim and asked for his comment on reports about the possible hiring. "I don't know no Ralph Houk."
End of interview.
He certainly has no obligation to be cooperative to interviewers (other than a possible interest in promoting the game), but imagine someone making your job more difficult by not being cooperative. I suspect some writers took the treatment personally and left him off their ballots as a result. Personal feelings shouldn't cloud decisions that should be based on performance, but sometimes human beings can't shake those feelings.
With the passing of time, some writers may have mellowed and new voters may have evaluated Rice's worthiness for election without any personal prejudices formed from having had day-to-day interaction with him.
Regardless, if he was worthy of election in the 15th year of eligibility, he certainly was worthy in the first.
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