Jim Rice to suffer 15th year of torture at hands of HOF voters

The Baseball Writers Association of America has denied Jim Rice entry into the Hall of Fame.

For the fourteenth year.

Rice has been out of the game for over eighteen years now, and from February until December of each year he still is.

But every December the talks start up again. Every year, the reporters ask him the same annoying questions. Most are either questions he can’t answer is this your year or the insulting ones he shouldn’t why do you think you they haven’t voted you in yet?

Next year will be more of the same. Only worse. 

2009 is Rice’s last year of eligibility, and the same old questions will be waiting for him. But they’ll be supplemented with new ones.

Reporters will talk to him as if he doesn’t know what’s at stake, as if he could have possibly forgotten what he’s been through the last fourteen years.  Did you know that this is your last chance? How will you feel if you don’t get in? What is it that people don’t understand about Jim Rice’s career?

It was widely assumed that Rice would get in this year. Even Shaughnessy, the eternal pessimist, believed that he would make it. Hell, even the embittered Rob Neyer thought Rice would get in.

Rice also seemed to believe that this was his year. After learning that he had once again been denied, he said in a statement, “I believe my accomplishments speak for themselves, and a majority of the voters seem to agree. It is tough to come this close, but I remain hopeful for the 2009 results.”

Rice and his supporters have adopted the pre-2004 Red Sox mantra of “next year is the year,” and they’re already throwing around the numbers to support it.

The highest percentage of votes ever received by a player not eventually inducted was 63.4 by Gil Hodges in 1983. Rice received 72.2 percent of the votes this year, falling just 16 votes short of the 75% threshold.

Hopefully next year is the year for Jim Rice. If it isn’t, he’ll be the owner of one record that he doesn’t want to have.