Rice was a very good player. As a Yankee fan I HATED to see him at the plate when the game was on the line. He was exciting to watch. He was an above average player but the HOF isn't for "above average", it's for the greatest ever and Rice just doesn't qualify.
Yeah, on average he was a .300/110 hitter which is pretty good but he had a nasty habit of hitting into DP's and his average was helped significantly by being a righty line drive hitter in Fenway. The "Green Monster" probably added 15-25 pts to his BA and 10% to his HR total.
Don't get me wrong, I like Jim Rice. I'm happy that my autographed ball just went up in value. I also realize that he isn't the only one in the HOF with "good but not great" numbers but still, it's pushing things to say he was HOF caliber.
