[sears3820]

As a knucklehead Red Sox fan, I wanna make more of a case for Rice.

As I said earlier, spanning 12 years (1975-86) Rice led all American League players in 12 different offensive categories, including home runs (350), RBI (1,276), total bases (3,670), slugging percentage (.520), runs (1,098) and hits (2,145). And when you add in all of the National League players from the same era, Rice still leads in five categories and finishes second in three others.

In addition to winning the AL MVP in 1978, Rice finished in the top five in AL MVP voting five other times. He led the AL in homers three times and twice led the league in RBI.

A little historical perspective.... among all major leaguers, only nine players have compiled as high a career batting average (.298) and as many homers. They are: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, Hank Aaron, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Stan Musial. They're all hall of famers. Rice should be too.

Rice was 18 homers shy of 400 and he's 2 points shy of batting .300 for his career. It's been said that had Rice reached these marks, he would automatically get in. Benchmarks are constantly changing though. I think he's done enough to punch his ticket to Cooperstown.