FINALLY!

Today, Red Sox star Jim Rice was FINALLY elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame!  This was his 15th and final year of eligibility, if he didn’t get in this year, he would never have had a chance ever again.  According to the rules, players stay on the ballot year after year, for 15 years, as long as they get at least 5% of the votes.  It was widely speculated that this would finally be Jim’s year, and they were right!

Also in the Class of 2009 is another former Red Soxer, Rickey Henderson.  Rickey was not with the Sox very long, I think it was just for a year or two.  He spent much more time on the Oakland A’s and the Toronto Blue Jays, and my guess is that he will be inducted wearing the A’s cap he’s shown wearing in this pic.  Rickey was reaching the end of his career by the time he was with the Sox, but I remember that he still could run and steal bases, which is what he is famous for.

Read article HERE.

Of course, Jim Rice will wear the Red Sox hat, because he was never with any other team.  I wonder if this now means that the Sox will retire his number 14 at Fenway soon.

The rules for retiring a number at Fenway are that the player had to have finished his career with the Sox, plus have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  But sometimes they bend the rules a bit.  Carlton Fisk finished his career with the White Sox, and actually played more years there than with the Red Sox.  But when he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2000, and chose to wear the Red Sox cap, his number 27 was retired by the Red Sox later that year.

And just last year, Johnny Pesky’s #6 was retired at Fenway.  He also didn’t meet the “official” rules because he is not in the Hall of Fame.  He’s probably in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, but not in the Cooperstown one.  But they decided to retire his number anyway.

But Jim Rice actually meets the official criteria for number retirement, so look for that ceremony to probably take place sometime after the HOF induction ceremonies.  I checked, doesn’t look like any current Sox player is wearing #14 at the moment.  But if someone were wearing it, I bet they’d be willing to give it up in Jim’s honor, so that it can be retired.

Congrats to both Jim and Rickey!