Hall of Fame 2006: Results Really In! Sutter Really Wins!

[Outta Leftfield]

Rice was truly dominant in 1978, when he won the MVP (beating out Guidry in his awesome 25-3 year). I can tell you that for a Yankee fan like me, he was scary--kind of like Manny Ramirez now (who in many ways he resembles--though Rice was more intense.) Rice hit 139 RBI that year and 130 the next, at a time when NOBODY was doing that. His best RBI years in descending order are 139, 130, 126, 122, 114, 110, 103, 102. 97. These are pretty good numbers in any era but really outstanding in the context of his time. Also, notice that we don't dip below 100 RBI till we get to his 9th best season. That suggests he was very good for a pretty long time and in the context of the period, it's really, really good.

I used to have my doubts about Rice as a HOF but looking at his record again this year, I have to say I'm increasingly convinced. It may help that I've had his '78 season twice. When you get it, it's truly awesome.

On a different subject, I think Sutter is a worthy HOFer but I just checked his numbers out vs. Mariano Rivera and Mo completely blows him away. Their career lengths are pretty similar at this point, so it's a very direct comparison. But Sutter had three years at the end where his wasn't very good and Rivera--who is Sutter's age when he quit-- is still smokin' it, so he could really create quite a record for him self. I was wondering if Mo was good enough for the Hall, and now I have no doubt.

A great source for looking this stuff up is baseball-reference.com. One nifty feature allows you to compare two players records on the same screen, as I did with Sutter & Rivera.