It started off well. #14 was unveiled in right field, the man of the hour got to speak, and everyone was happy. On Jim Rice Day at Fenway, what could go wrong?
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The Jim Rice Celebration Tour, fresh off a great weekend in Cooperstown, rolls into Fenway tonight for a very special night at the old ballpark. Rice, having finally met the three criteria for having his number retired at Fenway (10 years with the team, finishing his career with Boston and being inducted into the Hall of Fame) will tonight see his number 14 take up residency on the right field facade - right between Ted Williams (9) and Carlton Fisk (27).
"I came to Boston to play professional baseball, and that's what I did. And I did it well." - Hall of Famer Jim Rice
It's been a while since Red Sox fans invaded Cooperstown (you are going to invade Cooperstown, right?). Orioles fans and Cubs fans and Cardinals fans and the Padres fan have gone to honor their own (Ripken/Sandberg/Smith/Gwynn, respectively) in recent years, but it's been a while since a lifelong Red Sox player was immortalized.
There was playoff intensity at the Garden last night. Sure, the playoffs are months and months away, but when the Canadiens come to town, it's always lively, especially when the home team is playing the way the Bruins are playing now. (Which is kind of hypothetical, since the Bruins have never played this well in our fanlifetimes.)
There will be time to discuss precisely why writers waited until not the eleventh hour, but 15-minutes-til-midnight to elect Jim Rice into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Writers seemed to feel that that time was during Rice's first post-announcement press conference (SI.com covers both sides of the debate), but we here at Bostonist say that the right time for such pondering will come further down the road. After this summer, when Rice is finally inducted into the Hall in Cooperstown, perhaps.
Jim Rice just made it. The 2009 Hall of Fame voting was announced, and Rice got in by the skin of his teeth. He needed 75% of the votes; he got 76.4%. Guess his 382 career homers and .502 career slugging percentage looked a little better this year than it did last year. And this was his last chance; if he hadn't gotten in on the ballot this year, his candidacy would have been turned over to the mysterious Veterans' Committee. So it looks like all systems go for a #14 retirement ceremony this year. And perhaps a lot of cars headed out west on the Pike to Cooperstown this August?
That two-game losing streak last week? Forget it. The Bruins have found their offensive punch again, and won their second straight on a 5-1 whupping of the Whalercanes yesterday at the Garden. Tim Thomas stopped 29 shots, and the B's chased Carolina goalie early in the second, after Krejci, Yelle and Stuart had gotten past him. Michael Ryder also scored twice before the Canes popped in a meaningless goal early in the third.
Well, it was nice while it lasted. The Bruins and Celtics were on a combined 157-game winning streak (or did it just seem that way?), but it all came to an end at the hands of Washington goalie Brent Johnson, whose 33 saves stifled the B's attack and sent the locals away with only their second regulation loss since November started, 3-1.
The Boston Red Sox announced that they will unveil a new team logo and new alternate uniforms during a press conference Thursday, the Herald reports. The current logo has been the unchallenged symbol of the team since the seventies. And now that there's a new contender, who's going to break the news? Jerry Remy, Jim Rice, and, um, Manny Delcarmen. Sending Manny Delcarmen to break the news about a new Sox logo is like sending a nurse with epilepsy to remove the bandages on a head wound. But we are pretty psyched about Jim Rice, whose appearance at the event might remind baseball writers of what he looks like: a Hall of Famer. Ahem. Those interested in attending the unveiling can email redsoxnation@redsox.com by 10p.m. today for a vanishingly small chance of getting an invitation.
Jeez, can't a guy catch a break and land 16 more votes? Poor Jim Rice. The man listened to the annual chorus of "maybe next year" time and time again while his Red Sox teams tried to bring home a championship; now he has to listen to the same call again, for the 14th time, as he wonders whether he'll ever get voted into the Hall of Fame. Once again the MVP could have been voted in. Once again it didn't happen - and the margin separating him from official baseball immortality was a tiny little margin.
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