6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Steve Watson
15 years ago

Missed the Letterman show, but I wished he had asked Jim Rice, “Did you know that during your Red Sox tenure, three of your teammates led the club in OPS more than you did? What exactly does it mean that you were a ‘feared slugger’?”

Wade Boggs – 7 times
Dwight Evans – 4 times
Fred Lynn – 3 times
Jim Rice led HIS OWN TEAM in OPS only 2 times.

Wooden_U_Lykteneau
15 years ago

Steve – How many times did you see Jim Rice play in person? Were you old enough to remember him?

alskor
15 years ago

I wish Steve Watson would go on Letterman so Dave could ask him why OPS is being used as a measure of “feared?”

Not that I really put much stock in Rice being “feared.” That stuff is silly. I just dont see what OPS is supposed to show me here. It doesnt even value the OBP relative to the SLG properly… it certainly isnt even a good rough benchmark for “feared” IMHO.

Also, Rice was on some pretty good teams. Were you aware Lou Gehrig only led his team in OPS once before the age of 30? What a bum.

Tom
15 years ago

Alskor…that’s probably because Gehrig had Babe Ruth on his team.  I mean, Boggs and the others were good and all, but I think you’re just reinforcing Steve Watson’s point that Rice just wasn’t the force on those teams that he was made out to be.

alskor
15 years ago

So youre of the opinion that finishing behind Wade Boggs consistently in OPS means one is not HOF worthy? You probably should take another look at Boggs.

Wooden_U_Lykteneau
15 years ago

For the record, Rice led his team in slugging (read: the ability to generate extra-base hits) seven (7) times. As for the OBP, Rice had a bad habit of hitting sac flies (1st or 2nd on the team six times) and grounding into DPs because he almost never made weak contact (read: he hit the ball so hard NOBODY could have beaten the throw).
And he did these things while playing in the same lineup as three(4) HOFs: Fisk, Yastrzemski, and Boggs and perhaps a fourth (Evans) if defense starts to become properly valued again.