CENTER FIELD :: Jim Rice Is A Bitter Lemon

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Jim Rice Is A Bitter Lemon

Fess up. Who peed in Jim Rice's Cheerios?

"I would love to be in the Hall of Fame," Rice said. "But I think today's players would probably say, 'I'm playing for the Hall of Fame.' But I say, 'I played for the Boston Red Sox.' I played for the game. In the back of my mind I wasn't thinking about the Hall of Fame."

Rice also said that the sheer size of the MLB is a problem that weakens the teams within it, adding that just one member of Boston's reigning World Series champions would replace a starter from the team that lost the Series in '75.

"The only one that would've made it, maybe (Jonathan) Papelbon," Rice said. "Because we had Dick Drago out there, Papelbon has a little more velocity than him."

Rice has been particularly unimpressed with current Boston left fielder Manny Ramirez.

"I'm tired of people saying, 'Manny being Manny,'" Rice said. "It's not like I'd take my 11-year old kid to go out and watch 'Manny being Manny,' that's not baseball. (Sunday) he hit home run 501, but, even though he hit 501 they still almost lost the game. Did you see those two plays he made out in left field? Now, do you want your kid to be 'Manny being Manny' missing those balls?"

I picture him saying all this with a bitter lemon-face pucker on his mug the whole time. 'Cause there's bitter, and then there's "Jim Rice getting denied Hall of Fame and taking it out on 'those kids today' (especially the Red Sox, and most especially likely first ballot HOFer Manny Ramirez) even though he gets paid a bunch of money to cover those same Sox" bitter.

Skipping over the irony of Jim essentially accusing ballplayers of being selfish while indulging himself in a mini self-absorbed tirade... I think I'm going to have to disagree with him on principal, too. It's not like the '75 roster was full of slouches - but let's get realistic. Beckett and Dice-K are certain to earn spots in the rotation, most people would take Lowell, Pedroia and Ortiz over their '75 counterparts (Petrocelli, Doyle and Cooper or Carbo), the '07 bullpen was otherworldly - and it would be a close contest between '75 Yaz and '07 Youkilis. What about an injured '75 Pudge Fisk vs. healthy '07 Varitek? And Jim's feud with Manny can best be summed up by BBTF commenter Gonfalon Bubble:

"I'm tired of people saying, 'Manny being Manny,'" Rice said. "It's not like I'd take my 11-year old kid to go out and watch 'Manny being Manny,' that's not baseball.

I wonder if he'll be taking his 22-year-old kid out to upstate New York to watch Manny Being First Ballot?

This kind of attitude is not going to help Jim get into the Hall any faster. Although I do think he definitely has a future in Hollywood playing the role of "Cranky Old Man On A Porch Hollering At Neighborhood Children While Shaking His Cane".

The man can dress like nobody's business, though.

hat tip: BBTF for the article, Surviving Grady for the screencap

Comments (13)

[ brian ] says:
on June 4, 2008 4:19 AM

Can't say I disagree with him about the miscues in the outfield - he's pretty dead on. Sure, Manny gets the job done in the end but isn't "Manny being Manny" a reference to him being late, sometimes laz(ier), doing things his own way and still getting it done? Yeah sure, he gets it done but there's always *something.*

Plus, it's the trend these days for ALL professional athletes to be horribly selfish. At least it's not as bad in MLB (yet) as it is in the NBA.

[ Hurricane ] says:
on June 4, 2008 9:51 AM

I dislike the Manny Laziness comments. He is not fast but then again if he spent all the time he does practicing batting, running he would be a little faster and a lot less useful.

He is a serviceable left fielder particularly in Fenway where he takes hours of balls off the walls. Sure Manny at 36 isn't Manny at 33 but I sure as hell want him in there when the score is tied late in the game. Plus Manny being Manny includes the Texas A&M woman's basketball game.

[ Texas Gal ] says:
on June 4, 2008 10:34 AM

I don't know if I can agree that Manny is late, but I definitely disagree that he's lazy. Jim has this mini-vendetta against Manny - so it seems he's mostly unable to be rational when it comes to Manny. In this case, that just led him over into Hyperbole Land about the '75 vs. '07 teams.

[ Lins ] says:
on June 4, 2008 10:39 AM

I love love Jim Rice, but this does sound like bitterness. Manny will be a first ballot hall-of-famer, while Rice, who played better defense and was overall a great player, is still not a hall-of-famer.

While Manny being Manny may be sometimes be his laziness, it's also often times Manny having fun while playing the game of baseball.
I'd take my kid to watch Manny having fun while playing baseball because that's what it should be about.

[ Lyndsay ] says:
on June 4, 2008 10:51 AM

Jim Rice has always had a thing against Manny - it's pretty funny actually. he was all "whatever, I did that too" about Manny's catch/high five/double play play.

[ jules ] says:
on June 4, 2008 12:55 PM

I don't think Manny is lazy, but he does seem to walk to the beat of his own drummer. Personally, I love the guy for his dedication and sheer joy he has playing the game.

[ Peter ] says:
on June 4, 2008 1:31 PM

Texas Gal,

My first question is, did you ever see Rice play? I’d be upset if I were him, too.

Second, you can’t tell me that you’d take Drew over Dewey, Lugo over Rico (or Burleson), Ellsbury or Crisp over Lynn (1975 Rookie of the Year) or Youkilis over (Hall of Famer) Yaz.

Granted, I’d take Ortiz over Cooper, Lowell over Hobson or whoever played 3B that year and Pedroia over whoever played 2B.

[ Texas Gal ] says:
on June 4, 2008 2:26 PM

Never saw him play in person, but yes, I've seen him play. I don't know why Rice being a good fielder means he's justified in hating on Manny, though.

Like I said above, I never said I'd take those guys. (although, like I pointed out - '07 Youk vs. '75 Yaz? it's not like that's a clearcut decision) But that's not the question- the issue is that Jim Rice said the ONLY player he'd (begrudgingly) take from the '07 team over the '75 team is Papelbon. And that's ludicrous.

[ Mike Augisfat ] says:
on June 4, 2008 5:27 PM

What you also failed to mentioned was some of the rest of the interview:

[entire copyrighted article clipped - please click the linked article to read. --Ed.]

Do you think Manny will ever remotely say anything
close to that statement and story? I think not.

Leave Rice alone and remember, most sportswriters that were around when Rice was breaking bats will
tell you compared to today's stars he was a gentleman
to interview. Eddie Murray was a HORRIBLE person and he got in. Stop abusing Rice for being old school when most of today's star could never handle coming up in the bigs back in the old days.

Manny is a HOF hitter no doubt, but he is a spoiled bratt with no appreciation for giving a 100% each and every play.

[ Texas Gal ] says:
on June 4, 2008 6:07 PM

I linked to the article, and quoted the portion I found interesting and relevant -- as every single other sports news outlet and weblog online does. It breaks copyright law to repost the entirety of another's copywritten article... which is why I linked to the original piece. I didn't "fail to mention" anything.

Also, I will in no way "leave Rice alone". If Rice makes a jackass comment, I will call him on it -- the exact same way I call our current players out when they say or do something asinine. I also don't see any place I am "abusing Rice for being old school". I see where I call Rice out for whining about "kids today" for being selfish (while himself indulging in some whiny self-pity), but considering my favorite player of all time is Nolan Ryan, I don't think you'll EVER find me calling out someone for being old school.

The point of this post was to point out that Rice's notion that none of the '07 players could play ball better than the '75 team is ridiculous. I don't see where you ever disagreed with that - just that you want me to stop having independent thought regarding Jim Rice and "leave him alone".

The fact that Eddie Murray acted like a shitheel is irrelevant to whether Jim Rice gets into the HOF. Ty Cobb was a violent racist, but that doesn't mean all violent racists now get into the HOF because "Ty Cobb was a racist, too!" Commentators have said time and time again that Rice's acerbic personality is hurting him in the voting -- I don't agree with that line of thinking (it's not the Hall of Really Nice Guys), but it is what it is. Stuff like this doesn't help change that perception of him.

[ FreeSpeechForThoseThatAgree ] says:
on June 4, 2008 10:33 PM

Rice is dead on about Manny. Those were brain dead mistakes he should not have made.

Problem is too many of you make excuses for every stupid selfish thing Manny does and it makes real red sox fans sick. Those of us that were around in the 70's and 80's.

Rice might be bitter but he is 100% correct about selfish Manny. When Manny is acting like a jerk he should be called out. Just like Rice should.

[ Katherine ] says:
on June 5, 2008 12:46 AM

The only real problem I have with Rice's opinion is that he is voicing it while being employed by both NESN and the Sox (last time I checked, he was still an instructional batting coach, yes?). Nobody ever said that he had to like Manny and I do think that he has a valid point, but it is completely unprofessional to call him out like that . I think he should take the high road and just move on, criticizing Manny is not going to get him into the HOF.

[ John ] says:
on June 5, 2008 1:00 PM

"Real Red Sox fans". Give me a break. That kind of self-righteous attitude is nonsense. As if only people who agree with you and your point of view can be "real Red Sox fans". Keep telling yourself that.

And the passive-aggressive screenname is also a laugh. "FreeSpeechForThoseThatAgree" should really be "FreeSpeechForThoseThatAgreeWITHME".

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