And Your New Hall Of Famers Are...

Rickey Henderson, who had enough stats for two Hall of Famers, and Jim Rice, who gets elected in the 11th hour of his eligibility.

Henderson was a no-brainer in his first year of eligibility. Sure, he's the all-time leader in runs, #2 in walks, probably the best lead-off hitter ever, but what he's known for is the stolen base. Here's a guy who put the single-season standard so high that it takes most guys two or three seasons to get that many. (Just for reference, last year, there were only five TEAMS that managed to accumulate more steals than Henderson had by himself in 1982.) He was nearly untouchable on the basepaths, with an 80% steal rating. After setting the all-time steal record with 939, he tacked on another 500 just for good measure. In fact, the only reason it took so long for Henderson to get elected was that he refused to retire.

Jim Rice, on the other hand, has always been a harder sell. Looking at his stat totals is nothing impressive; he's not in the top 50 of any of the major statistical categories. But what you need to keep in mind is that Rice only played 16 years. If you tack another five years of stats on there, he's got 500 homers, he's got 1800 RBI, maybe even 3000 hits. To see Rice's stats for what they are, you need to look at the seasonal level. This is where you see that Rice hit for power and average, that he was top 10 in nearly every stat category during his career. If you ask pitchers from that era who the most dangerous hitter was, the unanimous answer tends to be "Jim Rice." In fact, if Rice had a better relationship with the press, which hated him and just so happens to vote for Hall of Famers, he might've been in by now. But they finally cut him a break and let the poor man in.

Congrats to everyone. It's been a long time coming for both of you.