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Hall of Fame welcomes a man of steal

Lots of guys can hit a baseball a long way. Few can outrun one.

That’s the best way of explaining why Rickey Henderson waltzed into the Hall of Fame on Monday and Jim Rice had to spend 15 years camped on the outskirts.

Henderson, a first-ballot selection, will be joined by Rice, who was elected in his final year on the ballot, at next summer’s Hall of Fame induction. The family of the late Joe Gordon, a second baseman for the Yankees and Indians, will also share the stage in Cooperstown, N.Y., thanks to the mysterious workings of the Veterans Committee.

There was no question that Henderson would be a Hall of Famer. He finished his 25-year career with 3,055 hits, a best-in-history 2,295 runs and 1,406 stolen bases—468 more than anyone who ever played.

How big is the gap between

Henderson and second-place Lou Brock? No active player even has 468 stolen bases; Juan Pierre leads with 429.

“I called Rickey ’Speedy,’ like the guy on the Alka-Seltzer commercial,” said Rice, who spent his entire career with the Boston Red Sox while Henderson dominated in Oakland and with the Yankees. “He could turn a walk into a triple. I’d tell guys, ’Don’t put him on . . . keep him off the base,’ (probably) ’hit him in the knee.’ “

Henderson had a stunningly simple way to sum up his career: “I moved from one base to the other.”

That about says it.

But sometimes he moved from home plate around all the bases. He hit 297 homers, including a record 81 from the leadoff spot. He had enough power that Billy Martin tried him in the No. 3 spot.

Perhaps that’s why analyst Bill James once said that if “you could split (Henderson) in two, you’d have two Hall of Famers.” Yet Henderson always considered himself a leadoff guy, a role he played all his life, including Little League.

“I always wanted to start the game,” Henderson said. “I wanted to go out and be the first to get a hit, the first one to score a run.”

Rice’s contributions weren’t as singularly impressive.

It didn’t help his Hall of Fame campaign that he played most of his career in the 1980s, before offensive totals spiked upward for a variety of reasons—including steroids and human growth hormone—or that he tried to intimidate reporters away from his locker. But, in this opinion, he was left to languish for the maximum 15 years by voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America because his career totals just weren’t big enough.

Rice was the American League Most Valuable Player in 1978 and finished in the top five another five times. Yet bad knees allowed him to play only 16 seasons. He hit 382 homers, which ranks 55th all time, and had 1,451 RBIs, which ranks 56th. He’s in the all-time top 10 in only one category: grounded into double plays, sixth with 315.

But there’s no doubting he was feared, not just respected. And after picking up 20 votes from his 2008 total, he had 412 Monday, seven more than he needed for the 75 percent election standard.

Rice believes he has been punished for not being an extrovert but insists the only thing that caused him to be known as difficult was that he wouldn’t talk about his teammates.

“A lot of guys have a good time talking about teammates, stabbing them in the back,” said Rice, who still works for the Red Sox as a coach and television commentator. “I wasn’t like that. I always talked about this being like a family. ... Maybe that’s why I’ve worked for (the organization) since 1971.”

Rice mentioned Bert Blyleven, Lee Smith and Andre Dawson as deserving candidates who have not been inducted by the writers. This was hardly a day of celebration for them, nor for the steroid guys.

Forgiveness isn’t happening for Mark McGwire. He received only 118 of the 539 votes, 10 fewer than a year ago.

Tommy John, who was in his final year on the ballot, gained 15 votes from 2008, the biggest increase other than Rice. Smith gained five, still falling far short with only 240, but the bigger development was that the deserving Dawson and Blyleven didn’t maintain the momentum they had seemed to gain a year ago.

With a certain first-ballot pick on this year’s ballot, it was tough for the guys down the list to pick up support. Dawson and Blyleven, he of the 60 career shutouts, had made serious jumps a year ago. Blyleven had gained 76 votes and Dawson 49 when there were no impact candidates among the first-timers. That got them above 60 percent, a standard that just about guarantees a candidate will eventually reach 75, but they did not sustain that momentum this time around.

Dawson was third overall but picked up only three votes, falling 44 short of election. Blyleven picked up two votes, leaving him 67 short. He has only three more years to go in front of the writers but along with Dawson could benefit from having only Roberto Alomar in 2010 as a possible first-time pick in those three elections.

Blyleven will be off the ballot when the extremely compelling class of 2013 goes to a vote. That group is likely to include Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza, Sammy Sosa, Craig Biggio, Curt Schilling and Kenny Lofton.

Some of those arguments will make the one about Rice seem pedestrian.

Phil Rogers is the baseball writer for The Chicago Tribune.