Skip to main content

Rice Putting

By the time you read this on Monday, Jim Rice should be a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I think he's deserving. There is an ongoing debate regarding Rice's Hall worthiness among members of the blogosphere and the mainstream media, and I tend to fall in line with the supporters.

I'm a hair too young to have followed Rice when he was at his most dominant, but from what I've read, he was the kind of player who made you say "Oh , we've gotta face him today." That litmus test works for me.

I'm excited for Rice's induction, but not for reasons you think. I'm psyched because it will add another notch to Neil Allen's baseball belt.

Yes, you read that last sentence right.

I uttered it because Neil Allen is my all-time favorite Met.

In 1983, not long before Allen was dealt for Keith Hernandez, to show my fanhood, I wore a t-shirt with Neil's rookie card on it, and got to meet him at a baseball card show. Neil was incredibly nice about it, and I recall him promising to win a game for me, or at least pitch better than he was at the time.

I'm loyal to my favorites, so I've stuck by Neil even in his days as an ex-Met, and even when he declined an interview with me regarding the anniversary of his trade, this past summer.

John Pacella, a former Met, once told me two things about Neil. One is that Neil Allen is a nice man. The other is that Neil has a memory like an elephant, and I shouldn't be surprised if he remembers the distinctness of my t-shirt, even from 25 years ago.

I hope Neil also remembers the success he had against Jim Rice.

Rice had 9 at-bats against Neil Allen (in his post-Mets career) and went 0-for-9.

That's not the only Hall of Famer whom Allen was dominant against.

Reggie Jackson went 1-for-9 against him, with 4 strikeouts.

George Brett went 0-for-7 against him.

Eddie Murray was 0-for-5.

If we throw in Mark McGwire's 0-for-10 against Allen, that allows us to state the following, as ridiculous and misleading as it may be.

Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, George Brett, Eddie Murray, and Mark McGwire...5 of the most feared hitters of their time...were a combined 1-for-40 against the great Neil Allen.

And I just happen to think that that's really cool. It's the closest I can get to putting Neil Allen into the Hall of Fame.

True Metrice know...Jim Rice had 9 walk-off hits in his career. Amazingly none came against pitchers with any sort of connection to the New York Mets.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I guess this explains why Bo Diaz will never make the Hall of Fame.

Popular posts from this blog

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings

Minutiae Break: Worst Mets Relievers

It occurs to me after 79 straight walk-off related posts and some fatigue still remaining from Saturday's finish that I did promise to bring Metspective on other issues related to the Flushing 9, so I offer this posting up as a "Minutiae Break." This came about after several discussions related to the offhand Dick Tidrow/Danny Graves remark the other day , the conclusion of which indicated that it would be fun to create a list of the worst Mets relievers of all-time. I don't want to step on the territory of other bloggers, like " Faith and Fear in Flushing ," Mets Guy in Michigan " and " Metstradamus ," so I'll tread carefully here, aided by their influence. Should any friends, family members, or fans of these pitchers visit this site, I mean no harm. I'm just here to have a little fun with this topic. The ground rules are as follows: The pitcher must have had a Mets stint as long as Dick Tidrow's (11 games, 15 2/3 innings), for wh

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess