Rice and Henderson head to Baseball Hall of Fame

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NEW YORK — It had been 20 years since the Baseball Hall of Fame had selected a new left fielder to join the greatest team ever assembled. The Class of 2009 will unquestionably supply that all-time squad with two of the best.

With seven months to work on speeches before the official induction ceremony, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice joined the Hall from two different backgrounds — Henderson, an overwhelming first-ballot inductee and Rice, making it in his 15th and final try on the ballot.

One played for a single club as a lethal middle-of-the-order power threat, while the other journeyed through nine uniforms as the game’s quintessential leadoff hitter. But they had one thing in common — left field, a position Cooperstown had not called upon since Carl Yastrzemski in 1989.

“I think you’re probably looking at two players that could have played at any time,” Rice said. “We were just hard-nosed, down-to-earth ballplayers.”

Both stated their case for entry with magnificent credentials. Rice, an eight-time All-Star, logged 382 home runs, 2,452 hits and 1,451 RBIs in 16 seasons with the Red Sox. And Henderson touched home plate more than any other Major League player, holding all-time records with 2,295 runs scored and 1,406 stolen bases.

“I played the game because I loved the game,” Henderson said at Tuesday’s news conference. “I never knew that this day would come and I would be in the class of the greatest players that ever played the game. I tried to play the game as long as I can and give something back.”

They sat side by side in a ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on New York’s Park Avenue, grinning and slapping each other on the back, reveling in their respective achievements. Henderson’s eyes darted back and forth, treating the crowd as he would a timid rookie reliever, and Rice simply showcased a tight smile of satisfaction.

Henderson will enter Cooperstown with the logo of the Oakland A’s on his cap, Rice having no option but to wear the “B” for Boston. But on this afternoon, they wore the vintage creme of the Hall of Fame — Rice, proudly covering an argyle sweater, and Henderson sporting a snug turtleneck, the same as he might wear if called upon for a ballgame on a chilly afternoon.

Rice continued the legacy of dominant left fielders at Fenway Park, succeeding Ted Williams and Yastrzemski, both of whom had long since passed through the Hall’s doors. Recalling their spring conversations, Rice referred to the pair of old-timers’ personalities as “grease and fire,” but later mentioned his pride in joining them.



“I think when you talk about my legacy, you have to look at the two guys before me,” Rice said. “You have to look at Williams and Yaz, and then I’m the third one. You’re talking about three guys that played their entire careers with one ballclub. That’s the legacy that I’m looking at.”

“Jim was a threat,” Henderson said. “He was a guy that when you came into Fenway and played against Boston, you always said, ‘Do not let Jim beat you.’ … Every time we came to play Jim, he was the man and we did not want to pitch to him.”

Some voters held a career at Fenway Park as evidence that Rice’s offensive numbers may have been lesser than contemporaries of his era. It was a criticism the slugger sniffed at, saying he was fortunate to drive the ball to all fields with power.

“The Monster gave me some, but it took a lot away,” Rice said. “I was more of a right-field hitter. The wall was good for left-handed hitters. I had to go out there and really learn to play the wall. I got enjoyment not hitting at Fenway Park, but holding guys to singles.”

One such competitor was Henderson, to whom Rice gleefully recalled cocking a baseball in his right hand, daring the speedster to try to advance to second base. Henderson would retreat to the bag, content with a single, though it would often not remain that way for long.