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Jim Rice's Election to Hall of Fame Could Open More Doors in Cooperstown

Congratulations are in order for Jim Rice, who, after 15 long years of waiting, was finally elected to the Hall of Fame Monday.

Rice's candidacy has been debated ad nauseam the last few years, with rigid statistical analysts citing his mediocre on-base percentage and poor numbers away from Fenway Park as cause to keep him out and equally rigid supporters, most of them writers who covered Rice when he played, lauding his presence in the batter's box and status as the "most feared" hitter in the American League for much of his career.

Regardless of where you come down in the Rice debate (Personally, I would not have cast a vote in his favor), it's impossible not to feel good for him. Getting as close as he did on the previous 14 elections, and then being forced to wait another year had to be tougher in many respects than falling off the ballot right away.

From the Windup: One Man Fills Out a Hypothetical Hall of Fame Ballot


From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.


The 2009 Hall of Fame ballot was released Monday, and with it is certain to come heated debate right up until and after the voting results are revealed on Jan. 12, 2009. This year's class of candidates is similar to last year's, in that it's a shallow group.

There is only one sure-fire Hall of Famer among the 23 candidates, which means this is a critical vote for the borderline players who have been up for election on multiple occasions. Now is the time for those borderline guys to get over the top or make a big push to lay the groundwork for election in future years.

After the jump is a breakdown of the ballot, complete with what I think will happen and what should happen with this year's class of Cooperstown contenders.

Dale Murphy's Son is Teasing Atlanta Fans

I find it amazing that on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's website, a story about Dale Murphy's son taking batting practice is more popular than stories about Chik-Fil-A changing their menu or Jason Giambi's gold thong. Okay, maybe not the last one, but still, it shows just how much of a heroic cult figure Dale is in Atlanta baseball lore.

So when the younger Murphy showed up for a tryout with the Braves and took cuts in the batting cage, you better believe that the greater Atlanta area got pretty excited about the prospect of him becoming a Brave -- even if it's a few years away.
Jake Murphy, 6-foot-4, 220 pound high school senior, signed a letter of intent to play football at Brigham Young but is still holding out hope he'll get drafted to play professional baseball like his father, perhaps by the same organization.

[...]
He plays shortstop and third base, wide receiver and defensive back in football. He took a few turns in the cage and played some catch with his dad, who at 52, in jeans and an oxford, still looks like he would be at home in a baseball uniform.
Murphy, Jr., is a Braves fan and said it would be a "dream come true" if he got to play for the organization in a professional capacity. Terry Pendleton said that he had a "lot of potential" but quickly calmed down anyone that wanted to directly compare him to his father, someone that Pendleton repeatedly mentioned as "special".

Braves fans probably shouldn't get their hopes up, as Murphy Junes has said that the only way he's turning down football is if he's assured an early round pick, and based on what Pendleton said versus his guarantee at BYU, that seems pretty unlikely. Still exciting though.

Dolphins Draft Dale Murphy's Kid

The Miami Dolphins decided not to draft Howie Long's son with the #1 overall pick. However, they will have a rookie with a famous dad when camp starts.

Miami drafted Shawn Murphy, a guard from Utah State, in the fourth round. Shawn is the son of former Atlanta Braves' outfield Dale Murphy.

Shawn is more of a finesse blocker (yes, that is such a thing) and not the big physical guy. He played tackle at USU but projects as a guard in the NFL. He, like his dad, is a Mormon and took a religious mission to Brazil after high school.

His dad, Dale, is one of those guys that is a tier below Hall Of Fame status. He was a 7-time All Star who won five Gold Gloves, four Silver Slugger Awards and two National League MVPs. In the 1980s (aka the Pre-Steroid Era), no National Leagure hit more home runs, played in more games, had more at bats and led in runs, hits, extra base hits, RBI, runs created, total bases, and plate appearances.

Dale has also written two books (as well as an autobiography) about the off-field issues of being a professional player and being a parent of a youth in athletics. He also started iwontcheat.com which promotes ethics in youth sports and to try to keep cheating and steroids out of sports.

Dale Murphy On Bonds: 'A Terrible Example for Our Kids'

Now that Barry has finally passed Hank Aaron-congratulations, Barry-we can all just go back to watching baseball. Just to make things clear on my feelings towards Barry and this record, I don't like Barry, but I don't hate him either. Am I upset that he's broken Hank's record? Not really. I never saw Hank Aaron play, and I have no personal connection to his record.

It doesn't cause me great pain to see the record broken by Bonds, because in my lifetime I haven't seen many players better than Barry Bonds. You know who doesn't quite feel the same way about this as I do? Former Atlanta Brave Dale Murphy. He's not particularly happy.
"Barry's a great player, there's no question about it, but he put an asterisk by his name on his own," Murphy said Monday on AM radio 1280 The Show. "He's deserved all the negative publicity that he's getting. I mean, people are calling up and complaining, I've heard the last few weeks, that that he's being treated unfairly. You know, life just usually isn't like that. You don't usually get treated unfairly. You usually get what you deserve. This is what Barry deserves. He's a hard guy to like. He's a hard teammate to have and, you know, he's set a terrible example for our kids."
Gee, Dale. How do you really feel?

Murphy went on to say during the interview that Hank Aaron would have hit 855 home runs had he been doing the same things that Barry Bonds did. So I guess in a way, we can say it's all Hank Aaron's fault that Bonds broke his record, because Hank was never smart enough to use steroids.

Wow, Hank, you really dropped the ball on that one.Sorry, No Photos

Dale Murphy Wants The Kids To Say "I Won't Cheat"

Here's a novel approach to combat performance enhancers: start an anti-drug campaign in a similar vain to "Just Say No," tag it "I Won't Cheat" and voila, kids will stay off the needles, cream and clear. Well, at least that's what Dale Murphy is hoping.
"Help the kids," Murphy said. "I know how that sounds. I understand it might be a cliché. But it's true. They see guys making a lot of money and getting a Division I scholarship, and then they hear whispers that if only they had 20 more pounds or if only they could throw 94 or 95 instead of 90 or 91. Of course it's tempting.

"They're educated. They're Internet savvy. It doesn't take too many mouse clicks to get this stuff, and the temptation's there. We shouldn't want our kids to even ask themselves whether they need to do this to compete."

Murphy, who lives about 20 minutes south of Salt Lake City, put together a pamphlet decrying performance-enhancing-drug use and took it to the Utah High School Activities Association. It told him to print out another 60,000 for distribution to athletes around the state.

A 15- or 20-minute DVD is in production right now. He wants to maintain the balance between facts and entertainment so it keeps kids awake without coming off as preachy.
I can't really make fun of Murphy here, because I don't see too many other major leaguers -- former or present -- speaking up and taking an active stance against performance enhancers. So, an applause is in order to him for that.

Although, the second the DVD clips hit YouTube, I'll be devouring them. If it's anything like this, color me informed by the facts and entertained!

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