Hey, those Astros uniforms were coool!
Posted on 08/21/2009 6:19:37 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Big league Hall of Famer Jim Rice opened the World Series for Little Leaguers with a fiery speech that even the grumpiest of grumpy old men could appreciate. The message: Don't look up to today's players because they're all bums.
Rice explained that the All-Star chumps you see today, can't compare to genuine American heroes of Jim Rice's day. They didn't have the rock and roll and the drugs back then, so their old timey brand of baseball was pure and good. Unlike the kind you see from that hippie Derek Jeter.
Guys that I played against and with, these guys you're talking about cannot compare ... We didn't have the baggy uniforms. We didn't have the dreadlocks," Rice said. "It was a clean game, and now they're setting a bad example for the young guys." [...]
Flexing the muscles in his right arm, Rice said, "That's all the steroids you need. ... It's called God-given talent."
So remember kids—say your prayers and eat your vitamins and you too can wait 15 years to get into the Hall of Fame on a sympathy vote. Then you can badmouth the existing generation of baseball players all you like.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2009-08-21-llws-rice_N.htm
What’s that picture of? Did someone accidentally spill a cup of coffee on his head?
Albert Pujols makes Jim Rice look live Rabbit Maranville...magritte
Players of today are just fitness junkies and exercise demons with skills. IMO. You want power. Look at Enos Slaughter. Ted Williams and Ty Cobb would be great in whatever era of baseball they played. Christy Matheson and Warren Spawn would still win 20 games now, 100 or 50 years ago. Bullet Bob Feller was throwing 100 mph or greater 60 years ago. As for size and power, Josh Gibson could compete any time, any place.As for Hank Aaron, no steroids, corked bats or other crap needed. And with today’s surgery technique’s, Mantle’s knee’s don’t linger forever. And Joltin Joe’s ankle is AOK.
And don’t get me started on Jim Brown, Deacon Jones, Sammy Baugh, Gale Sayers, or Ernie Nevers or even Jim Thorpe. Tell me an athlete today that is better than Thorpe. I don’t see one.
Better diet,exercise and medicine do not make a better ballplayer.
Rice bitches about uniforms.. maybe he doesn't remember how horrible the Pirates and Astros unis were.
Give me baggy over those any day.
Athletes are bigger and stronger today, no doubt. But there are other things to consider. In baseball anyway, the ball IS livelier, so it will travel farther. back in the day, most pitchers threw a fastball and a curve and some perhaps a change. And they had to make do with that. Today their are many more pitches to throw (slider, slurve, sinker, knuckle curve,etc.) and it has become a science as much as it is a feat of coordination and strength. Perhaps these new pitches are simply an evolution brought about by necessity when the ball became so much more lively.If athletes are better today it is as much due to advanced training techniques as anything else. hell, I recall watching baseball on TV in the 1950's and seeing the players smoking in the dugout.
Ted Williams (and I am one of them there Red Sox haters) was the greatest hitter to ever play the game, bar none. No one is in his class and no one is even close.
Besides his awesome talent, what endeared me to him was his hatred of the press (flipping them off as he rounded 3rd base after homering at Fenway), and his service to our country.
In this day of outrageous contracts, can you just imagine what a talent such as ted Williams would be able to get? No question in my mind it would include a piece of the ball club.
The baggy uniforms are old school.
As far as Jeter is concerned he’s probably one of the few big money players who gets my respect. He’s a great all around player and he does seem pretty clean. However there are many many others who are just as good with their own strengths that don’t get the attention of the sports writers.
I base my opinions on the Detroit Tigers who have had a less than exceptional season with exceptional results. They’ve had no real winning streaks and no real losing streaks but have managed to hold the division lead since May. (Tied with the white sox for one game) I attribute their success to a lot of guys who can put the ball into play and the fact that Jim Leyland is one of the best managers in the game.
Bigtime dittos to that! They've removed the loyalty of players to their fans.
Free agency allowed the agents to ruin the sport.
in this day of outrageous contracts....
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
How about Don Drysdale AND Sandy Koufax holding out in 1966 for a 3 year $1,000,000.00 SPLIT which would have come up to $167,000 each.
Willy Mays had the top salary @ $125,000.00 p/a
Sandy ended up signing for $125,000 and went 27-9 1.73 ERA
on the other hand,
Don ended up signing for $110,000 and went 13-16 3.42 ERA
Jim Rice was a very powerful man back in his day. He comes across as smug and superior though.
That is from game 2 of the 1959 World Series, Dodgers vs White Sox. Al Smith of the White Sox was trying to catch a home run ball and was looking up when a fan directly over him dropped his beer in an effort to catch the ball.
--From another source, just before Rice mentioned those players Rice said today's major leaguers fraternize with each other too much on the field, adding that while today's ballplayers might be in better shape than his generation in its heyday, they get injured more frequently.--
Anyone who watches Jeter would know that he (and most of today's players) is always smiling and joking with opponents. I believe that with Jeter, and the game in general, that this is what Rice is lamenting...they are not hard nose guys who dislike the opponent but are more a *wink, wink* fraternity.
Again, not sure I agree with Jim, considering Jeter will run through walls to catch a ball, but I know Jim is not a very good off the cuff speaker and believe he was trying to contrast today's pussified ballplayers with the hard-nosed players of yesteryear and named a few of today's stars without really thinking.
I was thinking just that about Ichiro. And you think the pitching Ichiro is facing might be a tad tougher than what Ted Williams was looking at?
Don’t get me wrong, of course, Ted was one of the greatest heroes in the history of American sports. But the game has evolved since then, and it certainly hasn’t been all for the worse.
It may give you style points, but in the end, it's the numbers that matter. If you produce, you are getting the job done, whether you chat it up with the first baseman or not. I like the old school style. When I was a kid, it was guys like Munson, or Fisk. Those were hard nosed players. That's all fine and good. But in the end, it's numbers that count. The rest is baloney.
Rice sounds like an idiot no matter how you slice it. He's telling kids to hate the opponent on an emotional level? Just worry about seeing the ball, hitting the ball, catching the ball, throwing the ball. I think Rice is just trying to justify his HoF induction without having numbers to justify it. So he talks about how they dress, how they wear their hair, and how they interact with other players. What a loser.
If Rice is the new low standard for Hall admission, Jeter's already in. In my own view, Jeter isn't in yet. He will be once he gets his 3000th hit. I compare him to Paul Molitor. Anyway, here's Rice's numbers (not his clothes, or his hair--his numbers) vs. Jeter. And mind you, Rice was supposed to be a slugger, not a light hitting 1 or 2 hitter.
Jim Rice:
Career (16 seasons):
Hits:2452
2B: 373
3B:79
HR:382
RBI:1451
SB:58
CS:34
SO:1423
Derek Jeter:
Career(15 seasons):
Hits:2699
2B: 433
3B:58
HR:221
RBI:1058
SB:296
CS:79
SO:1441
While Oliver had more hits, Rice was a much better power hitter. Jim Rice was defintely a better player than Oliver. The best Oliver ever did in the MVP balloting was 3rd. Rice won one MVP and finished 3rd twice. Rice’s peak was much better than Oliver’s
What about Fred Lynn, did he get in? He was almost as good as Rice sometimes.
Agreed. Granderson is a favorite of mine. And I watched Maggs play two seasons of AAA ball here in Nashville before he came up with the White Sox.
Yes, that's the fraternity that exists today, and it exists partly because of the Jim Rice era. When Rice first started, Free Agency was in it's infancy, and teams still, more often than not, stayed together. There simply wasn't an awful lot of player movement, not like there is today. Now, guys move around so much, it's entirely possible that they'll run into ex-teammates during every game they play in a season. Thus, there's some fraternization. It's silly to suddenly ‘hate’ old teammates, just as it's silly to ‘hate’ guys who, while they're opponents now, might be on your team one day soon. The guys of Rice's era - Lynn, Winfield, Fisk, and others - went on strike to ensure that the players would continue to have the freedom to change teams AND to make a lot of money. Rice can't have it both ways. The era today was built - willingly - on the backs of guys like Jim Rice. He may not like when guys talk to each other, but that behavior is a byproduct of struggles fought by Rice and others. It's a shame that he doesn't see that.
Hey, those Astros uniforms were coool!
Guys like Granderson don’t get the respect they really deserve because they don’t play for one of the two “important” east coast teams. Hank Aaron is the most common comparison made with Granderson. I also like Grady Sizemore with Cleveland.
Placido Polanco is another great utility player who quietly toils away with the Tigers. As a short stop he holds the all time record of most consecutive plays without an error. (over 800) He’s second base now.
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