You’re right – I never wanted Rice in to begin with! Good call on Dale Murphy! I admired Dale Murphy as a player. Good guy, good defensively, an excellent baserunner. I view him a little in the Mattingly or even Roger Maris category although Murphy played longer than Mattingly. He had some great seasons, but never sustained that greatness over a long enough period. Rice benefits from being the premiere offensive player in his league when he played. When you place Murphy into the context of his era, we can certainly think of other players who would challenge him for that title, whereas you have difficulty finding matches for Rice. Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, McGee, Gwynn, Gibson (not all Hall of Famers by the way). His career avg. is also .265, whereas Rice’s is .298. The lowest BA for a Hall of Famer might be Reggie’s at .268 but he’s got 563 HRs, 2 WS MVPs, etc, etc, etc… I hate the fact that he doesn’t make it, because I like the well rounded player.