Gwynn, Ripken humbled by election to Hall of Fame

By Joe Lemire, Special to SI.com

NEW YORK -- Last year the Baseball Hall of Fame engraved 88 words onto the plaque summarizing the career of relief pitcher Bruce Sutter. That's about a dozen more words than were used -- combined -- on the plaques of Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Babe Ruth, all members of the Hall's inaugural 1936 class.

If it were up to electee Cal Ripken Jr., he'd like his plaque to reflect the bygone era of concise platitudes, condensing his approach to the 3,001 regular season games he played with a single word.

"I think I'd like to be referred to as a 'gamer,'" the Orioles legend said. "Someone that loved and respected the game."

Longtime Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn offered the adjectives "consistent" and "conservative" for his plaque and stressed that he, like his Hall of Fame classmate, spent the entirety of his career with just one team.

"When you hear my name, you don't think about a left-handed singles hitter," Gwynn said in the ornate Empire Room of New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel. "... Hopefully, you think about the Padres and you think about baseball."

And the word Ripken used to describe Jim Rice was "dominant," but the Red Sox left fielder was merely a Hall of Fame also-ran, falling 63 votes short of election.

Rice, an eight-time All-Star who finished in the top five for American League MVP six times (winning it in 1978), gained nine votes from last year to this, but with a record number of ballots cast, he actually fell to 63.5 percent backing, well short of the necessary 75 percent.

The most notably absent word for most of Wednesday's news conference -- for a while, anyway -- was the most redundant of the Hall of Fame voting season: steroids. In a refreshing reprieve, not once was the "s word" uttered in the first 40 minutes of questions. It wasn't until Gwynn and Ripken met individually with smaller groups of reporters did anyone in the room address the large elephant in the room or the large Cardinals slugger who was not.

Tragically, though not unexpectedly, the cloud of steroid suspicion hovering over the Hall of Fame candidacy of Mark McGwire managed to overshadow the decline in support for Rice.

Rice still has two years of eligibility on the writers' ballot, but this year would have been a perfect opportunity to send him a long overdue invitation to Cooperstown, as it would have validated the careers of sluggers competing in the pre-tainted era of power numbers. Rice led the AL in home runs three seasons, twice winning when only 39 home runs were necessary. Though his production tailed off in his final three seasons, Rice was a consistently superior player from his first full season in 1975 through 1986. In the bookend years of that period, Rice finished third in the MVP voting both times.

The lack of a first-ballot lock in the Hall class of 2008 (David Justice, Robb Nen and Tim Raines, among others) might keep Rice in contention, but his inability to gain ground on the ballot this season doesn't bode well for his chances to be elected by vote of the writers. It might just take the work of the Veterans Committee to elect Rice.

By the time that committee -- made up primarily of the living Hall of Famers and Hall-honored writers and broadcasters -- can consider Rice, it ought to include more supportive peers such as Gwynn and Ripken.

"I think Jim Rice was a dominant player in his era," said Ripken, who overlapped nine years with Rice in the AL East. "He hit fourth in those All-Star games. He was the guy I didn't want to see at the plate when we were playing them.

"I thought that in my estimation, the fan's point of view, that he was a Hall of Famer."

A fellow lifer with one team, Rice would have been a fitting addition to this year's pair of classic ballplayers. Though he lacks an induction-clinching statistic -- 3,000 hits or 500 home runs, at least in the pre-steroid era -- Rice had 2,452 hits for a .298 average with 382 home runs and 1,451 RBIs. Those numbers closely compare to several Hall of Famers, including outfielder Duke Sinder (2,116 hits, .295 avg, 407 HR, 1,333 RBIs).

That said, nothing should -- or will -- take away from the exceptional careers of classy players like Gwynn and Ripken. Peppered with several steroid-related queries near the end of his interview session, Gwynn gave assurance that the line of questioning wouldn't dampen his mood as he made an endorsement for players like Rice, Gossage, Bert Blyleven, Andre Dawson, Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Jack Morris and Dale Murphy.

"It's an unbelievable -- unbelievable -- feeling when that phone rings, and they tell you you're a Hall of Famer. I hope that they get to experience that," said Gwynn, admitting that he'd have wanted to vote for 13 players on this year's ballot. "And I know you [reporters] have got to ask your questions, but you guys are not going to tarnish [this experience]. You're not going to do it.

"There's like a gigantic halo over my head. I'm in heaven right now."