Eight for the Hall of Fame

Jayson Stark argues that eight players, including former Braves two time MVP Dale Murphy, should make the Hall of Fame this year.

We know there were voters out there who didn't think Wade Boggs was as surefire a Hall of Famer as those 3,010 hits made him look. Boggs turned hitting singles into a science. We know there were voters who thought he wasn't a complete player, wasn't a team player, wasn't even a dominant player.

Well, luckily for them, this is America. They have a right to their opinion. It just happens to be ridiculous. And the proof will arrive Tuesday, when Boggs will go sailing into Cooperstown on the first ballot.

Of the 12 first-time candidates on this year's ballot, Boggs was the only one who got this voter's vote. But he was not the only guy with Red Sox ties that I voted for. Want to know the identity of the eight players we voted for? Read on:

1. BOGGS

OK, so what are the reasons not to vote for this guy again? You sure need to work hard to find them.

How do you not vote for a man who hit .352 for a whole freaking decade in the 1980s -- the highest average by any hitter in any decade since the '20s?

How do you not vote for one of the four players in history to bat .300 in every one of his first 10 seasons? (The others: Ted Williams, Al Simmons, Paul Waner.)

How do you not vote for the only man since Wee Willie Keeler to rip off seven straight 200-hit seasons?

How do you not vote for a man who won five batting titles, made 12 straight All-Star teams, started six of those All-Star Games in a row (more than any third baseman in history), batted .350 or better in four straight seasons, scored 100 runs in seven straight seasons and thumped 30 doubles in nine straight seasons?

We don't care how many hits he sprayed to the opposite field. Or how many doubles he clanked off the Green Monster. Or how many of those hits came in Fenway, period. Wade Boggs was one of the great hit machines of all time.

But that's not all. He was also one of the great on-base machines of all time.

Boggs had the same career on-base percentage (.415) as Stan Musial. He led his league in OBP five years in a row -- a streak topped only by Rogers Hornsby. He even led the AL in intentional walks six straight seasons -- which tells us all we need to know about how much teams enjoyed pitching to him.

But the feat that defined the precision of both Boggs' swing and his batting eye was this: He had four straight seasons with 200 hits and 100 walks (the longest streak in history). Which means he did that as many times in a row as all the other players in baseball have done it in the last half-century combined.

So some people may have other ideas. But Wade Boggs was such a slam-dunk candidate to this voter, it took about 1.8 seconds to decide to check his box.

2. JIM RICE

I've always thought there was no dumber Hall of Fame voting rule than the one that allows players to linger on this ballot for 15 years.

Wouldn't you think we could make up our minds on just about anybody in five years? Or 10, tops? Sheez, we're talking about players who never play a single game during any of those years.

Well, I still hate that rule. But then how do I rationalize that it took me 11 agonizing Hall of Fame elections before I finally cast a vote for Jim Rice?

It makes no sense whatsoever, of course -- except for this:

Of all the candidates I've ever had to consider, none of them cost me more sleep, or caused me to ingest more Rolaids, than Rice. He's that hard a call.

There was no question he was the dominant offensive force in his league for a dozen seasons in the late 1970s and early '80s. Unfortunately, his career then tumbled over a cliff -- at age 34.

So he never reached 400 homers, or 1,500 RBI, or 2,500 hits. And for a man who had to be evaluated almost solely for his offense, those were career numbers that just didn't quite cut it -- not for this voter, anyway.

But I've always said I was an open-minded kind of guy. So last year, I invited you thoughtful folks in Reader Land to try to change my mind. More than a thousand e-mails later, I'm happy to announce you did. ... SO PLEASE STOP SENDING THEM.

I read hundreds of those e-mails. I talked to baseball people who saw Rice play, or played against him. I finally became convinced he wasn't as one-dimensional as I'd once thought. Which allowed me to give more weight to his incredible period of dominance.

From 1975 through 1985, Rice was No. 1 in his league in homers, RBI, runs scored, slugging and extra-base hits. And aside from homers, only the great George Brett was even close to him in any of those categories.

So you can call off the e-mail assault. It's amazing my inbox didn't explode.

3. RYNE SANDBERG

Since Sandberg's vote percentage jumped from 49 to 61 last year, it's apparent he'll get elected one of these years. But it's absurd that it's taken this long.

Until last September, when Jeff Kent passed him, Sandberg led all second basemen in history in home runs (277). He owns the highest fielding percentage (.989) of any second baseman since 1900. He's the only second baseman ever to start nine All-Star Games. And from 1982-92, he led all second basemen in average, homers, RBI, runs, extra-base hits, OPS, fielding percentage and 500-assist seasons. So about all he didn't do was bake the pizzas at Geno's.

4. BRUCE SUTTER

Sutter's vote totals have jumped every year, peaking at 59.5 percent last year. So there's hope for him, too. But we'll ask again: Should it be this hard?

This guy not only dominated his position. He changed his position.

He revolutionized how closers were used, won a Cy Young, pioneered a revolutionary pitch (the unhittable splitter), averaged 25 saves for 12 years when 25 was actually a lot of saves and -- as our friend, Alan Schwarz, pointed out in Sunday's New York Times -- averaged 42 percent more outs per save than Dennis Eckersley.

Sutter was also such a force that he is still the only relief pitcher who ever finished in the top 10 in MVP voting six times (in eight years). So one of these years, the world has to catch on to what this man meant in his era. Right?

5. GOOSE GOSSAGE

Speaking of overlooked closers, how the heck can Gossage still be sputtering along, barely collecting 40 percent of the vote? That's a bigger outrage than My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss.

Let's run through his glittering credentials again: Nine All-Star teams in 11 years. A 10-year blitz of microscopic ERAs and terrifying strikeout totals. More than 130 innings in relief three times. A span of nearly 20 years in which the average of right-handed hitters against him never cracked the Mendoza Line. And an aura that came wafting out of his fu manchu every time he grabbed the ball -- an aura that announced: "Game over." For this guy never to have come within 150 votes of election is a crime.

6. ANDRE DAWSON

He spent his best years in Montreal, where the AstroConcrete turned his knee cartilage into linguini and all videotapes of his greatness apparently were confiscated at the border by customs agents. So Dawson continues to be overlooked by half the voting populace. And that ain't right.

Until his knees began to crumble, the Hawk was a singular combination of power, speed, defense, leadership and unparalleled respect among his peers. He won one MVP election and finished second in two others. He was a rookie of the year. He won eight Gold Gloves. And despite all those ice packs he kept attaching to his knees, only two other players have ever matched his totals in hits (2,774), home runs (438) and stolen bases (314) -- Willie Mays and Barry Bonds.

If we spent most of the '80s debating whether Dawson was the best player in the National League, why are we still debating so hard whether he belongs in Cooperstown?

7. JACK MORRIS

Suppose we told you there was a pitcher on this ballot who won 36 more games than anyone else in the sport while he was in it? And suppose we told you this pitcher started three All-Star Games -- a feat surpassed, since the 1970s, by only Randy Johnson?

Then suppose we told you this guy pitched a no-hitter, was an Opening Day starter 14 times (more than any American Leaguer since Walter Johnson), averaged 14 complete games a season for eight years and made 515 consecutive starts without missing a turn (a record at the time)?

Finally, suppose we told you he was one of the most fabled postseason pitchers of his day, that he started Game 1 of the World Series for three different Series champs and that he pitched all 10 innings of possibly the greatest Game 7 shutout ever?

Would you say that guy was a Hall of Famer -- if you didn't know his name was Jack Morris? True, Morris' 3.90 ERA would be the highest of any pitcher in the Hall. But by nearly every other standard, he was the ultimate ace of his era.

8. DALE MURPHY

Murphy's vote totals are starting to make Dennis Kucinich look like George W. Bush. So we know now he has no prayer of having his mug on a Hall of Fame plaque.

Still, we have no trouble justifying a vote for a man who was a back-to-back MVP, a five-time Gold Glove winner, a 30-30 guy, a leading vote-getter in the All-Star balloting and the answer to the trivia question: Who led the National League in runs, hits and RBI in the '80s?

Has there ever been a better player who couldn't even get 10 percent of the vote? We can't think of one.