Posted By:
jay behrensJeff, once again, you dodged the crucial question, how does a pitcher that is sub .500 for the first 7 years of his career warrant being considered one of the greatest of all-time?
As to your Rice knocks. The comparing of the hitting Triple Crown to the pitching Triple Crown is like comparing apples and oranges. I think between Johnson, Koufax and Matty they had more Triple crowns than all the hitting Triple Crowns combined. Also, knocking Rice for hitting 40+ HRs only once is also an invalid argument since 40 HRs wasn't done that often when he played and winning the HR title with less than 40 was standard. From 1975-88 only 13 of a possible 28 league leaders hit 40 or more HR in a season. 4 of those 13 were in 1986-8 when Rice's skills were already rapidly deteriorating and the juicing of the ball and other things started.
Jay
My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.