And no cheating with active players the jury's still out on or guys like Rod Carew who spent half their careers at an easier position. McLaughlin I agree with a lot of what you said in your column, but I don't agree with your reasoning regarding Parker and Rice. You give the thumbs up to Rice, partly because you believe he was better than Tony Perez . But you give thumbs down to Parker largely because he didn't live up to expectations during what should have been his peak years. I know that's only part of what you wrote about the two players, but I think it raises another possible reason behind the inconsistency of the treatment of Rice and Parker in HOF discussions.
Rice is held up to the standards of existing HOF inductees.
I think Jayson Stark may have been guilty of this in his Hall of Fame column . Stark compared Rice to other players, ultimately deciding against him because he was deemed too similar to non-HOFer Dick Allen. I have to admit that I'm completely in the dark about my White Sox's maneuvers. I can't figure out what they intend to do with Jose Valentin . And if Joe Crede is ready, then I'm Bill Melton.