Murray Chass on Baseball: Belatedly an Owner Makes a Right Decision

And Belatedly a Resuscitated BBWAA Writer Makes a Wrong Decision…or two. (actually, Chass has some good stuff on the Times/Red Sox tango)

I have written here recently of being uncertain about whether I would resume voting, which I was not permitted to do with The New York Times, and if I did, would I vote for Rice.

Although I don’t think writers should vote for the Hall of Fame, I have lost that fight. As long as writers continue to vote and I believe Jack Morris belongs in the Hall, I decided I would vote because Morris needs all the votes he can get.

I also voted for Henderson and Rice, the first an obvious selection, Rice not so obvious, a borderliner actually. But I marked an X next to his name for two reasons.

...Bresciani also noted that Rice, who didn’t have a reputation as a particularly good outfielder, led the American League and was second in the majors in outfield assists 1975-86.

But the clincher was that Rice was at the end of his time on the ballot. I figured the vote on Rice would be close and that if he fell one vote short, I didn’t want to be the voter who deprived him of election.