Rice hit 39 homers, had 130 RBIs and batted .325 in 1979 yet Kellogg's starts by mentioning that he didn't quite live up to his 1978 stats (46, 139, .315). Those are two amazing seasons, making it five great seasons in a row to start his career.
Kellogg's did start by saying that he is one of baseball's "premier sluggers". It was also mentioned that he ht some "tape measure" homers. I can imagine that he could really hit a golf ball.
Not on the card - in his first five seasons he finished 1st, 3rd (twice), 4th and 5th in the MVP voting. He got no votes in 1976 with 22-102-.309 numbers.
He got more total Hall of Fame votes than anyone in the history of the game. Why? He used all 15 years to get elected and he had strong support most years.
It is assumed that not getting along with the media cost him with the Hall of Fame voting. Did it also affect him in the MVP voting? In the 1980s he got MVP votes in four seasons with his highest finishes being 3rd and 4th.
Cool piece of trivia about Rice and HOF votes. I hadn't heard that before, but it makes sense.
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