Jim Rice disses Jeter

[fringe]

you have as much chance of doing that as i do of doing backflips. :lol:

[Virginia Giant]

Ozzie was fun to watch because he would do a cartwheel and back flip when he came off the field. Of course, Carl Edwards (Nascar driver) does a back flip out his car window after winning a race, but it doesn't make him the best racer. Not to mention that the small high school that I went to had a half dozen girls between the ages of 13 and 18 that also could do cartwheels and back flips. Regardless.....Ozzie's fame has an awful lot to do with the hundreds of times he did the backflip when coming off the field and that shouldn't be the criteria for measuring a shortstop.

 

But one cannot measure the worth of a shortstop by a single category (ie., fielding percentage). For one reason, shortstops with amazing range can get to balls that others wouldn't come close to, but they can't pull off the play and hence, get an error. Also, some shortstops get considerably more balls hit their way than shortstops on other teams making the possibility (and reality) of more errors.

 

If "fielding" is the only criteria, than Omar Vizquel wins with his career .984 fielding average followed by Jimmy Rollins .982. And for single season records you have Mike Bordick with .998 (who had more than 150 chances during the season)

 

Likewise, if "hitting" was the only criteria, A-Rod would win hands down. But I believe that shortstops being rated against other shortstops should be life-long shortstops. So many shortstops become third basemen because they've lost their slender youthful frame and hence, their agility and range disappear.

 

Regardless.....shortstops should be "life-long" shortstops and the combination of fielding, hitting (both starting rallies and hitting in the clutch), hitting for power, baserunning, leadership, turning double-plays, etc. So it becomes somewhat subjective as to who was "best".

 

Ozzie Smith, who played shortstop for 18 years had a .262 BA and 28 Home Runs. Those are not HOF numbers, but Ozzie gets in because of his glove and his flair.

 

 

You're insiuating Arod moved tothird because he lost a step? Bull, that was a power play by Jeter letting him know who ran the show. Arod was a better SS than Jeter ever was defensively.

[fringe]

You're insiuating Arod moved tothird because he lost a step? Bull, that was a power play by Jeter letting him know who ran the show. Arod was a better SS than Jeter ever was defensively.

if not from jeter himself, it was letting arod know he's not the man in NY- that and batting him 2nd...

[BleedinBlue]

you have as much chance of doing that as i do of doing backflips. :lol:

Not true......you are millions of times more likely to do backflips than I am likely to do her.