Mike Fine: The ray of sunshine for Jim Rice

On second thought, perhaps this wasn't such a bad thing. Where once Jim Rice's chances for gaining entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame seemed to be waning by the minute, yesterday's announcement of the 2008 results actually bodes well for the former Sox slugger in the 2009 voting that'll take place later this year.

Rice has been eligible for entrance into the Hall for 14 straight years, and Hall rules state that a player can remain in the race for 15 years as long as he maintains 5 percent of the vote on a yearly basis. Rice has certainly done that, rising as high as 64.8 percent in the 2006 voting. He lost out to Bruce Sutter that year, when he was a fraction ahead of yesterday's inductee, reliever Rich Gossage.