Injustice is served

News flash: Jim Rice, baseball's most dangerous and accomplished slugger for more than a decade, gets a measly 65 percent of the vote and fails to make the Hall of Fame in his 12th year of eligibility.

TATB's take: Bleep-bleepin' ridiculous.

We don't have the time this afternoon to give Rice's annual shafting the appropriate consideration, so we'll do the next-best thing. We'll again paraphrase that noted wordsmith and legendary connoisseur of bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches, one Maurice Vaughn: "Stupid Hall of Fame voters! . . . They stupid!"

And don't even get us started on the inexplicable screw job Andre Dawson - a five-tool superstar, a class act, and one of four players in history to accumulate 300 homers and 300 steals - has to endure every year. (For the record, the other three are Bobby Bonds, his flaxseed-gulpin' son, and Barry's godfather. Not. Bad. Company.)

Man, sometimes we sports writers don't exactly cover ourselves in glory . . . but you probably knew that, huh?