January 12, 2009 Lucky 15 for number 14: Rice goes to Hall Play video

(NECN) - The 15th time ended up being the charm for Jim Rice. Rice was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame Monday on his final appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot.

The Red Sox slugger hit 382 career home runs in his career, and batted .298. The eight-time All Star was the American League Most Valuable Player in 1978, when he led the league with 46 homeruns and 139 runs batted in, while batting .315, which was third in the league.

Rice received votes from 76.4% of Hall of Fame ballots (412 of 539), just more than the 75 percent needed for election.

Joining Rice in the Hall will be the major league record holder for steals, Rickey Henderson, who stole 1115 bases in his career, including 8 with Boston in 2002, at the age of 43. Henderson was listed on 511 ballots, 94.8 percent of the total.

Andre Dawson (361 votes, 67 percent) and Bert Blyleven (338 votes, 62.7 percent) were the only other players listed on more than half of the ballots. Rounding out the top 10 were: Lee Smith (240 votes, 44.5 percent); Jack Morris (237 votes, 44.0 percent); Tommy John (171 votes, 31.6 percent); Tim Raines (122 votes, 22.6 percent); Mark McGwire (118 votes, 21.9 percent) and Alan Trammell (94 votes, 17.4 percent).