Jim Rice is in the Hall of Fame. This bothers some people. I might so far as to say that, to these people, he’s probably the single worst inductee in recent memory, based on his statistical profile. Whether they’re right or wrong about the numbers hardly matters, but even assuming they’re correct, they’ve got the equation backward. Time and time again, the Hall of Fame tells us what it is, and no one who’s actually bothered to listen should be surprised at Rice’s induction.
The “Hall of Very Good” concept is basically designed to acknowledge guys like Rice or his teammate Dwight Evans, but it is not a real thing.