Jim Rice
James Edward Rice is an American former professional baseball left fielder and designated hitter who played in Major League Baseball. Rice played his entire 16-year MLB career for the Boston Red Sox. In 2009, Rice was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rice was an eight-time American League All-Star and was named the AL's Most Valuable Player in after becoming the first major league player in 19 years to hit for 400 total bases. He went on to become the ninth player to lead the major leagues in total bases in consecutive seasons. He joined Ty Cobb as one of two players to lead the AL in total bases three consecutive seasons. He batted above.300 seven times during his 16 season career, and collected 100+ runs batted in eight times. Rice also had 200 hits in four seasons, and 20+ home runs 11 times. He also led the league in home runs three times, RBIs and slugging percentage twice each, and averaged more than 117 hits for every 100 regular season MLB games he had played in during his career. Between 1975 and 1986, Rice led all major league players in hits, RBIs and total bases, as well as all AL players in home runs and runs scored.
From 1975 through 1980 he was part of one of the sport's great outfields along with Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans ; Rice continued the tradition of his predecessors Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski as a power-hitting left fielder who played his entire career for the Red Sox. He ended his career with a.502 slugging percentage, and then ranked tenth in AL history with 382 home runs; his career marks in homers, hits, RBI and total bases remain Red Sox records for a right-handed hitter, with Evans eventually surpassing his Boston records for career runs scored, at bats and extra base hits by a right-handed hitter. When Rice retired, his 1,503 career games in left field ranked seventh in AL history.
Notable seasons
In the minor leagues, Rice's three-run home run was the key blow in helping the Pawtucket Red Sox defeat the Tulsa Oilers in a 5–2 win in the 1973 Junior World Series. After he was AAA's International League Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and Triple Crown winner in 1974, he and fellow rookie teammate Fred Lynn were brought up to the Red Sox at the same time, and were known as the "Gold Dust Twins".Rice was promoted in the Red Sox organization to be a full-time player in 1975, and finished in second place for the American League's Rookie of the Year honors, and third in the Most Valuable Player voting, after he finished the season with 174 base hits, 102 runs batted in, a.309 batting average and 22 home runs; Lynn won both awards. The Red Sox won the AL's East Division, but Rice did not play in either the League Championship Series or World Series because of a wrist injury sustained in the last week of the regular season when he was hit by a pitch. The Red Sox went on to lose the World Series four games to three to the Cincinnati Reds of the National League.
When the 1977 season ended, Rice found himself leading the AL in three different offensive categories. His 39 home runs was tops in the league; the first time he led the league in this statistic. He also led the league with a.593 slugging average and 392 total bases, the most by an AL player in 39 years.
In 1978, after having the best season in his career, Rice won the American League's Most Valuable Player award in a campaign where he hit.315 and led the league in home runs, RBI, hits, triples, total bases. Altogether he led the AL in 11 different categories that season, one shy of tying the Major league record of 12 set in 1921 by Rogers Hornsby. Rice is one of two AL players ever to lead his league in triples and home runs in the same season. He also remains the only player to lead the major leagues in triples, home runs and RBIs in the same season. His 406 total bases that year is still a Red Sox record, and was the most in the AL since Joe DiMaggio had 418 in 1937. He was the first major leaguer with 400 or more total bases since Hank Aaron in 1959. This feat was not repeated until 1997, when Larry Walker had 409 in the NL. No AL player has done it since Rice in 1978, and his total remains the third highest by an AL right-handed hitter, behind DiMaggio and Jimmie Foxx.
Rice had another superb season in 1979. Beside having his third season with over 200 hits, he had finished in the top three in eight different AL batting categories. He finished third in runs scored and second in home runs, RBIs, hits, slugging average, runs created, and extra base hits. He also led the league in total bases for the third straight time, and had the fourth-highest AL Batting Average. He is the only player in MLB history with three consecutive years of having at least 200 hits and 39 home runs while batting at least.315 in each of those years.
At the end of the 1983 season Rice led the AL in four categories including home runs, RBIs, total bases, and grounding into double plays. He had tied Milwaukee Brewers player George Scott's record and became the second player to lead the AL in those categories in the same season. In 2012 Miguel Cabrera, a Detroit Tiger, became the third AL player to reach this mark; no NL player has ever led that league in these three categories in the same year.
In 1986, Rice had 200 hits, batted.324, and had 110 RBIs. The Red Sox made it to the World Series for the second time during his career. This time, Rice played in all 14 postseason games, where he collected 14 hits, including two home runs. He also scored 14 runs and drove in six. His 14 runs scored is the fifth most by an individual during a single year's postseason play. The Red Sox went on to lose the World Series to the New York Mets, four games to three, the fourth consecutive Series appearance by Boston which they lost in seven games.
Career accomplishments
Rice led the AL in home runs three times, in RBIs twice, in slugging percentage twice, and in total bases four times. In fact, his 1157 total bases over the three consecutive seasons leading the league ties him for seventh place with Rogers Hornsby and is five total bases shy of Babe Ruth's three year mark of 1162 total bases. Rice also picked up Silver Slugger Awards in 1983 and 1984. Rice hit at least 39 home runs in a season four times, had eight 100-RBI seasons and four seasons with over 200 hits, and batted over.300 seven times. He finished his MLB career with a.298 batting average, 373 doubles, 79 triples, 382 home runs, 1,451 RBIs, 1,249 runs scored, 2,452 hits, 670 walks, and 4,129 total bases. He was an American League All-Star eight times. In addition to winning the American League MVP award in 1978, he finished in the top five in MVP voting five other times.Rice is the only player in history to lead the league in home runs, RBIs, and triples in the same year. He is also the only player in major league history to record over 200 hits while hitting 39 or more home runs for three consecutive years. He had tied the AL record of leading the league in total bases for three straight seasons. Beside being one of three AL players to have three straight seasons of hitting at least 39 home runs while batting.315 or higher. Also in 1978, Rice became the fourth and final MLB player to lead both leagues at the same time in hitting the most Home Runs and having the most Hits in the same season. During his most productive 12-season span from 1975 to 1986, Rice collectively led all American League players in total games played, at bats, runs scored, hits, homers, RBIs, slugging percentage, total bases, extra base hits, go-ahead RBIs, multi-hit games, and outfield assists. Among all other MLB players, including those in the National League, Rice was the leader in five of the above 12 categories.
In 1982, Rice saved a young fan's life. Boston was playing the Chicago White Sox. Dave Stapleton hit a line drive into the stands, and as this was before any safety measures, such as netting, were in place, the line drive hit a young boy in the head. Jim Rice, knowing it would take too long for medical staff to reach the young fan, popped out of the dugout, grabbed the young fan, and brought him to the dugout, where the Boston Red Sox medical staff was able to attend to him quickly. Due to Rice's decisive action, the boy was able to be rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery, and ultimately, according to the physicians who treated the boy at the hospital, Rice saved the boy's life. Rice continued to play the game in his blood-stained uniform.
In 1984 Rice set a major league single-season record by hitting into 36 double plays. On the backside of a 1964 Topps baseball card of Earl Wilson No. 503, Goose Goslin, who got his start in 1921, was credited with grounding into 48 double plays in a season during his career. However, this mark was not followed closely until the mid to late 1930s. Rice's 315 career double plays grounded into ranks him tied in eighth place on the career leaders list with Eddie Murray. Rice did break Brooks Robinson's AL record for GIDP by a right-handed hitter in 1988. Cal Ripken Jr. eventually surpassed this mark in 1999. Rice had led the league for four seasons, which tied the major league record that had been established by Ernie Lombardi. In 2009 Miguel Tejada recorded his fifth season leading his league in this category and now holds this record. During the time Rice was the annual GDP leader he also had averaged 112 RBI's per season which is ten RBI's better than second place Albert Pujols RBI average of 102 following his four-year GDP leadership. The on-base prowess of Rice's teammates placed him in a double play situation over 2,000 times during his career. Rice posted a batting average of.310 and slugging percentage of.515 in those situations which is better than his overall career marks in those categories.
During his career Rice played in 35 games where he hit two or more HRs, and drove in four or more runs in a game 48 times. He could hit for both power and average, and currently only 12 other retired players rank ahead of him in both career home runs and batting average: Hank Aaron, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Mike Piazza, and Larry Walker. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.
Rice was an accomplished left fielder, finishing his career with a fielding percentage of.980 and 137 outfield assists. Although he did not possess great speed, he had a strong throwing arm and was able to master the various caroms that balls took from the Green Monster in Fenway Park. His 21 assists in 1983 remains the most by a Red Sox outfielder since 1944, when Bob Johnson had 23. Aside from playing 1,543 games as an outfielder during his career, Rice also appeared as a designated hitter in 530 games.
Rice's number 14 was retired by the Red Sox in a pre-game ceremony on July 28, 2009.