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In 1975 Jim Ed Rice broke into the major league's with the Boston Red Sox as a promising young rookie who made his fearsome presence known immediately playing in 174 games and amassing 174 hits to go along with 22 home runs and 102 RBI's and a .302 batting average. He played right field for 90 games and was the designated hitter for 54 of them. He and another dynamic rookie of that year was Fred Lynn who displayed a decent clutch bat and played center field with reckless abandon reminiscent of a young Wille Mays. They were nicknamed "The Gold Dust Twins" and the Red Sox future looked as bright as ever.
If your old enough to remember and if you are not let me enlighten you on this amazing story of Jim Rice during his tenure as a member of the Boston Red Sox. The man could hit for average , power and was a more than adequate fielder. As the Sox were in the heat of a pennant race, September 15 1975 looms as a dark day of what could have been. It was on that day that Detroit Tigers pitcher Vern Rhule launched a fast ball that broke the wrist of Rice and putting one of the premiere hitters in the game on the disabled list and out for the rest of the season.
Teammate Lynn went on to win rookie of the year and MVP honors that same year.
The 1975 Red Sox were a team of established stars in catcher Carlton Fisk, Carl Yastrzemski, Louis Tiant, Bill Lee and countless others. They advanced to what is arguably the best world series ever played with the Cincinnati Reds winning in seven games but things may have been different if Rice 's bat wasn't missing from the lineup. It wasn't meant to be.
However Mr. Rice returned and became one of the most dominate and feared hitters to ever step into the batters box from the mid-seventies until the end of the eighties.He was th AL MVP in 1978 batting .315 with 215 hits and smashing 46 home runs with 139 RBI's.
In his 16 seasons he had 8,225 at bats, 2,452 hits, 382 HR's, a .352 OPB and a .502 SLG %
It is well documented that he may have been wary of the media and it must have hurt his chances many times when it comes to be selected into the hall of fame, but selections should be made by your accomplishes on the field not if you gave a good post game interview or not. Also he was one of a couple of African Americans playing in a media market who was the last team to integrate the game of baseball.
Times have and changed Jim Ed Rice most certainly belongs in the hall of fame with his peers.
Justice is Justice.
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Monday, 01 December 2008
In 1975 Jim Ed Rice broke into the major league's with the Boston Red Sox as a promising young rookie who made his fearsome presence known...
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