Jim Rice | |||
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Rice in 2009.
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Left fielder / Designated hitter | |||
Born: Anderson, South Carolina |
March 8, 1953 |||
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MLB debut | |||
August 19, 1974, for the Boston Red Sox | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
August 3, 1989, for the Boston Red Sox | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .298 | ||
Hits | 2,452 | ||
Home runs | 382 | ||
Runs batted in | 1,451 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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Member of the National | |||
Baseball Hall of Fame | |||
Inducted | 2009 | ||
Vote | 76.4% (15th and final ballot) |
James Edward Rice (born March 8, 1953), nicknamed "Jim Ed", is a former Major League Baseball left fielder and designated hitter who played his entire 16-year baseball career for the Boston Red Sox.
Rice was an eight-time American League (AL) All-Star and was named the AL's Most Valuable Player in 1978 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 years in a row. He batted .300 seven times, collected 100 runs batted in (RBI) eight times and 200 hits four times, and had eleven seasons with 20 home runs. He also led the league in home runs three times, RBIs and slugging percentage twice each.
In the late 1970s he was part of one of the sport's great outfields along with Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans (who was his teammate for his entire career); 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 (2,452), RBI (1,451) and total bases (4,129) 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. Rice was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 26, 2009, as the 103rd member voted in by the BBWAA.