Page 60 - 1975 BoSox

’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL 53
Whatever arrested his rise to the majors, and however unsettled he may have felt, when Conigliaro’s season zzled a few weeks in, Rice had the job to himself. By July he took over left eld and held it the rest of the season. He hit .309 with 22 home runs and 102 RBIs, ending up second to Lynn for the Rookie of the Year award. e two rookies Rice and Lynn were dubbed the “Gold Dust Twins” and formed what may have been the most productive rookie tandem of all time.
Hank Aaron was most impressed with the potential of the young slugger, and even speculated that Rice would go on to break his home-run record.3 But Rice’s season came to a premature end on September 21, in a 6-5 win over Detroit, when Tigers pitcher Vern Ruhle broke his left hand with a pitch, sidelining him for the rest of the season and forcing him to watch the Red Sox lose a grueling, seven-game World Series to Cincinnati from the bench.
Recovering from his injury, Rice regressed a bit in 1976, hitting .282 with 25 home runs. In 1977 he became a full- edged star, leading the league in total bases (382), home runs (39), and slugging percentage (.593). On August 13, 1978, he became the rst Red Sox player since Ted Williams in 1939-40 to total 20 homers, 20 doubles, and 10 triples in consecutive seasons. On August 29, 1977, in an 8-7 loss to Oakland, he had his rst three-homer game (his second — and last came exactly six years later, on August 29, 1983).
Jim Rice played his entire professional career with the Red Sox, but none of his seasons equaled the magic of 1978. He started the season o on the right foot, hitting a game-winning single in the 10th inning of the April 14 home opener, and continued his torrid pace into October, when the Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees in a devastating one-game playo . It was a shame that one of the nest seasons in Red Sox history was overshadowed by the feeble swing of a weedy in elder. but Rice’s accomplishments were rewarded.4 He was voted the MVP award he so richly deserved, leading the majors in slugging percentage (.600), games (163), at-bats (677), hits (213), total bases (406), triples (15), home runs (46, the most for a Red
Sox player since Jimmie Foxx hit 50 in 1938), and RBIs (139). He was the rst American Leaguer to accumulate 400 total bases in a season since Joe DiMaggio in 1937.
In 1979 Rice had another big year, becoming the rst player to have 35 homers (he had 39) and 200 hits (he had 201) for three consecutive seasons. Fans elected him, along with teammates Carl Yastrzemski and Fred Lynn, to start the All-Star Game.5 It was an all-Red Sox out eld. Rice in particular was recognized as perhaps the best hitter in the game.
Rice had another hand injury in 1980, and su ered subpar seasons in 1981 and 1982 at least partially as a result. Nevertheless, in 1982, Rice had a day at Fenway Park worth remembering. He had a di cult relation- ship with the press, who presented him as a surly, unfriendly player. Jonathan Keane, from Greenland, New Hampshire, was a 4-year old boy in 1982, and he would probably disagree with this assessment. On August 7 Jonathan was attending one of his rst Fenway games, sitting along the rst-base line in the eld boxes, and watched as his favorite player, Red Sox in elder Dave Stapleton, stepped into the batter’s box against Richard Dotson of the Chicago White Sox.
Stapleton fouled a pitch sharply to the right, and the hard-hit ball cracked Jonathan in the head, cutting open his left temple and fracturing his skull. In a 1997 article, Arthur Pappas, the Red Sox team doctor in 1982, claimed he had never seen so much blood at Fenway. Rick Miller, who was near the on-deck circle, cried for Red Sox trainer Charlie Moss, but instead Jim Rice, who didn’t see anyone moving, instinctively leaped into the stands and picked up the unconscious toddler. Cradling Jonathan, Rice ran into the club- house, where he brought him to Arthur Pappas in the trainer’s room.
In a 1997 article describing the incident, Pappas was quoted as saying, “Time is very much a factor once you have that kind of a head injury and the subsequent swelling of the brain. at’s why it’s so important to get him to care so it can be dealt with. [Rice] certainly helped him very considerably.’’6 e supposedly un- friendly out elder did something that many other