He did similar things more than once, I remember him being the first to get to a person hit by one of his fouls that was hit right to the leftfield edge of the screen behind home plate. No major injury then, but they took a really hard hit from the foul.
I always liked Rice, perhaps because he started right at the end of the year I began following baseball, maybe because he at first didn't get the hype Lynn got. Both deserved it, Lynn didn't hold up as well, maybe he handled the pressure differently.
Rice took a lot of heat from the Boston Media, some of it deserved some not. He did hit into a lot of doubleplays. His way of handling the criticism was similar to Ted Williams, he retreated and could be a bit hostile to reporters. That doesn't work as well for anyone who isn't Ted Williams.
I think they actually shortened his career. There was a stretch late in his career when he was doing rather poorly. Finally someone made the suggestion that glasses might help. So he got a pair, which was frankly not a good looking pair. And they gave him a lot of trouble over it even though he started hitting again. To the point that I believe he stopped wearing them and took the heat for poor performance.
That was also in the era when the management was treating the players very shabbily, essentially not allowing a player to retire with any dignity, but announcing before the season was over that they weren't being invited to spring training the next year. Sort of a "you've been cut, but still need to show up for the next month or so"
Steve B
|