Interesting facts about Pre-War Players - share yours

[ParisianJohn]

Rice.jpg

In 1912 when a 22 year-old Sam Rice was pitching for his minor league team on the road in Illinois his wife and their two little children went to stay with his parents in Indiana. At that time a tornado came through and destroyed Rice's parents' home and killed his wife, both of their kids, his parents and two of his sisters.

Rice is then said to have wandered around the US for a year before joining the US Navy. He even wound up being involved in the Battle of Veracruz down in Mexico before leaving the service and returning to baseball. Rice switched to the outfield and wound up making the Majors in 1915 at age 25 - not too old, but probably a bit older than he'd have been if life hadn't detour him. He played only 4 games that season and 58 the next season in 1916. After being a full-timer in 1917, he played only 7 games in 1918 before being recalled to military service due to World War I. After training, Rice was sent to France but never saw action as the war ended. At that time he was 28 and had only 247 hits.

Rice made up for it and played until he was 44 and racked up 2,987 hits when he retired in 1934. There was no Hall of Fame yet, and with less folks like us around to let him know, Rice said he had no clue he was so close to 3,000 hits. Despite a .322 lifetime average he wasn't a big power hitter and he missed that "magic number" of 3,000 hits, so he didn't get into the Hall until the Veterans Committee elected him in 1963 when he was 73 years-old.

Rice had remarried and two years later in 1965 he was being interviewed about his life in front of his wife and stepchildren. It was only during that interview that they learned about that 1912 tornado and his old family.

Above is my 1933 Goudey of Rice.