Jim Rice Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Full name James Edward Rice
Born March 8, 1953, Anderson, South Carolina
First Game: August 19, 1974; Final Game: August 3, 1989
Bat: Right Throw: Right Height: 6' 2" Weight: 200

Selected to the Hall of Fame in 2009
Named AL Most Valuable Player by Baseball Writers' Association of America (1978)
Named AL Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1978)
Named Minor League Player of the Year by The Sporting News (1974)
Named outfielder on The Sporting News AL All-Star Team (1975, 1977 to 1979, 1983 and 1986)
Named outfielder on The Sporting News AL Silver Slugger Team (1983 to 1984)

JIM RICE
This article was written by Alexander Edelman and is presented in part, courtesy of the Society for American Baseball Research

James Edward Rice was born on Sunday, March 8, 1953, in Anderson, South Carolina, to Roger and Julia Rice. Residents of the town say that even as a lanky teenager, "Ed", as he was known to his friends, showed promise. He led his 1969 American Legion team to the State Finals. However, it was still a time of segregation in the south, and Rice, despite his promise, had to attend Westside High School--as opposed to the all-white T.L Hanna High. Sometime before Rice's senior year, when integration was mandated, Anderson's district board drew lines to decide who would attend what school. The resulting line was drawn so that the Rice household was included in the Hanna district. His engaging personality and gentle charm won over most of Hanna, and helped ease the racial tension that accompanied integration.

Rice's childhood hero was Westside alumnus and American Football League star George Webster, and Rice played football and basketball as well as baseball. In his senior year, Rice starred on Hanna's football team as an all-state kick returner, defensive back and wide receiver, and played in the North Carolina- South Carolina Shrine Bowl, leading South Carolina to victory. Baseball was by far his best sport, however, and when he was 18, the Boston Red Sox took him in the first round of the 1971 amateur entry draft (15th overall). [1]

After being drafted by the Red Sox, Jim played 60 games in 1971 for Single-A Williamsport in the New York-Penn League at the tender age of 18. He hit .256 with five home runs. In 1972 he was sent to Winter Haven in the Florida State League, where he continued to improve his skills, garnering 17 homers in 130 games. In 1973, the Red Sox promoted him to Bristol in the Double-A Eastern League, where he quickly flourished, winning the league batting title with a .317 batting average. He hit 27 homers and drove in 93 runs. Later that year, he joined the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox for the playoffs, and helped lead them to a Junior World Series championship over the American Association Tulsa team; in just 10 playoff games, he hit .378 with four homers. The next year, 1974, Rice played with the PawSox for almost the whole year, where he won the International League's Triple Crown, Rookie of the Year, and MVP (.337, 25 HR, 93 RBI). [2]