Jim Rice

James Edward Rice (born March 8, 1953) is an American former professional baseball left fielder and designated hitter who played in Major League Baseball (MLB).

Rice played his entire 16-year MLB career for the Boston Red Sox.

In the minor leagues, Rice's three-run home run was the key blow in helping the Pawtucket Red Sox (International League) defeat the Tulsa Oilers (American Association) in a 5–2 win in the 1973 Junior World Series.

After he was AAA's International League Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and Triple Crown winner in 1974, he and fellow rookie teammate Fred Lynn were brought up to the Red Sox at the same time, and were known as the "Gold Dust Twins".

Between 1975 and 1986, Rice led all major league players in hits, RBIs and total bases, as well as all AL players in home runs and runs scored.

From 1975 through 1980 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 promoted in the Red Sox organization to be a full-time player in 1975, and finished in second place for the American League's Rookie of the Year honors, and third in the Most Valuable Player voting, after he finished the season with 174 base hits, 102 runs batted in, a .309 batting average and 22 home runs; Lynn won both awards.

The Red Sox won the AL's East Division, but Rice did not play in either the League Championship Series or World Series because of a wrist injury sustained during the last week of the regular season when he was hit by a pitch.

The Red Sox went on to lose the World Series 4 games to 3 to the Cincinnati Reds of the National League (NL).

In that year he had tied the Milwaukee Brewers George Scott's (1975) record and became the second player to ever lead the AL in HRs, RBI's and GDPs in the same season.

When the 1977 season came to an end Jim Rice found himself leading the AL in three different offensive categories.

His 39 Home Runs was tops in the league, and it was the first time he had led the league in this stat.

He also had a .593 Slugging Average and was the league leader in this area as well.

The last of being the best in the league stat for the '77 season was in total bases.

Rice's 382 total bases not only led the league that year but it was the most hit into,by an AL player, over the previous 39 years.

Rice led the AL in home runs three times (1977, 1978, 1983), in RBI twice (1978, 1983), in slugging percentage twice (1977, 1978), and in total bases four times (1977–1979, 1983).

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 above .300 seven times, collected 100+ runs batted in (RBI) eight times, had 200 hits four times and 20+ home runs 11 times.

He also led the league in home runs three times, RBIs and slugging percentage twice each, and averaged more than 117 hits for every 100 regular season MLB games he had played in during his career.

In 1978, Rice won the American League's Most Valuable Player award in a campaign where he hit .315 (third in the league) and led the league in home runs (46), RBI (139), hits (213), triples (15), total bases (406, and slugging percentage (.600). Altogether he led the AL in 11 different categories that year. He is one of only two AL players ever to lead his league in both triples and home runs in the same season, and he remains the only player ever to lead the major leagues in triples, home runs and RBIs in the same season. His 406 total bases at that year is still a Red Sox record, and the most in the AL since Joe DiMaggio had 418 in 1937. it made Rice the first major leaguer with 400 or more total bases since Hank Aaron's 400 in 1959. This feat was not repeated until 1997, when Larry Walker had 409 in the NL. No AL player has done it since Rice in 1978, and his total remains the third highest by an AL right-handed hitter, behind DiMaggio and Jimmie Foxx (438 in 1932).

Rice had another superb season in 1979.

Beside it being his third season that he had more than 200 hits he had also finished in the top 3 in eight AL batting categories.

He finished 3rd in Runs Scored and 2nd in Home Rans.

He also was 2nd when it came to RBIs, Hits, Slugging average, Runs created, and Extra base hits.

He did lead the league in Total Bases for the 3rd time, and he also had the fourth highest batting average for the season.

Because of amassing these stats, he is only player in MLB history to have 3 consecutive seasons of having at least 200 hits, 39 or more HRs, while batting no less than .315 in each of those three seasons.

At the end of the 1983 season Rice led the AL in 4 different categories which included home runs, RBI's, total bases, and grounding into double plays (GDPs).

In 1986, Rice had 200 hits, batted .324, and had 110 RBIs.

The Red Sox made it to the World Series for the second time during his career.

This time, Rice played in all 14 postseason games, where he collected 14 hits, including two home runs.

He also scored 14 runs and drove in six.

The 14 runs Rice scored is the fifth most recorded by an individual during a single year's postseason play.

The Red Sox went on to lose the World Series to the New York Mets, 4 games to 3, the fourth consecutive Series appearance by Boston which they lost in seven games.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.

In 2012 Miguel Cabrera, as a member of the Detroit Tigers became the third AL player to reach this mark.

At the present time no NL player had led the that league in these 3 categories at the same time.