His father and mom drove down Saturday from Cohasset, Mass., and have been again on the Stadium on Saturday evening to look at Ben Rice play for the third time this week as a New York Yankee, this time towards the Braves.
“I used to be scared to let myself even think about that this was gonna occur,” Dan Rice was saying over the cellphone. “You at all times say, ‘I hope it does, ohmigosh received’t that be superior?’ ”
However Dan Rice by no means dared to think about it, by no means imagined his son standing at first base at Yankee Stadium for the New York Yankees.
“Not lengthy sufficient to jinx it, proper?” Dan Rice mentioned.
Little Ben began with hockey. “He was out in skates at 2, like all the children,” Dan mentioned. “We had just a little rink within the yard when it used to get chilly sufficient for that.”
The baseball dream started not lengthy after.
“As quickly as he may begin whacking issues, I used to be throwing stuff to him,” Dan mentioned.
Over and again and again via the years.
“It began out on a circle at our home, we stay in, I name it a useless finish, I believe most individuals name ’em cul-de-sacs,” Dan mentioned. “I had an ‘L’ Display, it’s form of an uncommon suburban accent (snicker) so I may simply throw him little tennis balls, then he bought sufficiently old we’d go all the way down to the Little League discipline. He grew out of that, we’d go to the opposite fields.
“I bear in mind it was greater than as soon as that Ben would go down and shovel the batting cage.”
The chance to attend Dartmouth steered Ben to baseball as soon as and for all.
“He’s at all times been a great hitter,” Dan mentioned. “What occurred, although, is he didn’t develop when all the opposite youngsters did. He was a late maturer. He bought larger and stronger and impulsively a few of these balls have been going on the market.”
An agent named Pete Mrowka at all times believed in Ben.
“He saved telling me he was gonna be a Division I participant,” Dan mentioned.
The Yankees chosen Ben within the twelfth spherical of the 2021 MLB Draft.
“Oh wow, that was such an incredible day,” Dan mentioned, “and we have been hoping it was gonna be the Yankees. I used to go to the library like a variety of laptop computer folks, proper, to spend the day working earlier than the sport. So Ben got here with me to the Cotuit Library watching the draft. Then he bought picked, there was a librarian in there, it was a quiet place aside from us (snicker). His grandma came visiting after he bought picked.”
Ben — who went 1-for-3 with a stroll and a run scored within the Yankees’ 8-3 win over the Braves — was a Derek Jeter fan rising up. “He wore a Yankee jersey to his first-grade image,” Dan mentioned.
Dan recalled what they known as a Legends Tour at Fenway Park in April 2004, when Ben was 5.
“Ben went to that sporting a Yankees jacket and a Yankees hat,” he mentioned. “So I bought an image of him in entrance of the Inexperienced Monster with that. Then they take you all the way down to the Pesky Pole, and so they provide you with a Sharpie or one thing. All people has to signal, that’s a part of the tour. So Ben (snicker) wrote ‘Yankees Rule.’ ”
Former Pink Sox normal supervisor Lou Gorman was there. “Derek Jeter’s my favourite participant,” Ben advised him.
Dan: “And Lou Gorman goes, ‘Wow. Effectively, he’s a terrific participant, I want we had him.’ ”
The Rice household cheering part went bananas when Ben (.214, .547 OPS) singled in his first recreation as a Yankee, and bought to have a good time with him afterward.
“I believe they made an exception and after folks had kinda bought out of there we bought out on the sphere, and that’s hallowed floor, clearly,” Dan mentioned. “Get on the market together with your child on the sphere and all that at Yankee Stadium, my goodness.”
Dan had the identical Main League Baseball dream as soon as. He was a Frank Robinson/Orioles fan. He would pitch at Brown. He’s an lawyer as we speak.
“I’m from the period the place each boy in America, and hopefully that’s nonetheless true,” Dan mentioned, “however definitely after I was rising up, that was what all people wished to be.”
The Yankees like Ben’s make-up the way in which they like Anthony Volpe’s make-up.
“I used to note, like, when he would do his homework, he wouldn’t stress about it,” Dan mentioned. “He was good and calm, and I believe you kinda see that in his at-bats. That’s the way in which he competes, like, I noticed him smiling after he bought that hit. He’s a dialed-in competitor, and he enjoys it.”
Dan figured that Ben’s greatest path to the massive leagues could be as a lefty-hitting catcher. Which is the place the Yankees envisioned him for some time. “He’ll go wherever they want him to play,” Dan mentioned.
Ben’s brother Sam and Sam’s girlfriend can be becoming a member of the social gathering Sunday. The Rices will go at any time when they should go watch Ben Rice, first baseman, New York Yankees.
