| Jim Rice | |
|---|---|
 Rice with the Boston Red Sox in 1976 | |
| Left fielder / Designated hitter | |
| Born: March 8, 1953 Anderson, South Carolina, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| August 19, 1974, for the Boston Red Sox | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| August 3, 1989, for the Boston Red Sox | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .298 |
| Hits | 2,452 |
| Home runs | 382 |
| Runs batted in | 1,451 |
| Teams | |
| As player
As coach | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 2009 |
| Vote | 76.4% (15th ballot) |
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. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.
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 consecutive seasons. 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. 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.