NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Rice's route to stardom with the New York Yankees was anything but routine, even though he is a creature of habit.
A rare Ivy League graduate playing big league baseball, the baby-faced 27-year-old has filled the offensive void created by Aaron Judge's injury-filled season. Rice had a night to remember in the AL Wild Card Series opener, hitting a grand slam with six RBIs and four hits in a 9-0 rout of the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.
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He tied the Yankees RBIs record for a postseason game, matching Bobby Richardson, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui and Robinson Canó.
“Ben is Mr. Consistency, on top of being a Ivy League graduate," teammate Spencer Jones said. “He’s incredibly smart. He doesn’t take himself too seriously.”
A 12th-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft from Dartmouth, Rice played just 30 college games over three years due to the coronavirus pandemic. He grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, less than an hour’s drive south of Fenway Park.
He was a Yankees fan surrounded by Red Sox Nation, idolizing New York captain Derek Jeter.
“I was always playing with the Yankees on MLB 2K6 when I was a little guy. What a team to root for. They’re always so good. Pretty cool," he said.
Rice thought back to his youth at Joseph Osgood Elementary School.
“Definitely wearing the Yankees jersey to the first-grade picture day probably got some weird looks," he said.
Rice was a 10-year-old in Massachusetts when he watched the Yankees win their last title in 2009.
“It’s probably a little hazy for me,” he said. “I was pretty young.”
Rice is likely to get MVP votes after leading the Yankees with 41 homers, 97 RBIs and 105 runs while hitting .264 in his second full big league season.
“Count on one hand, one of the best hitters in the league,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
New York struggled when Judge was out with a toe injury in 2023 and had difficulty generating offense this year when their captain missed most of the season with a broken rib. Rice became the key cog, living up to the “Benny Barrels” nickname given to him by Yankees broadcaster David Cone.
Rice was hitting .306 through May, then batted .196 in June. An 18-for-58 (.119) slide after the All-Star break dropped his season average to .248 on Aug. 22 but he hit .327 (37 for 113) over the remainder.
“For as great a year as he had, he had a stretch there for a month where it was a grind and a struggle,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But he kind of got himself out of it. Really finished the last month with a flurry, and obviously carried it in here the first game of the postseason.”
When Rice debuted with the Yankees two years ago, he joined Yankees coach Brad Ausmus, Kyle Hendricks and Jim Beattie as Dartmouth graduates in the major leagues. Rice's degree is in psychology.
“He's a Dartmouth grad — he's an intelligent guy,” Ausmus said when Rice first made it to the big leagues.
Before heading to Yankee Stadium, Rice makes sure to start every day with scrambled eggs and toast.
“Same breakfast every day. Same routine in the cage every day. The whole timeline of the day is the same. Really just everything," he said. “Of course, you’ve got different pitchers on the mound, there’s different ways you prepare, but I think the consistency just leaves you asking yourself fewer questions throughout the day because you just go out there, OK, this is what I do, and this is how I’m going to go about my business and just be ready for whenever the game starts.”
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