Some of you may already know this…but I’m a diehard Red Sox fan. From birth. I’m sure it’s genetic. My Gram’s only wish was for them to win the World Series before she died. She, unfortunately, left us 8 years too soon. But we all toasted to her when they finally did it.
My first game ever was 1974…probably as memorable for being a great father-daughter day as for my first eye-popping experience at Fenway. I still have the tickets. And the lineup: Yastremksi, Rice, Lynn, Fisk, Petrocelli, Evans, Tiant, and Lee.
So how I missed this Jim Rice story – which was revisited when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009 – is a mystery. But I ran across it a few weeks ago. Gives me chills.
(if you can’t see the FB video, here’s a similar youtube video)
The Day Hall of Famer Jim Rice Saved a Little Boy’s Life
The most amazing thing that Rice ever did in a Red Sox uniform wasn’t even on the field
August 7, 1982. Fenway Park.
Boston Red Sox versus the Chicago White Sox.
The Red Sox were down 3–0 on their own field.Four-year-old Jonathan Keane was sitting in the seats behind the first base dugout with his dad and two-year-old brother. In the fourth inning, Red Sox second baseman, Dave Stapleton stepped up to the plate and the pitch was launched. Stapleton’s bat collided with the ball and turned into a line drive foul over the first base dugout. Suddenly, a relaxing day at the ballpark turned into a nightmare for the Keane family.
Seconds after the crack of the bat, Jonathan was down. Jonathan’s father, Tom, initially assumed the ball had struck the dugout. He then looked down to see his son, slumped over, and covered in blood. Jonathan had a large laceration to his forehead and was unconscious. Onlookers began yelling for emergency medical help.
Instinctively, Red Sox player and future Hall of Famer, Jim Rice hopped out of the dugout, grabbed the little boy, and held him in his arms as he ran to the dugout. By the time Rice arrived, the team physician, Dr. Arthur Pappas, who had witnessed the incident, had also made his way to the dugout. Dr. Pappas immediately called Boston Children’s Hospital as their medical team did what they could to aid the child. Within three minutes of Jonathan being struck by the ball, he was placed into an ambulance and en route to the hospital.
While Jonathan was turned over to the doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital and was undergoing surgery, Rice still had a job to do. He returned to the field, still in his blood-stained uniform, and finished the game, ending 1–4 with two RBIs. After the game, the press labeled him a hero and when they asked him about the incident, he stated, “If it was your kid, what would you do?”
The photo of the moment Rice scooped up Jonathan and raced him to the dugout was captured by then Herald photographer, Ted Garland.
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This one just made me happy. I’m only embedding two of his photos here, but there are many, many more.
Street Artist Transforms Cracks in Pavement To Turn Eyesores Into Gorgeous Mosaics
By Arnesia Young on May 21, 2021
Potholes and cracks in the sidewalks and pavement can be eyesores that detract from an otherwise beautiful urban street. Often left untouched by the government entities charged with maintaining them, these scars may sit there for years, becoming a characteristic part of the city’s landscape. Street artist Ememem—known throughout his home city of Lyon as “the pavement surgeon”—makes it his mission to heal these asphalt fractures by transforming them into colorful mosaics.
“I’m just a sidewalk poet, a son of bitumen,” Ememem says of his beautiful mosaic street art. “My work is the story of the city, where cobblestones have been displaced; a truck from the vegetable market tore off a piece of asphalt. Each becomes a flack.” More here
The rest of his work can be seen on Instagram (here) or his website (here).
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Good people, they are everywhere. This from Salt Water:
This teacher makes sure his student Heitor, who has a disability, enjoys recess like everyone else.
The smile at the end…
— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1) February 5, 2022
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And finally – here’s Trixie being silly. It’s amazing I get any work done.
Also, I owe Nick an apology. I’ve been scolding him for harassing Trixie. I thought he was protecting Nora. Then I spent our first warm morning this week outside doing cleanup, and was able to observe them more closely. There is no mistaking it, Nick is not chasing her away, he’s unequivocally in love with her. I’m not sure how I’m going to break it to him. It reminds me of when Mabel and Maddie fell in love with Jake. Critters, they are a mystery.
I’m still very worried about this ending badly, but not sure what to do. So far she responds by playing with him and is careful, remembering the size difference. But she is a puppy and clumsy as hell. I am working on a video for you, I promise. The issue is every time I go outside, I disrupt the fun with my presence.
This week’s dinner menu is Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (here) – I find myself pulling out my mom’s recipes as a way to remember her and this one was a weekly meal during my childhood, so brings back warm thoughts.
That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to send me acts of kindness so we can keep this going, and of course, share any you like in the comments.
NotMax
Speaking of things pasta, while knowing very well I no longer can muster the perseverance and persistence for it, any of you might fare better with the dome.
;)
Mike in NC
My roommate at Navy OCS was from Seattle. Both he and his wife were huge baseball fans, so they insisted we go to a Red Sox game. That was 1980 and the last time I visited Fenway Park.
Leslie
I had read the Rice story before, and seen some of Ememem’s work, but it was wonderful to revisit them both, and Heitor with his teacher was a perfect companion story.
I will keep my fingers crossed for Trixie and her lovestruck suitor, with high hopes that you can get a video.
Darkrose
Speaking of the Red Sox, I don’t know how I missed it last season, but this is pretty cool: the Red Sox have the first Black female coach in MLB! She’s a short queen, too:
Kristine
I read the Medium post. Rice also paid all the boy’s medical bills when he “realized the family’s financial state.”
I’m glad he’s in the Hall.
delk
I’m more familiar with Bachor Mosaics.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I know Adam says we have to be nice, but Red Sox??!? (j/k- lovely stories)
CaseyL
…telephoto lens through a window?
…sneak out beforehand and find a spot to lurk until the lovesick stalking action begins?
TaMara
Hey, I forgot to add the link to the dinner menu recipes. I’ve corrected that in the original post.
realbtl
You need a duck blind for the pix.
TaMara
@realbtl: Okay, that one made me laugh.
debbie
Yaz was my father’s most favorite player. He would drive up to Cleveland whenever the Yankees were playing. I remember sitting on the curb outside Fenway, eating subs and listening to the crowd.
Bill in Section 147
I got a Carl Yastremksi bat and a Rico Petrocelli glove for Christmas in 1967. It was a great high-quality glove and I cherished that baby.
MomSense
OMG I am also a diehard, lifelong Red Sox fan. Some of my favorite memories are of listening to the Sox on the radio while “helping” my dad in the darkroom. And in the summers my grandfather listened to the Sox on the radio. I still prefer radio to TV for the games. When I was in college outside of Boston I went to soooooo many games. For $10 I could travel round trip on the T, but a ticket (BLEACHA CREATCHA) and get a hot dog. The 1986 season was especially fun. Damn I miss those times.
I loved JIm Rice and wanted to be him. I signed up for little league softball in the summer of 1977.
Dan B
Our neighbors across the street adopted a three year old German Shepherd. The dog is gorgeous but seems afraid of strangers. He squeezes tight against Tim when anyone gets near so was likely abused. He is besotted with his new mom and dad. It brings a smile to see Kai and Tim playing. It’s nice they adopted a dog from a shelter, a dog that needed love.
Annie
OMG! My first game was at Fenway in 1973. Luis Tiant held the Oakland As to one run. Unfortunately the As pitcher — forget who it was — held the Red Sox to zero runs. Sigh.
MomSense
@debbie:
My grandmother loved him. Same for Fiske – said he spelled it the same way her people did.
narya
My first baseball game was at Connie Mack stadium, so I’m really dating myself . . .
Sheila in nc
In 1975 I graduated college and went to the northeast for grad school. My college boyfriend had already started grad school in Boston. We went to a night game in Fenway — I will never forget walking up all the dark ramps beneath the stands, then suddenly emerging to this breathtaking view of bright emerald green field, shining in the lights! Later I followed the postseason games religiously. Game 6 was awesome — when the Sox won in the 12th, I ran out of my apartment into the parking lot and could hear shouts of joy from all around the neighborhood. (We won’t talk about game 7.)
JMG
Dear TaMara: I was at that game, covering it for the Boston Phoenix. What I remember is that 1. Rice jumped into action when everyone else, even his equally athletic teammates, were shocked into momentary paralysis and 2. Afterwards in the locker room, he adamantly and repeatedly refused credit for his action.
persistentillusion
@MomSense: Huge Fiske fan when he was traded to the White Sox. Had season tix, before kids. Went often enough that we got to know the off-duty cops who did security, who came to our wedding.
TaMara
@JMG: That is so cool.
And I remember reading the Boston Phoenix when I lived in Boston in the 80s.
dm
@TaMara: Ah… the Boston Phoenix…
Did you ever see the movie Between the lines, about life at a Boston alternative weekly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_the_Lines_(1977_film) )?
Boston had two alternative newsweeklies — the Phoenix and the Real Paper, the latter formed by the workers who walked out of the Phoenix during a labor dispute.
Both papers started the careers of journalists and arts critics.
Zelma
@narya:
My first baseball game was also at Connie Mack Stadium but when I went, it was called Schibe (sp) Park. Now talk about dating oneself!
Mike in NC
@dm: I read the Boston Phoenix religiously in the late 1970s.
stinger
TaMara, I love these good news posts.
SFAW
I’ve lived in the Boston area since the 1970s, but I’ve never been a Sox fan — I’m a die-hard Mets fan — so I didn’t know about this story. [Or if I did, my dotage has caused me to forget it.] But what Rice did was pretty amazing, and it makes me want to call him up and thank him
ETA: And I was also a Phoenix reader. Even though I’m an old fart now, I miss it.
Jackie
Trixie and that colorful box… ??????
Kalakal
The story of why the Embankment Station on the London Undergound has a different voice doing the announcements to every other station is one of the loveliest, kindest stories I know,
tears me up every time
https://www.boredpanda.com/london-underground-dead-husband-announcements-voice-story/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
NotMax
@Mike in NC
So, only on Sundays?
:)
Laura Too
Thank you for posting something positive. It is nice to focus on something nice.
TaMara
@Kalakal: Dammit. The dust in here is overwhelming.
JoyceCB
@Zelma: I had a Philadelphia grandfather, he used to ramble on and on about Shibe Park and Connie Mack when I was a little girl and unfortunately I had very little idea what he was talking about. It’s too bad I was so young. But I was raised on the National League East, long before the Blue Jays came to Toronto and dragged me into the American League.
TaMara
@stinger:
@Laura Too:
Thanks for the feedback. Honestly, if I hadn’t figured out this was what I wanted to do, I’d probably post a lot less here. Just because I find so much of what is going on too overwhelming to deal with, much less post about.
This gives me a break, too.
columbusqueen
@Annie: I remember reading in SI when I was 10 (1975) that Luis would take a lump of tobacco, wrap it in chewing gum strips, & pop the whole mass in his mouth. Hence his chipmunk like cheek bulge every game.
Grossed me out, but I’ve never been able to forget it.
Noname
@TaMara: Thank you for doing these posts…they are like a few minutes of meditation. I’m glad they’re helping you too!
LongHairedWeirdo
Rice is a play I remember from when I played Statis Pro baseball with a few friends. It was a kind of predecessor to fantasy baseball.
I’m much more fond of a true story, of a wedding, that happened in 2004.
Red Sox were down, *0-3*, and I was at a wedding, and just flat out predicted, if the Sox could win the championship any year, it would be launched from the magic, joy, and love of that evening.
I swear, I was entirely guessing, and while I’d have cheerfully laid a c-note on a sports bookie, it’s only because a c-note wasn’t big bucks to me. I bet if I had, though, it’d have bought me dinner in a Michelin 3-star! Because sure enough, they won four straight, then picked up the W on the series too. I’m sure I kicked in a few hundred for wedding gifts, but I felt like I’d given the perfect wedding present.
Bostondreams
I’ve always loved this story about Rice. It is a wonderful contrast to his reputation of being surly with the media. And I mean, if I had to deal with Boston media as a black player…