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.
==================
This one just made me happy. I’m only embedding two of his photos here, but there are many, many more.