Player #74J: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice Part 2. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.
Rice spotted Smith's drive off the bat and turned to sprint toward the right-field wall. He beat the ball to the wall, stopping and turning around to gauge his leap as the ball seemed destined for the bleachers and a tying home run. Rice leaped. Everyone in the ballpark could see him snag the ball, at least initially. But hardly anyone could see what happened next, and in fact it wouldn't be resolved for another fifty years.
The momentum of his leap and the ball's trajectory carried Rice over the wall and tumbling into the right-field bleachers. Running out to try to make a call on what had happened was second base umpire Charley "Cy" Rigler. . . .
. . . As Rice worked his way out of the bleachers, Rigler could only judge based on what he had seen. Rigler saw Rice snare the ball in his glove when he left his feet. And when Rice re-emerged from a fans lap, he still had the ball secured. What happened in between was anyone's guess, but Rigler raised his right hand to call Smith out. The Pirate half of the eighth was over, and the Senators still clung to their 4-3 lead.
"In all the future years that World's Series will be played, in all the games that have been played under high nervous tension in the past, one will never see a more thrilling catch than that grand grabby Sam Rice," Harry Cross wrote in the New York Times. "All Washington, and, in fact, American League fans from the Atlantic to the Pacific, who followed this afternoon's battle before the scoreboard or on the radio, raise their hats to Samuel Rice tonight."
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