Player #74G: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice. 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.
Carroll takes us through Rice's 1922 season Part 1: Even early on, there were signs that Rice might not be in shape to put up the kind of season Washington fans had grown accustomed to. After spending much of the winter back home hunting in Indiana, he was a few pounds overweight when he showed up to negotiate his contract. By the time he returned again in March for spring training, Rice was still carrying a few extra pounds (to his credit, he did arrive a week before he was required).
Rice had encountered difficulty picking up ground balls to the outfield in the past, but new Washington manager Clyde Milan thought his star was a little bit too nonchalant for his taste when a ball rolled through his legs during a late March relay throw drill, singly the star out in the newspapers. . . .
. . . Rice's fielding difficulties may have been good for a little laugh during Spring training, but when the bad habit of not getting down on base hits to the outfield cost the Senators runs in the regular season, it wasn't so funny anymore. Rice made a key error on such a chance in an early-season loss to the Yankees, Washington's fifth consecutive defeat and their eighth in nine games on the young season. The Post, begging for Griffith to retain Rice just months before (as Rice and Griffith haggled over his contract), blasted him for the gaffe.
"It was none other than Sammy Rice, the outfielding star of the troupe," Senators beat writer John A. Dugan reported, "who pulled what is becoming an almost daily stunt with him of allowing a ball to roll through his legs."
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