INTERVIEW: DR. CHRIS RICE, DAUGHTER OF HALL OF FAME OUTFIELDER

Edgar Charles “Sam” Rice began his professional baseball career as a pitcher, but he entered the Hall of Fame as a speedy outfielder with a lifetime .322 batting average. Rice starred for the Washington Senators for most of his 20-year career, helping the team to two pennants and a World Series championship in 1924.

He was involved in one of the most controversial plays in World Series history, in Game Three of the 1925 Classic, when he tumbled into the right field bleachers in pursuit of a fly ball hit by Earl Smith. When he emerged with the ball in his glove, the umpires ruled Smith out, but the controversy raged for years: had Rice actually caught the ball? When he was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1963, Rice penned a letter detailing the entire play, with instructions that it be opened upon his death. The letter was opened in Cooperstown in 1974, reading in part, “at no time did I lose possession of the ball.”

The Hall of Fame’s Dan Holmes sat down with Rice’s daughter, Chris, to discuss her father, his playing career, his life after baseball, and what baseball means to the Rice family.

How would you describe your father?
Daddy was modest and hard-working. He used to say, “If you want to succeed you have to concentrate and work hard.” I think he got those ethics at a young age. He used to say he would have played for a meal ticket. He was a sharp dresser and very conservative with his money. He was a fantastic father.

Your father served in two wars: the Mexican Insurrection of 1914, and World War I. What did he say about those experiences?
In 1913, he worked his way down from Illinois to get on the U.S.S. New Hampshire. Later, when President Wilson ordered the Navy into Mexico at Veracruz, Daddy was on the ship. He told me years later that during the war, he saw one man die on one side of him, and another man die on the other side. He thought that was a little too close for comfort. He was happy to be bought out of the Navy, which team owners could do in that day. Back in the States in August 1914, he played some ball while on leave, and the Portsmouth, Virginia club bought him, and the rest was history. In World War I, he was a mess sergeant in the U.S. Army’s 68th Infantry Corps and he went to France in 1918.

Your father debuted in the big leagues as a pitcher. What caused the switch to the outfield?
He told me that one day he gave up a hit to a batter, some guy named “Smith,” who probably wasn’t a very good hitter. After that, Daddy said, “If that guy can hit off me, I’m no pitcher.” Then he tore the toe plate off of his spike and asked them to give him a new job. They put him in the outfield, and he went from there. Eddie Foster, who was his teammate, had been suggesting that they put Daddy in the lineup every day because of his bat.

How did your father earn the nickname Sam?
He was warming up prior to one of his first games with Washington in 1915, and one of the newspaper writers asked manager Clark Griffith who he was, and Griffith said, “Rice,” but didn’t give the first name. When the writer filed his report he didn’t have Daddy’s first name, so he put in ‘Sam’ as a placeholder. The next day the name was still there in print, and it stuck. Daddy liked it. What ballplayer would want the name Edgar Charles? He was also called “Man O’ War” because of his speed, and I have a beautiful trophy that was presented to him by the fans of Washington in 1932, which is inscribed with that name.

Sam retired just 13 hits shy of the 3,000-hit mark. Did he ever regret not sticking around to reach that plateau?
He said he never really new how many hits he had, because they didn’t keep accurate records. Back in those days, they didn’t make much fuss about it. It wasn’t until later that he realized how important those hits were and by that time he was too old to come back. Had he not lost almost an entire year in the Army, he would have got 3,000. [Rice played just seven games in 1918 before entering the service.]

In the winter of 1925, your father traveled to Europe on a goodwill baseball tour. Where did he go, and what did he do?
The White Sox and Giants went to Europe to promote baseball in January of 1925, and Daddy was asked to go when one of the White Sox players backed out at the last minute. They sailed to England first and spent some time there playing ball and meeting people. I have a photo of Daddy meeting King George V. They also played in France and traveled by train through Europe. [Hall of Famers John McGraw, Frankie Frisch, Hughie Jennings, Eddie Collins, Ray Schalk, Red Faber, and Hack Wilson also made the trip.]

I only have one uniform from Daddy’s career, because he didn’t keep anything. He gave away his shoes and his glove, and he never saved any uniforms from the Senators, because they couldn’t keep them. The uniform I have is from the European tour, and it’s a Chicago White Sox uniform. It has red-white-and-blue colors and lettering, and it’s very heavy wool. It’s the only uniform that Daddy kept, and I have the cap, pants, shirt, and socks. [Since this interview, Ms. Rice has graciously donated the complete uniform to the Hall of Fame. It can be seen on display in the Museum's exhibit Taking The Field: The 19th Century.]

What did your father do in the years after his playing career?
He raised chickens in Maryland, and he never sat still. He was always doing something. He never really talked much about his playing career, or his friends from baseball. But when they’d stop by the farm, Daddy would chat with them and reminisce. Nick Altrock would have his driver bring him out to see Daddy at the farm and he would sit in his car and visit. Daddy would say, “Nick, do you want to come into the house?” and Altrock would say “No, I just came out to see if you were still alive out here.” The two of them would talk for 15-20 minutes, with Daddy leaning into the window of the car, and then Altrock would leave. It was the funniest thing. Bucky Harris, who lived in Maryland after he retired, would stop by too. My father kept busy on his farm after baseball. He raised homing pigeons until the 1950s, and he was one of the top breeders in the country.

Your father was a talented athlete, and he excelled at several sports. Did it come natural to him?
Yes, I think it did. He loved to play golf, and he was quite good. I remember when I was a little girl, he would stand there with his five-iron, and he’d tell me to run out into the field. He’d tell me to stand still, otherwise I’d get hit by the ball. Then he would hit golf balls, and he could make a semi-circle around me with those golf balls. I remember one time he did that when he was practicing for a match with some friends, who bet him a steak dinner if he could break 100, and this was when he was very old. He was a great athlete and a very good golfer, and when he died, at the age of 84, he had a 13 handicap. I still have several trophies Daddy received for golf.

Who were some of your father’s closest friends in baseball?
Daddy got along with just about everyone. Some of his best friends on the Washington Senators were Joe Judge, Roger Peckinpaugh and Walter Johnson. Daddy was a pallbearer at Johnson’s funeral. Judge had been Daddy’s roommate for years. He was also a good friend of Washington sportswriter Shirley Povich, whom Daddy credited with helping to get him into the Hall of Fame. Each year as the voting neared, Povich would write a column about Daddy, and when he was elected in 1963, Daddy thanked him for that. When Daddy would come back to Cooperstown for Induction Weekend, or go to an old-timers game, he would love to talk with the old ballplayers. He was good friends with Lefty Grove, and I remember coming with my father to Cooperstown for Induction Weekend and Lefty would be so happy to see us.

Your father was elected to the Hall of Fame almost 30 years after his last game. What did he say about Hall of Fame induction?
For years I’d read the newspaper, and I always asked Daddy, ‘Look at the batting averages of these players who are in. Yours is better than that, why aren’t you in?’ And he just said that they know what they’re doing. He once said, “If it were a real Hall of Fame, you’d say Cobb, Speaker, Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and a few others belonged, and then you’d let your voice soften to a mere whisper.” He was modest about his career, but when he got the news that he was inducted, he was excited. He acted like he wasn’t, but he was. I think it was the biggest thrill of his life. Each year he went back to Cooperstown it got better, because he saw all the players. When Daddy went back to Cooperstown for the Induction Ceremony, he was like a little kid. All of the players would get together and swap stories. I think going back to Cooperstown was what kept him going so long.

What can you tell us about the letter your father wrote detailing his famous catch in Game Three of the 1925 World Series?
I think that play was one of the things Daddy really enjoyed all those years, because everyone would ask him about it. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to tell the secret of whether he caught the ball, because it was such a wonderful story, but he wanted to. I was in Europe when he wrote the letter, but I knew he’d written it, and I knew that whatever he put in there was the truth. No one ever doubted what my father said about that play, and I always felt that if he said he caught it, he did. When it came out after he died, of course it was a big story. I make sure to see that letter each time I come back to Cooperstown for Hall of Fame Weekend.

You have a routine you go through each time you return to Cooperstown. Can you tell us about that?
The first thing I do when I come to Cooperstown is to put my bags in my room and walk over to the Hall of Fame. I always go down to the gallery and see Daddy’s plaque, and then I go to see the ball from the 1925 World Series catch and his letter. But before I go home, I go back to the Hall of Fame early in the morning and see his plaque again. I’m usually one of the only people in the gallery at that time in the morning. It’s very emotional for me. I think about what he taught me, and how he told me that I could do anything that I set my mind to, and that if I worked hard, I would be successful.

You have been a success, earning two degrees, traveling through Europe, and teaching for several years. What obstacles did you face, and how did your father’s advice help you?
When I graduated from college, it wasn’t easy for a woman to get a job, even if she had a degree. I can remember trying to get work in Washington and because I was a woman, they wouldn’t hire me. So I started filling out applications using the name “Chris” and leaving the sex blank. That was something that women faced at that time in America. I spent a few years in Europe working in Special Services for the U.S. Army. I set up activities for the enlisted men, and I was able to travel a lot. Later I went back to school, got a master’s degree in education, and taught for several years. Daddy always told me that I could do anything a man could do, and that advice helped me get through many tough times.

As an educator for several years, how do you think baseball can help kids in the classroom?
I taught for many years in Maryland, and I used to put up things on my walls about baseball and about my father, and the students loved it. Kids are very pliable people, and sports are an important part of their lives. I think it is so important that ballplayers be an example to young people. Baseball encompasses everything you need to teach children: how to play as a team, how to do your best, never shirk duty, work hard, have a goal to aim for, be a good sport, live healthy, and have strong character. I know that the Hall of Fame does a wonderful job with their education department, and it’s so important to reach out to young people through baseball.