Sam Rice: A Biography of the Washington Senators Hall of Famer Review

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(More customer reviews)I suspect that Jeff Carroll, a young and first-time author who is an Indiana sportswriter, could have picked an easier subject to chronicle than this somewhat obscure baseball player who retired in 1935 and died in 1974, and whose skills were perhaps more highly thought of by opposing players than by the public and the press of his day. Carroll has done a nice job of gathering the available bits and pieces into a highly readable and enjoyable book on an old player that I knew when he was elderly living in Ashton Maryland. Carroll has nicely captured the essence of Sam as I remember him.
Rice's big secret was the 1912 tornado deaths of most of his immediate family, and without that sad occurance he would have most likely lived out a quiet life as an Indiana farmer. Cast adrift by his tragedy, and rather than just staying a good local sandlot player, within three years he found himself in the big leagues as a Washington Senator. This team he would play for an astonding nineteen straight years, before ending his career playing for his friend Walter Johnson in Cleveland, 2987 hits later. He was an ageless wonder hitting for average and playing a quick-footed RF, and his record for the number of hits over the age of 30 was only broken years later by Pete Rose. Although playing on a team with bigger "stars" than he like Johnson and Judge, his work ethic,dependable play, and standing among older baseball writers got his election to the Hall Of Fame assured in 1962. No less than Ted Williams held Sam in high esteem, and mention in William's bible of the art of hitting a baseball.
Carroll has done a fine job in gathering together obscure information in this book, the first major work on Sam Rice. He has woven the stories of Rice's tragedy and triumph together,and shows how different baseball in the 1920s was from what it is like today, but in it's most pure and basic forms it is exactly the same then as it is now; that to those who play the game hard and fair, their recognition and fame is timeless.

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In the history of sports, few comeback stories compare to that of Edgar Charles Rice better known as "Sam." Away from home, trying out for a low-level minor league team, Sam Rice received a telegram on an April morning that would turn his world upside down: his wife, mother, both of his children and two younger siblings had been killed by a tornado. A few days later, his father died from injuries suffered in the tornado, as well. By the time he reached the major leagues three years later with the Washington Senators, Rice apparently had buried his past deep inside. He never spoke of the tragedy publicly while embarking on a career in which he would amass 2,987 base hits, 13 hits short of one of baseball's most hallowed milestones. In this moving biography, Jeff Carroll explores the great achievement and tragedy of a Hall of Fame outfielder and Washington Senators favorite.