Derby highlights for Rice: Sharing stage with dad -- and being booed

PHILADELPHIA – The most memorable snapshot of Ben Rice’s first experience in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby came on his final swing, waiting for gravity to bring a sky-high pop-up back toward the infield at Citizens Bank Park.

Watching it plop on the turf untouched, Rice moved immediately toward the mound, where he exhaustedly enveloped his father, Dan, in a hug. Rice remembered his first words as being: “That was sick.”

“I didn’t realize how out front my first swings were going to be,” Rice said with a beaming smile. “I was in the cage and I was like, ‘I’m going to hit 20 home runs. I’m on fire right now.’ Then I took my first swing and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s going so fast right now.’”

Rice eventually controlled that surging adrenaline enough to slug seven home runs in the first round, four of which traveled more than 420 feet. Rice’s longest blast was a Statcast-projected 443 feet.

Though he exited early from the event, won by the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker, Rice gushed over the experience. He said the whole night was “super cool” – even being lustily booed by a Philadelphia crowd as he walked onto the field.

“The boos were crazy, especially in the opening ceremony,” Rice said. “It was so cool. I always like to say, ‘They don’t boo nobodies.’ It was just really cool to have them rain down on me, even in the first round, too. That was fun.”

Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler volunteered to serve as Rice’s personal Gatorade assistant, though the first-time All-Star was never called upon.

“He’s amazing,” Schlittler said. “I don’t really see him take BP that much. He’s been so good. I know he gets a lot of cage work in, and he’s hit a lot of home runs off a lot of good players this season.”

Cody Bellinger offered a few tips from his previous Derby experience, having also tabbed his father to pitch – former big leaguer Clay Bellinger.

“I get to talk a lot of hitting with Ben. That’s really fun,” Bellinger said. “We’re both lefties, and we hit next to each other in the lineup. He’s really smart; very mature in his approach for his second full year in the big leagues. He’s obviously getting way better.”

But the experience almost certainly meant the most to Rice’s dad, a pitcher on Brown University’s baseball team in the 1980s who returned to the mound decades later to groove fastballs to his son.

On chain-link fields across Massachusetts, Dan Rice spent years piling out of his car, carrying buckets of baseballs and an L-screen, a familiar routine that let them spend time together ahead of summer league games and Cape Cod League contests.

“My dad has always been there for me,” Rice said. “Every offseason, I’m going back and making sure I get my BP in with my dad. He always went the extra mile; he’d drive an hour-plus or two hours from Cohasset, and we’d go hit at a local field to get our swings in for the day.”

After Rice’s elimination, he and his father watched most of the Derby from the seats in front of the third-base dugout.

“We were just in awe of all these guys, the way these guys hit the ball,” Rice said. “There’s dudes with so much power. We were just admiring the way they were hitting.”

Leading the Yankees with 29 home runs, the 27-year-old Rice has become a staple in the Bombers’ lineup, including being named the American League Player of the Week earlier Monday.

The Yankees have experienced mixed results in the Derby over the years. Jazz Chisholm Jr. entered last season but was eliminated in the first round. Chisholm was New York’s first entry since 2017, when Aaron Judge won the competition in Miami.

Four Yankees have won the Home Run Derby: Tino Martinez (1997), Jason Giambi (2002), Robinson Canó (‘11) and Judge. Asked if he would like to try his luck again in a future Derby, Rice said he wasn’t quite ready to make that call.

“If I ever got the chance, I would definitely consider it,” Rice said, “but we’ll see.”