Boston Red Sox: Ranking top 10 players from the 1980s
By Drew Athans
Jim Rice
Jim Rice was another Hall of Famer who called Fenway Park home during the 1980s. He spent his entire sixteen year career, from 1974-1989, with the Red Sox and was the third in the team’s succession of great left fielders, carrying the torch passed on from Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski.
Rice was one of the Gold Dust Twins of the 1970s when he and fellow rookie Fred Lynn took the American League by storm in 1975 en route to a heartbreaking loss in the World Series that year. Rice evolved into one of the most feared sluggers in the game by the late 1970s, culminating with his MVP season of 1978. By the time the 1980s rolled around, he settled into being a productive power hitter who also hit for average.
During the decade, Rice hit .286 with 210 HR and 868 RBI. He led the American League in home runs and RBI in 1983 and in the pennant-winning season of 1986, he hit .324 with 20 home runs and 110 RBI. Slowed by injuries and age, Rice’s numbered dipped during his final three seasons of 1987-1989 (which he spent mostly as a DH) before he hung it up for good.
Still, he was one of more feared hitters in the American League during the decade and the Red Sox retired his number (14). He was enshrined in Cooperstown and remains one of the best sluggers the Sox ever had in both the 1970s and 1980s.