Yankees' Ben Rice embraced 'every bit' of first Home Run Derby experience: 'That was sick'
· Yahoo Sports
Even though he was eliminated in the first round, Yankees slugger Ben Rice had an unforgettable time in his first experience of the Home Run Derby on Monday night.
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With his dad as his pitcher, like they used to do in their backyard when Rice was younger, the lefty swinger totaled seven home runs in his first go-around which wasn’t enough to send him to the semi-finals.
Still, the experience alone was enough for Rice, who was smiling from ear to ear when talking to reporters after the event, to have a great time.
“That was sick,” he said. “Just getting to be out there with my dad, hearing all the boos and everything I was just trying to take it all in, it was so fun.”
With the derby being held at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, the heavily-skewed Phillies crowd let Rice hear it, not only when he was taking his hacks, but during the introductions too -- likely because of his connection to New York and the fact that the Yankees beat the Phillies in the 2009 World Series.
People don’t forget.
“The boos were crazy, especially in the opening ceremony,” Rice said. “It was so cool. I always like the saying ‘they don’t boo nobodies’ so it was really cool to just hear them rain down on me and even in the round too. It was fun.”
Obviously Rice didn’t let the hostile atmosphere take away from the magical experience he got to celebrate with his dad and said his adrenaline was “on another level” during the event. In fact, before taking the field, the 27-year-old thought he felt great and it wasn’t until his first swing that he realized just how fast he was going.
“I’ll tell you what, I didn’t realize how out front my first swings were gonna be,” he said. “I was in the cage and I was like ‘I’m gonna hit 20 home runs, I’m on fire right now’ and then I took my first swing and I was like ‘oh my god I am going so fast right now’ so I just had to figure out a way to slow down, but like I said it was a blast.”
On top of that, Rice is sure his swing must’ve looked different than his usual swing as he was trying to get the ball in the air as opposed to hitting line drives all over the field like in the regular season.
Nevertheless, the first baseman/designated hitter “embraced every bit” of the competition and “had a blast” while leaving things up in the air on whether or not he would do it again in the future.
“We’ll see, we’ll see. We’ll think about it,” Rice said. “If I ever got the chance I’d definitely consider it, but we’ll see.”
But if that was the one and only time for Rice, it’s something he’ll never forget.
“Even just when I stepped foot out there, just looked at my dad and we just smiled at each other and we were like ‘let’s go, let’s take some swings’ so it was super cool,” he said.