Jim Rice holds the Yordan Alvarez home run ball from the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022 at Minute Maid Park.
Matt Young/Houston Chronicle
One in a series of catching up with fans who played in a role in Houston sports history.
When Yordan Alvarez almost assuredly is named the American League Most Valuable Player on Thursday night, Jim Rice will have a smile on his face.
The lifelong Houston Astros fan may even throw on his No. 44 jersey for the occasion, but his most precious piece of Alvarez merchandise absolutely will not see the light of day.
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Rice, an oil and gas executive in Dallas, was the man in the right place at the right time on Nov. 5, 2022 when the Astros slugger blasted one of the most consequential home runs in franchise history with a towering 450-foot blast over the batter’s eye in dead center at Minute Maid (now Daikin) Park that turned Game 6 “upside down” as Fox’ Joe Davis put it on the broadcast. The ball ricocheted around the high-top chairs in the party deck area, when Rice jumped on the ball like a lineman trying to take no chances with a fumble on a football field.
Rice fended off other fans to secure his piece of Astros history that night, and he’s had to keep others at bay ever since. He was offered six figures for the baseball before he even left the stadium and probably could get an even better offer if he shopped it around even four years later, but instead he keeps it in a safe at his house, content with knowing he owns one of the most treasured artifacts of his favorite team.
The ball is in a personalized glass case with all the pertinent details of what makes this particular item so special, but it still stays behind the safety of a steel door.
“I’m kind of hesitant to display it outside the safe, because if it’s outside the safe, there’s a chance it could disappear,” Rice told the Houston Chronicle this week. “So, it has its own little place in the safe, but for now that’s where it’s staying.”
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That rule even applies to Rice’s 10-year-old son Holt, who thought he had a bright idea when he had some buddies over while his dad was watching an Astros playoff game at home last month.
“He said, ‘Hey dad, can I go get the ball out of the safe and show the guys?” said Rice said with a chuckle, as he envisioned a nightmare straight out of “The Sandlot” movie. “I’m like, ‘There is no way you can get that ball out of the safe.’”
Still laughing that John Smoltz thought I was this guy’s security. He would’ve been in rough shape. https://t.co/keCkquY145
— Matt Young (@Chron_MattYoung) November 6, 2022
The ball turned Rice into a mini celebrity that Saturday night in Houston. After someone offered him $100,000 for the ball inside the stadium, then left his business card to show it was a serious offer, Rice hustled to his hotel, but decided to stop in the bar for a celebratory drink.
“I walk in and the bartender goes, ‘Dude, you’re the guy who caught the ball!’” Rice said.
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The night resulted in a whirlwind of texts from people he hadn’t heard from since high school and even interview requests from media around the state.
“My son asked me, ‘Dad, are you famous?’ I go, ‘Well, maybe in Houston for about another 48 hours, but after that, no,’” he said.
But even four years later, Rice’s brief moment in the baseball sun is still a popular topic of conversation at parties. Everyone wants to know how exactly he came away with the baseball, but the banter never ends without the pertinent question being asked.
So, what are you going to do with that baseball?
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“My plan ultimately is to keep it,” said Rice, adding that he if ever changes his mind, he would offer it to the Astros first. “The Astros have always been my favorite sports team out of all the teams out there, and Yordan Alvarez is my favorite current player. So, I think it’s really cool to be able to have that piece of history. I don’t have any immediate plans of trying to get rid of it or anything like that. I’m comfortable hanging on to it. If it’s something I end up passing down to my son, then I’m fine with that.”