Jim Rice

For the better part of 12 season (1975-86), Jim Rice was one of the best hitters in baseball, regularly batting over .300 and driving in 100 or more RBIs while hovering near the lead in hits. At the time of his own retirement, Hank Aaron predicted that if one player was to break his all-time home run record, it likely would be Rice. In the periods of 1977-80 and 1983-86, he was named to eight American League All Star Teams, while in 1978, Rice became the first player since Joe DiMaggio to total more than 400 bases (406) in a season. A the end of the 1978 season, Rice had racked up the home run and RBI titles and had come in third in batting while leading the league in slugging percentage (.600), games (163), at bats (677), hits (213), triples (15), extra-base hits (86) and times-on-base (276). For that prodigious season, he was named the American League's Most Valuable Player. It wasn't until the steroid era that Larry Walker, playing in home-run launching pad Denver in 1997, again sur