Dream come true: Cohasset's Ben Rice relishes return to Fenway Park as a Yankees rookie

BOSTON — Somewhere in the multiverse, on an alternate time line, Ben Rice might have rolled up to TD Garden this winter and made his local debut as an NHL rookie with the New York Rangers (or the Islanders).

Rice was quite a hockey player as a kid, to hear Chris Lund, his Cohasset Little League coach, tell it.

"Dan (Ben's dad) and I also coached youth hockey, and Ben was a better hockey player than he was a baseball player," Lund recalled this week. "I always drafted hockey players (in Little League) because they don't complain; they just come to play."

Apprised of Lund's long-ago scouting report on Friday, Ben Rice agreed that he was kind of a big deal on ice back in the day.

"When I was a little guy, I would say so," Rice said. "I was still good at baseball, but hockey I was really good at when I was little. I was mostly a forward (back then), but as I got older and into high school (Noble and Greenough School in Dedham), I played a little of both (forward and defense)."

Choosing baseball over hockey as a career goal appears to have paid off for Rice, who made his (local) Major League debut Friday night. The rookie first baseman, who was called up on June 18, led the New York Yankees into Fenway Park for the start of a three-game series, returning to the building that he visited so many times as a kid growing up.

"It's surreal," said Rice, who signed the inside of the Green Monster on his return. "I spent so much time here (as a fan). It's cool."

His favorite memory of Fenway as a kid?

"I saw Clay Buchholz's no-hitter versus the Orioles" in 2007, Rice said on the field while getting ready to take batting practice. "I remember that to this day. That was really fun."

More: South Shore abuzz over one of their own playing at Fenway. (Even if he is in pinstripes.)

Rice, who has made a meteoric rise this season -- he started the year in Double-A ball -- had a small army of friends and family in attendance. The support group, of course, included his dad, who had a brief chat with his boy through the protective netting in front of the stands next to the Yankee dugout.

"I wish I could come up with a word that's better than surreal," Dan Rice said with a laugh. "It's what everybody says. It's amazing (to see Ben playing at Fenway). It's such an important place and a nice place for people who love baseball from Boston, and I think that's practically everyone. Practically everyone I know, at least.

"To see your kid participating in that and being part of the whole show is amazing. We just have tons of gratitude, tons of appreciation. We have so many friends who are having fun with it. That's maybe the best part of it – that so many people we know are getting such a kick out of it. I love hearing from everybody. Everybody just loves it."

Ben Rice came in batting .308 in 13 at-bats against the Red Sox this season, highlighted by an epic three-homer game at Yankee Stadium on July 6. His best memory of that -- getting some major air as he leaped up to celebrate with 6-7 teammate Aaron Judge, who was in the on-deck circle, as he headed toward the dugout following his third blast of the day.

"I think that showed how excited I was," Ben Rice said with a laugh. "I didn't realize my feet went up that high."

More: 'He never missed anything': The late, great Mike Loftus was all about family and hockey

It had been a dry spell since then, though, with Rice struggling through a 4-for-50 slump that has mirrored the problems of the Yankees as a whole. New York entered Friday 10-22 since June 15 -- the second-worst mark in the majors over that time, ahead of only the dreadful Chicago White Sox.

Rice, who went 0-for-4 in Friday night's 9-7 loss to the Sox, said he's worked on keeping his spirits up, noting, "You just gotta value the process more than results when it comes to this point. Am I having good at-bats? Am I making the right decisions? Things like that. How's my approach? Those are the things you have to focus on (when you're scuffling)."

Rice didn't start either of the Yankees' two previous games (back-to-back losses to the Mets at Yankee Stadium), but he was in the lineup Friday, batting sixth and playing first base. He was hoping to build on a great at-bat against the Mets on Tuesday as he flirted with an opposite-field, two-run double as a pinch hitter, only to see Mets center fielder Harrison Bader track the ball down in the left-center gap near the wall.

"It helps," Rice said of squaring up a pitch well. "Obviously, results-wise it stinks, but process-wise, hey, I did the right thing – I had a long at-bat, hit the ball hard. Unfortunately, it was to the wrong part of the park and Bader did a good job tracking it down."

He wasn't speaking specifically about Rice, but Yankees manager Aaron Boone did note that sometimes it doesn't take much -- maybe a well-struck ball that turns into an out -- to turn a slump around. "The game gets real hard and mental and you're just trying to make adjustments," Boone said. "But those little small things can start to snowball and get you clicking and back to the player we know you are."

Rice entered Friday's game batting .196 but it should be noted that hasn't played all that much baseball since high school. His career at Dartmouth was sabotaged by COVID (the Ivy Leagues pulled the plug early on the 2020 season and then opted not to play at all in 2021) and between the minor leagues and the majors he's just barely over 1,000 professional plate appearances despite being 25.

"Experience-wise in professional baseball, I'm still on the lower end relative to a lot of people (my age)," he pointed out. "I missed two full spring seasons (at Dartmouth), which is hundreds of at-bats right there. I think it's been good the last couple of years to get opportunities more regularly."

A big weekend series at Fenway Park would do wonders for his average -- and his chance of sticking in the majors with the trade deadline rapidly approaching and the Yankees perhaps looking for a veteran option at first base.

"It would be awesome" to bust out of the slump here, Rice said. "It'd be all you could ask for. But at the same time, I'm just trying to enjoy the moment and take it all in."

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Dream come true: Cohasset's Ben Rice relishes return to Fenway Park as a Yankees rookie