Culture Clash! Jim Rice is 'Disrespected' by a Red Sox Staffer for Giving Hitting Advice to a Player 'That Didn't Align' With the Team's Approach

One of the pleasant surprises of being a Red Sox fan over the last, oh, 50 years (shudder) has been watching Jim Rice's evolution. From a player with a reputation for being kind of surly and unapproachable to respected elder statesman and baseball TV analyst, his growth has been remarkable to watch. And it's a reminder that the same Boston sports media that used to talk about Rice like he was a dick were some of the same people who trashed Ted Williams and Yaz before him, and Nomar and Pedro after him. Just to name the most egregious examples of great players who got trashed around here like it's a Boston tradition. 

I bring this up because Rice is still around the team he had a Hall of Fame career for. Still working for the club and for NESN, even at the tender age of 72. And because his capacity of team staff member, media guy and expert in the art and science of hitting baseballs, he ran afoul of another employee:

Athlon Sports - Every spring training, MLB organizations invite former players to camp to offer their leadership and baseball knowledge to younger players. 

One of the Boston Red Sox legends at camp this spring is MLB Hall of Famer Jim Rice, who ... was also the Red Sox's hitting coach from 1995 to 2000 and is currently a special-assignment instructor for the club. He is also an analyst for NESN.

In a discussion with The Boston Globe [paywall], Rice said an unnamed Red Sox staff member interrupted him while offering hitting advice to a player exiting a batting cage. 

A staffer told Rice that his advice did not align with the organization's hitting approach. Rice reportedly asked the staffer if he played professional baseball, and the response was no. 

"It was something I didn't like because I felt like I was disrespected," Rice told the outlet. "I didn't throw myself on anyone. I'm sitting down, having coffee. Nobody's bothering me. Someone comes over and asks me a question. What am I supposed to say? I didn't go and get this kid. I didn't go and bring this kid and say, 'Hit like this.' He came over and talked to me."

The Boston Globe adds that after the staffer told Rice he did not play baseball, the 1978 AL MVP responded, "Then you can't talk to me. Look at the monitor, do what you do, and don't talk to me."

Holy shit. This is straight out of Moneyball. Jonah Hill's Yale Economics graduate telling Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Art Howe the key to winning is putting Chris Pratt's Scott Hatteberg at first base. Except Howe was never one of the greatest right handed hitters of the last half a century or hit almost 400 home runs in a pre-juice era when that number still meant something. 

I mean, how could you not love Rice telling this anonymous drone to go piss up a rope? This is probably someone who's been preaching launch angles and exit velocity since he was taking notes from the bench in Little League. Whereas Rice was the terror of MLB pitchers since before this marshmallowy twit was born. He was a professional hitting coach while this slappy was soiling his diapers. Rice has forgotten more about how to put a bat on a pitched ball than any booksmart SABREmetrics jagoff will ever know, and he hasn't forgotten much. 

So clean it up, John Henry. Start teaching your analytics nerds how to put respect in their mouths when they utter the name Jim Rice. This hitter who needed help went to the right source for advice. Like Rambo, they asked Rice, he didn't ask them. Stats guys have their uses, but they need to know their place. It's at a laptop, going through data and compiling reports. It's not correcting the ones who were actually in the trenches batters boxes, battling it out for real against the best hurlers of the 70s and 80s. Who didn't need all this analysis from theorists to get themselves immortalized in Cooperstown. So reign these geeks in if you know what's best for your team.