Ben Rice’s Home Run Derby debut is going to look a little different from the usual power-showcase script.
When the Yankees slugger takes his swings at Citizens Bank Park on Monday, July 13, at 8 p.m. ET, the man tossing him batting practice won’t be a coach or a teammate. It’ll be his father, Dan Rice - the same guy who spent years loading up a bucket of baseballs, driving an hour or more, and meeting his son on chain-link fields across Massachusetts.
Rice accepted his invitation to the T-Mobile Home Run Derby this week, and the event will stream live on Netflix for the first time, with coverage starting at 7 p.m. ET. That gives the father-son setup an even bigger spotlight, and it also puts Rice’s rise in the middle of a rough Yankees season.
Through the club’s series opener against the Rays, Rice led the Yankees with 25 home runs. Across his first three major league seasons, he has 58.
He’s already shown he can handle a national stage, too. In July 2024, he became the first Yankees rookie ever to hit three home runs in a single game, doing it against the Boston Red Sox.
And this isn’t exactly unfamiliar territory for him. Rice has said that in his 2020 summer league, tied games were decided by a home run swing-off, and he won three times.
The family connection runs deep. Dan Rice pitched at Brown University in the 1980s, after growing up in Westwood, Massachusetts, where he starred in baseball and hockey and attended the Noble and Greenough School. He was later named a Boston Park League All-Star in 1986 and inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame in 2010.
That baseball background never really left him. Ben attended Noble and Greenough as a commuter, following his father, and the two kept a batting-practice routine going for years. Dan still throws to him every offseason, and those sessions have long been part training, part family ritual.
Rice said that his dad’s approach helped shape him as a hitter.
“My dad has always been there for me,” Rice said.
He also joked about just how much work his father has put in over the years.
“His lifetime pitch count is through the roof at this point,” Rice said.
The Derby invite only became real once Rice knew his father could be there on the mound. That mattered enough to him that the family element was part of the decision to accept. Once it was set, Rice made the pairing public himself, posting a childhood video of his dad pitching to him along with a look at their first practice round.
“Dad and I are heading to the HR Derby,” Rice wrote on social media.
For Rice, the night is about more than chasing balls into the seats. He said he wants to soak it in and enjoy the moment with the person who has been throwing to him his whole life.
“I just want to enjoy it, having fun taking BP with my dad,” Rice said.
The Yankees have had their share of Derby success, with Tino Martinez winning in 1997, Jason Giambi in 2002, Robinson Cano in 2011 and Aaron Judge in 2017. Rice has already tapped into that history, saying he and Judge watched video of Judge’s Derby win on the flight to Tampa.
Manager Aaron Boone is on board, too.
“I’m super excited for him,” Boone said.
So when Rice steps into the box next week, the scene will be bigger than the event itself. The spotlight will be bright, the stage will be national, and the pitcher standing across from him will be the same one who’s been there from the start.
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