Reliant Astrodome
The Astrodome, Eighth Wonder of the World, House of Pain[1]
200px
Former names	Harris County Domed Stadium (1965) Houston Astrodome (1965–2000)
Location	8400 Kirby Drive Houston, Texas 77054
Coordinates	29°41′6″N 95°24′28″W / 29.685°N 95.40778°W / 29.685; -95.40778Coordinates: 29°41′6″N 95°24′28″W / 29.685°N 95.40778°W / 29.685; -95.40778
Broke ground	January 3, 1962
Opened	April 9, 1965
Closed	December 21, 1996 (NFL) October 9, 1999 (MLB) 2003 (rodeo) 2006 (official)
Owner	Harris County, Texas
Operator	Astrodome USA
Surface	Grass (1965) Painted Dirt (1965) Astroturf (1966–present)
Construction cost	$35 million ($258 million in 2012 dollars[2])
Architect	Hermon Lloyd & W.B. Morgan Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson
Structural engineer	Walter P Moore
General Contractor	H.A. Lott, Inc.[3]
Capacity	Baseball: 54,816 Football: 62,439 Professional Wrestling: 67,925
Field dimensions	Original Left field – 340 feet (104 m) Left Center Field – 375 feet (114 m) Center field – 406 feet (124 m) Right Center Field – 375 feet (114 m) Right field – 340 feet (104 m) Backstop – 60.5 feet (18 m) Final Left field – 325 feet (99 m) Left Center Field – 375 feet (114 m) Center field – 400 feet (122 m) Right Center Field – 375 feet (114 m) Right field – 325 feet (99 m) Backstop – 52 feet (16 m)
Tenants
Houston Astros (MLB) (1965–1999) Houston Oilers (AFL / NFL) (1968–1997) Houston Cougars (NCAA) (1965–1997) Houston Gamblers (USFL) (1984–1985) Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (1966–2003) Houston Energy (WPFL) (2002–2006) Houston Texans (WFL) (1974) Houston Hurricane (North American Soccer League|NASL) (1978–1980) Bluebonnet Bowl (NCAA) (1968–1984, 1987) Houston Bowl (NCAA) (2000–2001) Final Four (NCAA) (1971) Wrestlemania X-Seven (WWF) (2001)

Reliant Park area, Houston, Texas. Astrodome & Reliant Stadium at center of this 2010 astronaut photo.

Reliant Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, USA. The stadium is part of the Reliant Park complex. It opened in 1965 as Harris County Domed Stadium and was nicknamed the "Eighth Wonder of the World".^[4]

History[link]

Conception[link]

Major League Baseball expanded to Houston in 1960 when the National League agreed to add two teams. The Colt .45s (renamed the Houston Astros in 1965) were to begin play in 1962, along with their expansion brethren New York Mets. Roy Hofheinz, a former mayor of Houston, and his group were granted the franchise after they promised to build a covered stadium. It was thought a covered stadium was a must for a major-league team to be viable in Houston due to the area's subtropical climate and hot summers. Game-time temperatures are usually above 97 degrees in July and August, with high humidity, and a likelihood of rain. Hofheinz claimed inspiration for what would eventually become the Astrodome when he was on a tour of Rome, where he learned that the builders of the ancient Colosseum installed giant velaria to shield spectators from the Roman sun.

The Astrodome was conceived by Hofheinz as early as 1952 when he and his daughter Dene were rained out once too often at Buffalo Stadium, home of Houston's minor league baseball affiliate, the Houston Buffs. Hofheinz abandoned his interest in the world's first air-conditioned shopping mall, The Galleria, and set his sights on bringing major league baseball to Houston.^[5]

Bands in Astrodome

The Astrodome was later designed by architects Hermon Lloyd & W.B. Morgan, and Wislon, Morris, Crain and Anderson. Structural engineering and structural design was performed by Walter P Moore Engineers and Consultants of Houston. It was constructed by H.A. Lott, Inc. for Harris County, Texas. It stands 18 stories tall, covering 9½ acres. The dome is 710 feet (216.4 m) in diameter and the ceiling is 208 feet (63.4 m) above the playing surface, which itself sits 25 feet (7.6 m) below street level.^[6]

The Dome was completed in November 1964, six months ahead of schedule.^[7] Many engineering changes were required during construction, including the modest flattening of the supposed "hemispherical roof" to cope with environmentally-induced structural deformation and the use of a new paving process called "lime stabilization" to cope with changes in the chemistry of the soil. The air conditioning system was designed by the Houston civil engineer Jack Boyd Buckley.

Astrodome Skylights

The multi-purpose stadium, designed to facilitate both football and baseball, is nearly circular and uses movable lower seating areas. It also ushered in the era of other fully domed stadiums, such as the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, the now-demolished Kingdome in Seattle, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, and the now-demolished RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

Hofheinz had an opulent apartment in the Dome, which was removed when the facility was remodeled in 1988.^[8]

Seating capacity[link]

The seating capacity for baseball has been as follows:

• 42,217 (1965)
• 46,000 (1966–1967)
• 44,500 (1968–1974)
• 45,101 (1975–1981)
• 47,690 (1982–1989)
• 54,816 (1990–present)

The seating capacity for football has been as follows:

• 50,000 (1965–1983)
• 50,495 (1984–1986)^[9]
• 50,594 (1987–1989)^[10]
• 62,439 (1990–1991)
• 62,021 (1992–1994)^[11]
• 59,969 (1995–present)^[12]

Initial opening and fielding surface[link]

When the Astrodome opened on April 9, 1965, Judy Garland and The Supremes performed on opening night to a capacity crowd.

Originally, the stadium's surface was a Tifway 419 Bermuda grass playing surface specifically bred for indoor use. The dome's ceiling contained numerous semitransparent panes made of Lucite. Players quickly complained that glare coming off of the panes made it hard for them to track fly balls. Two sections of panes were painted white, which solved the glare problem, but caused the grass to die from lack of sunlight.^[13] For most of the 1965 season, the Astros played on green-painted dirt and dead grass.

The solution was to install a new type of artificial grass on the field, ChemGrass, which became known as AstroTurf. Because the supply of AstroTurf was still low, only a limited amount was available for the home opener on April 18, 1966. There was not enough for the entire outfield, but there was enough to cover the traditional grass portion of the infield. The outfield remained painted dirt until after the All-Star Break. The team was sent on an extended road trip before the break, and on July 19, 1966, the installation of the outfield portion of AstroTurf was completed. Groundskeepers dressed as astronauts kept the turf clean with vacuum cleaners between innings. The infield dirt remained in the traditional design, with a large dirt arc, similar to natural grass fields.

In 1971, the Astros installed an all-AstroTurf infield dirt, except for dirt cutouts around the bases. This "sliding pit" configuration was first introduced by Cincinnati with the opening of Riverfront Stadium on June 30, 1970. It was then installed in the new stadiums in Philadelphia in 1971, and Kansas City in 1973. The artificial turf fields of Pittsburgh and St. Louis were traditionally configured like the Astrodome, and would also change to sliding pits in the 1970s.

Throughout its history, the Astrodome was known as a pitcher's park. The power alleys were never shorter than 370 feet (110 m) from the plate; on at least two occasions they were as far as 390 feet (120 m). Over time, it gave up fewer home runs than any other park in the National League.^[5] The Astrodome's reputation as a pitcher's park continued even in the mid-1980s, when the fences were moved in closer than the Metrodome, which was long reckoned as a hitter's park.

June 15, 1976 "The Rainout"[link]

Ironically—given the fact that it is an indoor stadium, even more so because a new roof was installed before the 1976 season—the Astrodome suffered a rainout on June 15, 1976. The Astros' scheduled baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates was called when flooding in the Houston area prevented the umpires and most fans from reaching the stadium. Both teams had arrived early for practice, but the umpires were several hours late. At 5pm that day, with only a handful of fans on-hand and already several hours behind, the umpires and teams agreed to call the game off. Tables were brought onto the field and the teams ate dinner together.^[14]

Although the Astros still had a home series with Pittsburgh in August, this game was made up in Pittsburgh in July.

Scoreboard[link]

The Houston Astrodome was well-renowned for a four-story scoreboard called the "Astrolite", composed of thousands of light bulbs that featured numerous animations. After every Astros home run, the scoreboard would feature a minute-long animated celebration of pistols, bulls, and fireworks. The scoreboard remained intact until 1988 when Astrodome part-time tenant Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) owner Bud Adams suggested the removal of the scoreboard to accommodate capacity demands for football, baseball and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Harris County spent $67 million of public funds on renovations.^[15] Approximately 15,000 new seats resembling the 1970s rainbow uniform pattern were installed to bring seating capacity to almost 60,000 for football. On September 5, 1988, a final celebration commemorating the scoreboard occurred prior to expansion renovations.

Motorsports[link]

• The Houston Astrodome was the opening event for the AMA Grand National Championship for 18 years, beginning in 1968.
• The events held were Short Track and TT
• The Astrodome also hosted an AMA Supercross event from 1974–2002. The first Astrodome Supercross winner was Jim Pomeroy.
• The Houston Supercross event has been moved to Reliant Stadium.

Recent history[link]

Astrodome interior in 2004

In 1989, four cylindrical pedestrian ramp columns were constructed outside the Dome for accessibility. This enabled the Astrodome to comply with the later Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The 1992 Republican National Convention was held at the Astrodome in August of that year. The Astros accommodated the convention by taking a month-long road trip.

On August 19, 1995, a scheduled preseason game between the Oilers and the San Diego Chargers had to be canceled due to the dilapidated condition of the playing field. Oilers owner Adams demanded a new stadium, but the city of Houston refused to fund it. After years of threats, Adams moved the team to Tennessee in 1996.^[16] Around that time the Astros also threatened to leave the city unless a new ballpark was built.^[17] The retractable-roofed Enron Field (now known as Minute Maid Park) opened for the 2000 season in downtown Houston.

One of the largest crowds in the Astrodome's history, more than 66,746 fans, came on Sunday, February 26, 1995, to see Tejano superstar Selena and her band Los Dinos perform for a sell-out crowd during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.^[18] Selena y Los Dinos had performed two consecutive times before at the Astrodome, breaking previous attendance records each time. This was Selena's last televised concert before she was fatally shot on March 31, 1995 by her fan club president, Yolanda Saldivar. This would be the Astrodome's largest crowd until WWE's WrestleMania X-Seven was held at the Astrodome on April 1, 2001, establishing a new all-time and current record for the facility at 67,925 fans.

The Astrodome was joined by a new neighbor in 2002, the retractable-roofed Reliant Stadium, which was built to house Houston's new NFL franchise, the Houston Texans. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo moved to the new venue in 2003, leaving the Astrodome without any major tenants. The last concert performed at the Astrodome was George Strait & the Ace in the Hole band.^[19] The stadium is currently called the "lonely landmark" by Houstonians.^[20] Since 2008 when the facility was cited with numerous code violations only maintenance workers and security guards are allowed to enter the Astrodome.^[21] The city council has rejected demolition plans on environmental grounds, over concerns that demolition of the Dome might damage the dense development that today closely surrounds it.^[22] Being the world's first domed stadium, historic preservationists may also object to the landmark being demolished, although it is not included on the National Register of Historic Places.

Houston's plan to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games included renovating the Astrodome for use as a main stadium.^[23] Houston became one of the USOC's bid finalists, but the organization chose New York City as its candidate city; the Games ultimately were awarded to London by the IOC.

The Astrodome was ranked 134th in the "America's Favorite Architecture" poll commissioned by the American Institute of Architects, that ranked the top 150 favorite architectural projects in America as of 2007.^[24]

Plans to convert the Astrodome into a luxury hotel have also been rejected.^[25] A new proposal to convert the Astrodome into a movie production studio is currently under discussion.^[26] All renovation plans must deal with the problem of occupancy code violations that have basically shuttered the facility for the near future.^[27]

Teams and notable events[link]

• The first home run in the Astrodome was hit by Mickey Mantle off of pitcher Turk Farrell on April 9, 1965 in an exhibition game between the Astros and the New York Yankees.^[28] The first official home run was hit by Dick Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies in a game on April 12 of that year a 2–0 Astros loss.^[29]
• The Game of the Century between the University of Houston Cougars and the UCLA Bruins took place at the Astrodome in 1968 before a crowd of 52,963 — the record for the largest attendance ever at a basketball game until 2003, a 35-year span. The first NCAA regular season game broadcast nationwide in prime time, the Game of the Century established college basketball as a sports commodity on television, and paved the way for the modern "March Madness" television coverage. The Cougars, coached by Guy V. Lewis, defeated coach John Wooden's Bruins, led by Lew Alcindor, 71-69 behind a 39 point scoring effort from Elvin Hayes.
• Robert Altman's 1970 comedy Brewster McCloud was set at the Astrodome: the eponymous hero is an eccentric young man who lives at the stadium.
• Evel Knievel jumped 13 cars, two nights in a row, drawing over 100,000 spectators to the Astrodome in January 1971, and though there was talk of him making an actual jump over the stadium itself sometime in the future, it never happened.
• Legendary 3 time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali fought Cleveland Williams in the Astrodome, in November 1966.
• The Astro Spiral car jump was performed January 12, 1972 - which later was performed in the James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun.
• Elvis Presley gave a performance in the Astrodome on February 27, 1970. He would perform there again on March 3, 1974.
• The Battle of the Sexes tennis match occurred on September 20, 1973, with Billie Jean King defeating Bobby Riggs in three straight sets. While more of a publicity stunt than a serious match, it made national headlines and stands as a milestone in the progress of women's sports.
• KTRK-TV Channel 13 Eyewitness News anchorman Dave Ward was injured during a motocross exhibition race ( which also included Channel 13 sports anchor Bob Allen, as well as other local media figures ) in the Astrodome in the early 1970s.
• The Astrodome hosted The Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, headed by Bob Dylan, on January 25, 1976.
• The Astrodome was the setting for the filming of the famous exhibition game with the fictional Houston Toros in the 1977 movie The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training.
• The British heavy metal band Deep Purple performed in the Astrodome, August 30, 1974.
• The Rolling Stones performed, on two consecutive nights, at the Astrodome during their 1981 North American Tour on October 28–29, 1981, during their Steel Wheels Tour on November 8, 1989, during their Voodoo Lounge Tour on November 13, 1994.
• The Jacksons performed, on two consecutive nights, at the Astrodome during their Victory Tour on November 9–10, 1984.
• The 1986 National League Championship Series ended with what at the time was the longest post-season game in history. The hometown Astros lost an epic 16-inning Game 6 to the eventual World Series champion New York Mets, 7-6. (The record was surpassed at the new Minute Maid Park during the 2005 National League Division Series when the Astros won an 18-inning game against the Atlanta Braves. The contest featured Roger Clemens in relief for only the second time in his career.)
• Madonna performed at the Astrodome during her Who's That Girl World Tour on July 24, 1987, with Level 42 as her opening act.
• Pink Floyd performed at the Astrodome during their A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour on November 18, 1987.
• The Astrodome hosted the 1989 NBA All-Star Game. Attendance was over 44,000 and Karl Malone won MVP honors.
• Metallica and Guns N' Roses performed at the dome during their co-headlining Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour on September 4, 1992, with Faith No More as their opening act.
• On February 28, 1993, Tejano superstar Selena broke the Sunday matinee record attendance. There were 57, 894 fans in attendance.
• Paul McCartney performed at the Astrodome during The New World Tour on April 22, 1993.
• On February 26, 1995, little more than a month before her murder, Selena broke the attendance record for the 3rd year in a row. This concert had 66,746 fans in attendance.
• On October 3, 1999, the Astros played their final regular season game at the Astrodome, and clinched the Central Division title with a 9–4 win over the Dodgers. The final Astros game in the stadium occurred 6 days later when the Braves eliminated the Astros in Game 4 of the Division Series.
• On April 1, 2001 professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) (then known as WWF, the World Wrestling Federation) hosted WrestleMania X-Seven. The event had a record breaking attendance of 67,925.
• In 2001, U2 filmed the music video for "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" inside the Astrodome.

Hurricane Katrina[link]

Survivors of Katrina in the Astrodome

On August 31, 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Harris County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the State of Louisiana came to an agreement to allow at least 25,000 evacuees from New Orleans, especially those that were sheltered in the Louisiana Superdome, to move to the Astrodome until they could return home. The evacuation began on September 1. All scheduled events for the final four months of 2005 at the Astrodome were cancelled.^[30] Overflow refugees were held in the surrounding Reliant Park complex. There was a full field hospital inside the Reliant Arena, which cared for the entire Katrina refugee community.

The entire Reliant Park complex was scheduled to be emptied of hurricane refugees by September 17, 2005. Originally the Astrodome was planned to be used to house refugees until December. However, the surrounding parking lots were needed for the first Houston Texans home game. Arrangements were made to help Katrina refugees find apartments both in Houston and elsewhere in the United States. By September 16, 2005 the last of the hurricane refugees living in the Astrodome had been moved out either to the neighboring Reliant Arena or to permanent housing north of Houston.^[31] As of September 20, 2005, the remaining Katrina refugees were relocated to Arkansas due to Hurricane Rita.^[32]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Houston portal
	Baseball portal
	National Football League portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Astrodome

• Smith, Liz. "Giltfinger's Golden Dome," Sports Illustrated, April 12, 1965.
• Sarnoff, Nancy. "The Astrodome: "Houston's Eiffel Tower"." Houston Chronicle. April 26, 2010.

Jim Rice
Rice in 2009.
Left fielder
Born: (1953-03-08) March 8, 1953 (age 59) Anderson, South Carolina
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
August 19, 1974 for the Boston Red Sox
Last MLB appearance
August 3, 1989 for the Boston Red Sox
Career statistics
Batting average	.298
Hits	2,452
Home runs	382
Runs batted in	1,451
Teams
Boston Red Sox (1974–1989)
Career highlights and awards
8× All-Star selection (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986) 2× Silver Slugger Award winner (1983, 1984) 1978 AL MVP Boston Red Sox #14 retired
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	2009
Vote	76.4% (15th and final ballot)

James Edward "Jim" Rice (born March 8, 1953), nicknamed "Jim Ed", is a former Major League Baseball left fielder.

Jim Rice played his entire career for the Boston Red Sox from 1974 to 1989. An 8-time American League (AL) All-Star, he was named the AL's Most Valuable Player in 1978 after becoming the first major league player in 19 years to hit for 400 total bases, and went on to become the ninth player to lead the major leagues in total bases in consecutive seasons, and join Ty Cobb as one of two players to lead the AL in total bases three years in a row. He batted .300 seven times, collected 100 runs batted in (RBI) eight times and 200 hits four times, and had eleven seasons with 20 home runs, also leading the league in home runs three times, RBIs and slugging average twice each.

In the late 1970s he was part of one of the sport's great outfields along with Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans, who was his teammate for his entire career; Rice continued the tradition of his predecessors Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski as a power-hitting left fielder who played his entire career for the Red Sox. He ended his career with a .502 slugging average, and then ranked tenth in AL history with 382 home runs; his career marks in homers, hits (2,452), RBI (1,451) and total bases (4,129) remain Red Sox records for a right-handed hitter, with Evans eventually surpassing his Boston records for career runs scored, at bats and extra base hits by a right-handed hitter. When Rice retired, his 1,503 career games in left field ranked seventh in AL history. Rice was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 26, 2009, as the 103rd member voted in by the BBWAA.

Notable seasons[link]

Rice's three-run home run was the key blow in helping the Pawtucket Red Sox (International League) defeat the Tulsa Oilers (American Association) in a 5–2 win in the 1973 Junior World Series. After he was AAA's International League Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and Triple Crown winner in 1974, he and fellow rookie teammate Fred Lynn were brought up to the Red Sox at the same time, and were known as the "Gold Dust Twins".^[1][2] He was promoted in the Red Sox organization to be a full-time player in 1975, and finished in second place for the American League's Rookie of the Year honors, and third in the Most Valuable Player voting, after he finished the season with 174 base hits, 102 runs batted in, a .309 batting average and 22 home run; Lynn won both awards. The Red Sox won the AL's East Division, but Rice did not play in either the League Championship Series or World Series because of a wrist injury sustained during the last week of the regular season when he was hit by a pitch. A disappointed Rice appeared during the postseason player introductions, in uniform and without the cast on his wrist,^{[citation needed]} which he had removed the night before, informing the team that he was fit to play.^{[citation needed]} Red Sox management, however, persuaded him that healing would be in the best future interest of both Rice and the team. The Red Sox went on to lose the World Series, 4 games to 3, to the Cincinnati Reds of the National League (NL).

In 1978, Rice won the Most Valuable Player award in a campaign where he hit .315 (third in the league) and led the league in home runs (46), RBI (139), hits (213), triples (15) and slugging average (.600). He is one of only two AL players ever to lead his league in both triples and home runs in the same season, and he remains the only player ever to lead the major leagues in triples, home runs and RBIs in the same season. His 406 total bases that year were the most in the AL since Joe DiMaggio had 418 in 1937, and it made Rice the first major leaguer with 400 or more total bases since Hank Aaron's 400 in 1959. This feat wasn't repeated again until 1997, when Larry Walker had 409 in the NL. No AL player has done it since Rice in 1978, and his total remains the third highest by an AL right-handed hitter, behind DiMaggio and Jimmie Foxx (438 in 1932).

In 1986, Rice had 200 hits, batted .324, and had 110 RBIs. The Red Sox made it to the World Series for the second time during his career. This time, Rice played in all 14 postseason games, where he collected 14 hits, including two home runs. He also scored 14 runs and drove in six. The 14 runs Rice scored is the fifth most recorded by an individual during a single year's postseason play. The Red Sox went on to lose the World Series to the New York Mets, 4 games to 3, the fourth consecutive Series appearance by Boston which they lost in seven games.

Career accomplishments[link]

Jim Rice's number 14 was retired by the Boston Red Sox in 2009.

Rice led the AL in home runs three times (1977, 1978, 1983), in RBI twice (1978, 1983), in slugging average twice (1977, 1978), and in total bases four times (1977-1979, 1983). He also picked up Silver Slugger awards in 1983 and 1984 (the award was created in 1980). Rice hit at least 39 home runs in a season four times, had eight 100-RBI seasons and four seasons with 200+ hits, and batted over .300 seven times. He finished his 16-year career with a .298 batting average, 382 home runs, 1,451 RBIs, 1,249 runs scored, 2,452 hits, and 4,129 total bases. He was an American League All-Star eight times (1977–1980, 1983–1986). In addition to winning the American League MVP award in 1978, he finished in the top five in MVP voting five other times (1975, 1977, 1979, 1983, 1986).

Rice is the only player in major league history to record over 200 hits while hitting 39 or more HRs for three consecutive years. He is tied for the AL record of leading the league in total bases for three straight seasons, and was one of three AL players to have three straight seasons of hitting at least 39 home runs while batting .315 or higher. From 1975 to 1986, Rice led the AL in total games played, at bats, runs scored, hits, homers, RBIs, slugging average, total bases, extra base hits, go-ahead RBIs, multi-hit games, and outfield assists.^[3] Among all major league players during that time, Rice was the leader in five of these categories (Mike Schmidt is next, having led in four).

In 1984 he set a major league single-season record by hitting into 36 double plays. His 315 career times grounding into a double play ranked third in major league history behind Hank Aaron and Carl Yastrzemski when he retired; he broke Brooks Robinson's AL record for a right-handed hitter (297) in 1988, and Cal Ripken, Jr. eventually surpassed his mark in 1999. Rice led the league in this category in four consecutive seasons (1982-1985), matching Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi for the major league record. The on-base prowess of Rice's teammates placed him in a double play situation over 2,000 times during his career, almost once for every game he played. Rice posted a batting average of .310 and slugging percentage of .515 in those situations, better than his overall career marks in those categories.

Rice could hit for both power and average, and currently only nine other retired players rank ahead of him in both career home runs and batting average: Hank Aaron, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.

Rice was an accomplished left fielder, finishing his career with a fielding percentage of .980 and had 137 outfield assists (comparable to Ted Williams' figures of .974 and 140). Although never possessing great speed, he had a strong throwing arm and was able to master the various caroms that balls took from the Green Monster (in left field) in Fenway Park. His 21 assists in 1983 remains the most by a Red Sox outfielder since 1944, when Bob Johnson had 23. Aside from playing 1543 games as an outfielder during his career, Rice also appeared as a designated hitter in 530 games.

Rice's number 14 was retired by the Red Sox in a pre-game ceremony on July 28, 2009.

Community activities[link]

Rice was associated with a variety of charitable organizations during his career, primarily on behalf of children, some of which have carried on into his retirement. He was named an honorary chairman of The Jimmy Fund, the fundraising arm of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, in 1979,^[4] and in 1992 was awarded that organization's "Jimmy Award", which honors individuals who have demonstrated their dedication to cancer research.^[5] Rice is also active in his support of the Neurofibromatosis Foundation of New England.^[6] Rice's involvement with Major League Baseball's RBI program (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) resulted in the naming of a new youth baseball facility in Roxbury, Massachusetts in his honor in 1999.^[7] A youth recreation center in Rice's hometown of Anderson, South Carolina is also named in his honor.

Rice's most notable humanitarian accomplishment occurred during a nationally televised game on August 7, 1982, when he rushed into the stands to help a young boy who had been struck in the head by a line drive off the bat of Dave Stapleton. As other players and spectators watched, Rice left the dugout and entered the stands to help 4-year old Jonathan Keane, who was bleeding heavily. Rice carried the boy onto the field, through the Red Sox dugout and into the clubhouse, where the young boy could be treated by the team's medical staff.^[8]

Retirement activities[link]

Rice has served as a roving batting coach (1992–1994) and hitting instructor (1995–2000), and remains an instructional batting coach (2001–present) with the Red Sox organization. While the Red Sox hitting coach, the team led the league in hitting in 1997 and players won two batting titles. Rice was the hitting coach for the American League in the 1997 and 1999 Major League Baseball All-Star Games, both under the same manager, ironically the New York Yankees' Joe Torre. Since 2003, he's also been employed as a commentator for the New England Sports Network (NESN), where he contributes to the Red Sox pre-game and post-game shows. He had a cameo appearance in the NESN movie Wait Till This Year^[9] and in the film Fever Pitch.^[10] The former slugger has been known to pass his wisdom on to the current Sox players and stars from time to time. Rice was elected to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame when it first opened in 1995, and he is the 40th member of Ted Williams' Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame, having been inducted along with Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield and Robin Yount in 2001.^[11] On November 29, 2008, the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) announced that Rice would be the recipient of the Emil Fuchs Award for long and meritorious service to baseball.^[12]

During his Hall of Fame acceptance speech Rice revealed that he is a devoted fan of The Young and the Restless, noting that he was watching the show when he was informed of his acceptance.^[13]

Hall of Fame[link]

While Rice was generally regarded as one of the better hitters of his era based upon the statistics traditionally used by the BBWAA to evaluate players' Hall of Fame qualifications, he was not elected until his 15th and final year of eligibility, netting 76.4% of the votes, in 2009. Over the years he was on the BBWAA ballot, he received 3,974 total votes, the most ever collected by any player that was voted on for baseball's highest honor. In 2006^[14] and 2007,^[15] he received over 63% of votes cast. Rice just missed being elected in 2008 when the count found him on 72.2% of the ballots, only 2.8% short of the required 75%. Rice became the third enshrinee to get into the shrine on his last chance on the ballot, and the first since Ralph Kiner (1975).

Rice's delay in being elected to the Hall of Fame stemmed in part from more current statistical analysis of player performance. This analysis suggested that Rice's HOF credentials might have been more questionable than they were considered during his career.^[16] The delay may also have been related to his often difficult relationship with the media during his playing career, many of whom are still voting members of the BBWAA, and his career fading relatively early - he last played in the major leagues at the age of 36.^[17] Some writers, such as the Boston Herald's Sean McAdam, said that Rice's chances improved^[18] with the exposure of the "Steroids Era" in baseball. In the same article, McAdam expanded this subject by adding: "In an era when power numbers are properly viewed with a healthy dose of suspicion, Rice's production over the course of his 16 years gains additional stature." As such, he has received increasingly more votes each year since the 2003 ballot, improving his vote totals by 133 votes over the last five years on the ballot.^[19] However, from several sabermetric standpoints (not including Black Ink, Gray Ink or HOF Monitor) it can be argued that Rice falls short of his peers in the Hall of Fame.^[20] In addition, the meme that was circulated by the Red Sox PR department that Rice was the "most feared hitter of his generation" was questionable, as he never came close to leading the league in Intentional Walks and dominates the top 5 seasons in which a player has grounded into the most double plays. Nevertheless, several commentators have noted that the continued criticism of Rice's statistics not meeting sabermetric standards is unfair given that several other hall of fame players, notably Andre Dawson and Tony Perez, fare even worse against such standards.

During the 2007 season, the Pawtucket Red Sox started a campaign to get Rice inducted which included having fans sign "the World's Largest Jim Rice Jersey."

Although other players have compiled career statistics more similar to Rice's, most notably 1999 Hall inductee Orlando Cepeda, perhaps the most similar player to Rice was 1968 inductee Joe Medwick. Both were power-hitting left fielders who batted right-handed and played their home games in stadiums which favored hitters, and both had a period of a few years in which they enjoyed a remarkable burst of offense, each winning an MVP award at age 25 – Rice after collecting 400 total bases, and Medwick after becoming the last NL player to win the Triple Crown. Both retired at age 36 due to the cumulative effect of various minor injuries. Their career totals in games, at bats, runs, hits, RBI, steals, on-base percentage, slugging average, extra base hits and total bases are all fairly similar, with notable differences only in batting average and home runs; Medwick's higher average (.324 to .298) can be partially attributed to the higher emphasis on batting average in the 1930s, while Rice's advantage in home runs (382 to 205) is largely the result of a dramatic increase in homers over the 40 years between their careers (Rice ranked 10th in AL history upon his retirement, while Medwick ranked 11th in NL history upon his). Medwick was elected to the Hall in his final season of eligibility in 1968, which Rice also duplicated.

See also[link]

• List of top 300 Major League Baseball home run hitters
• Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame
• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
• List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
• List of Major League Baseball home run champions
• List of Major League Baseball triples champions

• Major League Baseball titles leaders

Reference(s)[link]

• Official Website of the Boston Red Sox
• Goldberg, Jeff (1997-08-07). "The Day Rice Made Contact". The Hartford Courant. http://home.att.net/~yflanagan/baseball/ricehero.html. Retrieved 2007-02-28. 
• Antonen, Mel (2007-01-09). "Baseball Hall of Fame Chat: Mel Antonen". USA Today. http://transcripts.usatoday.com/Chats/transcript.aspx?c=1006. Retrieved 2007-03-01. 
• Ted Williams Museum Hitters Hall of Fame

• Cooperstown Calls For Henderson, Rice

External links[link]

• Jim Rice at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• SABR biography
• BaseballLibrary - biography and career highlights
• Jim Rice for Hall of Fame
• Baseball Almanac
• Jim Rice mentioned on Red Sox Radio WEEI
• Jim Rice Batting Fundamentals
• Rice dominated AL for a decade - Boston slugger again up for Hall of Fame inclusion
• THE CULLING by D. Allan Kerr -- "One More Time At Bat For Jim Rice"

Elvis Presley
Publicity photo for Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Background information
Birth name	Elvis Aaron Presley
Born	(1935-01-08)January 8, 1935 Tupelo, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	August 16, 1977(1977-08-16) (aged 42) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Rock and roll, pop, rockabilly, country, blues, gospel, R&B
Occupations	Musician, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	1953–77
Labels	Sun, RCA Victor
Associated acts	The Blue Moon Boys, The Jordanaires, The Imperials
Website	elvis.com

Elvis Aaron Presley^a (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage the singer for over two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", released in January 1956, was a number one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.

Conscripted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973 Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii, seen by approximately 1.5 billion viewers. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.

Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music.^[1][2][3][4] Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.

Life and career[link]

Early years (1935–53)[link]

Childhood in Tupelo[link]

Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to 18-year-old Vernon Elvis and 22-year-old Gladys Love Presley.^[5] In the two-room shotgun house built by his father in readiness for the birth, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. As an only child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an unusually tight bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church where he found his initial musical inspiration.^[6]

Presley's ancestry was primarily a Western European mix: On his mother's side, he was Scots-Irish, with some French Norman; one of Gladys's great-great-grandmothers was Cherokee.^[7]b His father's forebears were of Scottish^[8] or German^[9] origin. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family. Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evidencing little ambition.^[10][11] The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by the landowner. He was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.^[12]

In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his instructors regarded him as "average".^[13] He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, saw his first public performance: dressed as a cowboy, the ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth.^[14] A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle.^[15][16] Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."^[17]

Entering a new school, Milam, for sixth grade in September 1946, Presley was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar in on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime, and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. The family was by then living in a largely African American neighborhood.^[18] A devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO, Presley was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, a classmate of Presley's, who often took him in to the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar tuition by demonstrating chord techniques.^[19] When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.^[20]

Teenage life in Memphis[link]

In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Courts.^[21] Enrolled at Humes High School, Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", in an effort to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing."^[22] He was generally too shy to perform openly, and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy".^[23] In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Jesse Lee Denson, a neighbor two-and-a-half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts.^[24] That September, he began ushering at Loew's State Theater.^[25] Other jobs followed during his school years: Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products.^[26]

During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew out his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. On his own time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing them.^[27] Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Courts, he competed in Humes's Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: "I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became after that."^[28]

Presley, who never received formal music training or learned to read music, studied and played by ear. He frequented record stores with jukeboxes and listening booths. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs^[29] and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills.^[30] The Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style.^[31][32] He was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African American spiritual music.^[33] He adored the music of black gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.^[30] Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues—of necessity, in the segregated South, only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences.^[34] He certainly listened to the regional radio stations that played "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy sound of rhythm and blues.^[35] Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas.^[36][37] B.B. King recalled that he knew Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street.^[38] By the time he graduated high school in June 1953, Presley had already singled out music as his future.^[39][40]

First recordings (1953–55)[link]

Presley in a Sun Records promotional photograph, 1954

Sam Phillips and Sun Records[link]

In August 1953, Presley walked into the offices of Sun Records. He aimed to pay for a few minutes of studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He would later claim he intended the record as a gift for his mother, or was merely interested in what he "sounded like", though there was a much cheaper, amateur record-making service at a nearby general store. Biographer Peter Guralnick argues that he chose Sun in the hope of being discovered. Asked by receptionist Marion Keisker what kind of singer he was, Presley responded, "I sing all kinds." When she pressed him on whom he sounded like, he repeatedly answered, "I don't sound like nobody." After he recorded, Sun boss Sam Phillips asked Keisker to note down the young man's name, which she did along with her own commentary: "Good ballad singer. Hold."^[41] Presley cut a second acetate in January 1954—"I'll Never Stand In Your Way" and "It Wouldn't Be the Same Without You"—but again nothing came of it.^[42]

Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows. He explained to his father, "They told me I couldn't sing."^[43] Songfellow Jim Hamill later claimed that he was turned down because he did not demonstrate an ear for harmony at the time.^[44] In April, Presley began working for the Crown Electric company as a truck driver.^[45] His friend Ronnie Smith, after playing a few local gigs with him, suggested he contact Eddie Bond, leader of Smith's professional band, which had an opening for a vocalist. Bond rejected him after a tryout, advising Presley to stick to truck driving "because you're never going to make it as a singer."^[46]

Phillips, meanwhile, was always on the lookout for someone who could bring the sound of the black musicians on whom Sun focused to a broader audience. As Keisker reported, "Over and over I remember Sam saying, 'If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.'"^[47] In June, he acquired a demo recording of a ballad, "Without You", that he thought might suit the teenaged singer. Presley came by the studio, but was unable to do it justice. Despite this, Phillips asked Presley to sing as many numbers as he knew. He was sufficiently affected by what he heard to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Black, to work something up with Presley for a recording session.^[48]

	"That's All Right" noicon Presley transformed not only the sound but the emotion of the song, turning what had been written as a "lament for a lost love into a satisfied declaration of independence."[49]
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until late in the night. As they were about to give up and go home, Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled, "All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open ... he stuck his head out and said, 'What are you doing?' And we said, 'We don't know.' 'Well, back up,' he said, 'try to find a place to start, and do it again.'" Phillips quickly began taping; this was the sound he had been looking for.^[50] Three days later, popular Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right" on his Red, Hot, and Blue show.^[51] Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was. The interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the last two hours of his show. Interviewing Presley on-air, Phillips asked him what high school he attended in order to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed he was black.^[52] During the next few days the trio recorded a bluegrass number, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky", again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-rigged echo effect that Sam Phillips dubbed "slapback". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.^[53]

Early live performances and signing to RCA[link]

The trio played publicly for the first time on July 17 at the Bon Air club—Presley still sporting his child-size guitar.^[54] At the end of the month, they appeared at the Overton Park Shell, with Slim Whitman headlining. A combination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness at playing before a large crowd led Presley to shake his legs as he performed: his wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start screaming.^[55] Moore recalled, "During the instrumental parts he would back off from the mike and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild".^[56] Black, a natural showman, whooped and rode his bass, hitting double licks that Presley would later remember as "really a wild sound, like a jungle drum or something".^[56] Soon after, Moore and Black quit their old band to play with Presley regularly, and DJ and promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager. From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest club and returned to Sun Studio for more recording sessions,^[57] and Presley quickly grew more confident on stage. According to Moore, "His movement was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction. He'd do something one time and then he would expand on it real quick."^[58] Presley made what would be his only appearance on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry on October 2; after a polite audience response, Opry manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but did not suit the program.^[59] Two weeks later, Presley was booked on Louisiana Hayride, the Opry's chief, and more adventurous, rival. The Shreveport-based show was broadcast to 198 radio stations in 28 states. Presley had another attack of nerves during the first set, which drew a muted reaction. A more composed and energetic second set inspired an enthusiastic response.^[60] House drummer D.J. Fontana brought a new element, complementing Presley's movements with accented beats that he had mastered playing in strip clubs.^[61] Soon after the show, the Hayride engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances. Trading in his old guitar for $8 (and seeing it promptly dispatched to the garbage), he purchased a Martin instrument for $175, and his trio began playing in new locales including Houston, Texas, and Texarkana, Arkansas.^[62]

By early 1955, Presley's regular Hayride appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a substantial regional star, from Tennessee to West Texas. In January, Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought the singer to the attention of Colonel Tom Parker, whom he considered the best promoter in the music business. Parker—Dutch-born, though he claimed to be from West Virginia—had acquired an honorary colonel's commission from country singer turned Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis. Having successfully managed top country star Eddy Arnold, he was now working with the new number one country singer, Hank Snow. Parker booked Presley on Snow's February tour.^[63][64] When the tour reached Odessa, Texas, a 19-year-old Roy Orbison saw Presley for the first time: "His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing. ... I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it."^[29] Presley made his television debut on March 3 on the KSLA-TV broadcast of Louisiana Hayride. Soon after, he failed an audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on the CBS television network. By August, Sun had released ten sides credited to "Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill"; on the latest recordings, the trio were joined by a drummer. Some of the songs, like "That's All Right", were in what one Memphis journalist described as the "R&B idiom of negro field jazz"; others, like "Blue Moon of Kentucky", were "more in the country field", "but there was a curious blending of the two different musics in both".^[65] This blend of styles made it difficult for Presley's music to find radio airplay. According to Neal, many country music disc jockeys would not play it because he sounded too much like a black artist and none of the rhythm and blues stations would touch him because "he sounded too much like a hillbilly."^[66] The blend came to be known as rockabilly. At the time, Presley was variously billed as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat", and "The Memphis Flash".^[67]