ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — For years, the phone call was always the same. When Ben Rice needed to hit, he called his dad.
Dan Rice would load a bucket of baseballs into his car, drive an hour or more, and throw batting practice to his son on chain-link fields across Massachusetts.
Now that routine is headed for the brightest stage in the sport. When Rice represents the Yankees at the Home Run Derby, his father will be the one on the mound.
It is the kind of family story that turns a slugging showcase into something far more personal for the Rice household.
The moment matters because of what it represents. Rice has become the Yankees’ most reliable power source in a difficult season, and his first Derby will double as a tribute to the man who built his swing one bucket of baseballs at a time.
A debut on the biggest stage
Rice accepted his invitation to the T-Mobile Home Run Derby this week. The event is set for Monday, July 13, at 8 p.m. ET at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
For the first time, the Derby will stream live on Netflix, with coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET. That means a national audience for the Yankees slugger’s debut, and for the father-son act at its center.
Rice enters as the Yankees’ team leader in home runs. He had 25 through the club’s series opener against the Rays, and he has piled up 58 across his first three major league seasons.
The 27-year-old is no stranger to a big moment. 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.
He even has a taste of the format. Rice has said that in his 2020 summer league, tied games were settled by a home run swing-off, and he won three times.
Who is Ben Rice’s father, Dan?
The person most responsible for that swing will be standing 60 feet away. Dan Rice, father of the Yankees slugger, pitched at Brown University in the 1980s and never really stopped throwing.
Dan Rice grew up in Westwood, Massachusetts, where he starred in baseball and hockey before playing at the Noble and Greenough School.
From there he pitched at Brown University in the 1980s, the college background that has followed him into every retelling of his son’s rise.
He kept pitching long after college. Dan Rice was named a Boston Park League All-Star in 1986 and was later inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame in 2010, marking him as a genuine high-level amateur arm in the Boston area.
Baseball runs deep in the family. Ben attended Noble and Greenough as a commuter, following his father, and the two turned batting practice into a standing tradition that continues to this day, with Dan still throwing to the Yankees slugger every offseason.
For years Dan made the drive from Cohasset to meet his son at a local field, grooving fastballs and curves so Ben could work through at-bats. The sessions were about more than mechanics.
Rice said the routine shaped him as a hitter, describing a father who leaned on preparation over constant instruction.
“My dad has always been there for me,” Rice said.
He explained that the batting practice was designed to make him a complete hitter rather than to polish a pretty swing, with his father mixing pitches to keep him off balance.
The volume of those sessions has become a running joke in the family. As the Yankees star put it, his father’s career workload has piled up over the decades.
“His lifetime pitch count is through the roof at this point,” Rice said.
A decision built around family
The father-son element was central to Rice even accepting the invitation. He wanted to be sure his dad could take the mound before committing to represent the Yankees.
Once it came together, Rice announced the pairing himself, sharing a childhood video of his father pitching to him and a look at their first practice round.
“Dad and I are heading to the HR Derby,” the Yankees slugger wrote on social media.
The plan, above all, is to enjoy it. Rice framed the night as a chance to share the field with the person who has thrown to him his whole life.
“I just want to enjoy it, having fun taking BP with my dad,” Rice said.
Chasing a rich Yankees Derby history
Rice steps into a competition the Yankees know well. Four players in franchise history have won the Home Run Derby: Tino Martinez in 1997, Jason Giambi in 2002, Robinson Cano in 2011 and Aaron Judge in 2017.
Rice has leaned on that experience already. The Yankees slugger said he and Judge reviewed video of the captain’s 2017 Derby triumph on the flight to Tampa.
Manager Aaron Boone framed the night as a boost for both the player and his family, and a potential springboard into the second half.
“I’m super excited for him,” Boone said.
For a Yankees team stuck in a rough stretch, the Derby offers a rare feel-good storyline. Rice will chase homers on a national stage next week, and the man throwing them will be the same one who has been doing it his entire life.
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