Story Created:
Sep 6, 2010 at 9:02 PM EST
Story Updated:
Sep 6, 2010 at 9:43 PM EST
EDMESTON, N.Y. (WKTV) - Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice visited Pathfinder Village on Labor Day to take a tour of the village and meet some of the residents. Rice will be the celebrity host for the Otesaga Hotel Seniors Open Pro-Am Tuesday, which kicks off the 28th annual golf tournament.
Rice was elected to the Hall of Fame last year and he's now adjusting to life as a member of baseball's elite group. Part of that is representing the museum, which he did Monday, while having fun with the residents of Pathfinder, a community for children and adults with down syndrome.
"You can come out and have fun and play golf, and be able to give something. I'm not giving anything but time why can't I give that," Rice said. "Being a baseball player, you don't want to go 0-4. These kids go 0-4 everyday and they don't complain."
Rice, who played all of his sixteen years in the majors with the Red Sox, talked about playing with legends like Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk and Wade Boggs.
"I think you look at a lot of ball clubs now, they have no idea how to have fun. We had fun," said the former Boston left fielder. "Those are the keys things as far as being a kid or even being in the major leagues. You got to have fun, you got to enjoy what you're doing."
This year's Hall of Fame class included Andre Dawson, whose career mirrored Rice's, and Jim was happy to see the Hawk in Cooperstown this summer.
"Being with the players in the hall of fame, they talk about certain players, when they spoke of Andre they said, we don't know what happened, he should have been here years ago. We know one thing for sure, they can't take it away."
The former Red Sox slugger, who hit 382 home runs in his career, is hoping to see another old rival enshrined this coming year, pitcher Bert Blyleven.
"I think the guy had over 200-something complete games and you're not going to see that anymore. He's one of the best."
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