Ben Rice’s first Home Run Derby ended after one round, but the Yankees slugger shared one of the night’s most memorable moments with the person throwing him every pitch â his father, Dan Rice.
While Rice’s Derby run ended sooner than he hoped, the father-son story behind every swing became one of the evening’s most compelling moments. Who is Dan Rice, and why was he the perfect choice to pitch on baseball’s biggest power stage?
Rice hit seven home runs across 20 swings Monday night at Citizens Bank Park, eliminated before the semifinals of the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby. He entered the night a longshot, sitting at roughly +2000 to win the field according to oddsmakers at Covers, and his round-one total left him on the outside looking in.
His best blast of the night traveled 443 feet at 109 mph off the bat, according to reporters tracking exit velocity readings courtside. By the tail end of his swings, Rice visibly slowed, with observers on hand noting a dip in bat speed over his final cuts.
Ben Rice’s Father Served as His Pitcher
Dan Rice, a former Brown University pitcher from the 1980s, threw every pitch of his son’s Derby round, a job he’s held since Ben was old enough to hold a bat. a routine that stretched across chain-link fields in Massachusetts long before either man imagined a big-league stage.
“My dad has always been there for me,” Rice said, as quoted by MLB.com‘s Bryan Hoch. “Every offseason, I’m going back and making sure I get my BP in with my dad. He always went the extra mile. He’d drive an hour-plus or two hours from Cohasset, and we’d go hit at a local field to get our swings in for the day.”
Father-son duos have a strong track record in the Derby. Cal Raleigh won it with his father pitching last year, and Bryce Harper and Robinson Canó both took home the trophy with dad on the mound, according to a Sporting News report. Dan Rice knows his son’s timing after decades of throwing to him, and the sessions were never about mechanics.
“Our BP was never about nitpicking my swing or a lot of instruction, to be honest,” Rice said, per MLB.com. “He would try to throw me off-balance with different pitches and have me work through situations. He wanted me to become a good hitter, not necessarily to have a great swing. That was huge in my development.”
Ben Rice’s Path From Dartmouth to the Derby Stage
Rice’s road to Philadelphia ran through Hanover, New Hampshire, where he played at Ivy League Dartmouth before the Yankees selected him in the 2021 draft. His college numbers were modest â a .242 average across the pandemic-shortened 2019 and 2020 seasons.
He debuted with the Yankees on June 18, 2024, and became the club’s home run leader within two years, entering Derby week with 25 homers. Rice earned his first All-Star nod this month, batting .267 with 27 home runs, 56 RBI and a .921 OPS through the bulk of the 2026 season.
“I just want to enjoy it, having fun taking BP with my dad at a big league field in front of a bunch of people,” Rice said, as quoted by Hoch. The early exit didn’t erase that.
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