Joe Jacques announced that he is leaving Red Sox now presents another significant issue for….

Joe Jacques announced that he is leaving Red Sox now presents another significant issue for…., a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, said he didn’t consider himself a great player. He considered himself a lucky one.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re from South Carolina or anyplace,” Rice said. “To get to the major leagues, you’ve got to be lucky. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Rice, 63 and a native of Anderson, South Carolina, grew up playing baseball, basketball and football, for which he turned down a scholarship offer as a wide receiver to the University of Nebraska.

Instead, Rice took his powerful 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame to the Boston Red Sox, who chose him 15th overall in the first round of the 1971 draft.

“I think my big break was I played in Triple-A, and I won the triple crown,” Rice said of 1974, when he hit .337 with 25 homers and 93 RBI in 117 games for Triple-A Pawtucket. He earned a promotion to the big leagues for the final 24 games. “So they couldn’t send me back down. That was my big break.”

Rice now spends six weeks a year in Fort Myers as a guest hitting instructor for the Red Sox. He will enter his 14th season as studio host for New England Sports Network broadcasts of Red Sox games. He spends his offseasons doting on his five grandchildren, ages 5-13.

But Rice appeared to have created his own luck. He played in the majors for 16 seasons and finished with career numbers of a .298 batting average, 2,452 hits, 382 home runs and 1,451 RBI. He made eight All-Star teams, and he finished in the top five for Most Valuable Player Award voting six times.

In 1978, Rice won the American League MVP award with a season for the ages: .315 batting average, 15 triples, 46 homers and 139 RBI.