August 7, 1982 — Fenway Park.
A 4-year-old boy was struck in the head by a screaming foul ball. He collapsed instantly. The stadium froze.
But one man didn’t.
⚾ Jim Rice, Boston Red Sox legend, didn’t wait for the EMTs.
He leapt from the dugout, ran into the crowd, and scooped up the child in his arms.
Pushing through fans, he laid him on the dugout floor where medics rushed to work.
🏥 Doctors later said, “If Jim hadn’t acted so fast, that boy would’ve died.”
Then — still shaken, still stained with blood — he returned to play.
📄 He visited the boy in the hospital.
👨👩👦 He saw the family struggling financially.
📝 And quietly, without telling anyone… he paid the medical bill.