Ben Rice, dad admirably fight ghosts of Yankees Home Run Derby Embarrassment Past

Early in Ben Rice's first round at the Home Run Derby, there was a threat of complete and total embarrassment. After a pair of groundouts down the first base line, something worse than groans began to emerge. It sounded like laughter. It certainly felt like laughter.

Phillies fans booed everyone but their local heroes, Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, in the pre-Derby intros. But they reserved a special, extra level of boos for two things: the New York Yankees and a Mets fan shown on the jumbotron, mouthing, "This is our year!"

In hostile territory, we've seen derbies turn plenty before. The Kansas City crowd took "Captain" Robinson Cano's slight of Royals star Billy Butler so personally (he didn't pick the teams, there's no way he picked the teams) that they tortured him through every feckless swing of an embarrassing "zero" round. He was supposed to repeat. He did not. Last year, Jazz Chisholm Jr. - ever the lightning rod - brought swagger to the event. Perceived as corny, it was clear from the jump that fans were gleeful at the possibility that he might fail. He did.

When Rice struck the dirt with two successive swings, you could feel that giddy anticipation of failure sweep the crowd. And the louder it gets, the more it rings in the subject's ears.

But Rice, with his father Dan on the mound across from him - his lifelong BP partner - simply refused to let his round get fully derailed. He won the crowd back (ok, maybe they just started to tolerate him) brick-by-brick. His "aw, shucks" attitude never waned. He hit the second deck at Citizens Bank Park twice, the iconic spot where 2009 A-Rod once hit the camera well (before Justin Verlander was even DFA'd once).

After popping up the Magenta Ball, Rice was seen mouthing, "That was fun!" as he embraced his father (and right after he got his share of frustration out). He was able to have himself a memorable night when it seemed like he might be in the middle of a tornado, memorable for all the wrong reasons.

So ... yes. Rice quite literally finished last. His seven home runs were not good enough to advance, nor were they good enough to put Jac Caglianone's uneven round in the rearview mirror or bury Munetaka Murakami, fresh off an injury. It did not go well. But it doesn't come close to making the annals of Yankees Embarrassments Past. Rice exited with a smile, and with the crowd's begrudging support. And now he and Dan may rest.

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