 During his Hall of Fame acceptance speech Rice revealed that he is a devoted fan of "The Young and the Restless", noting that he was watching the show when he was informed of his acceptance.While Rice was generally regarded as one of the better hitters of his era based upon the statistics traditionally used by the BBWAA to evaluate players' Hall of Fame qualifications, he was not elected until his 15th and final year of eligibility, netting 76.4% of the votes, in 2009.Over the years he was on the BBWAA ballot, he received 3,974 total votes, the most ever collected by any player that was voted on for baseball's highest honor.