BOSTON — They won't be on hand to see it, since they'll be playing the Orioles at Fenway Park, but the Red Sox are thrilled about Jim Rice's induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday afternoon.

"That's a great thing," said Kevin Youkilis. "Jim has waited a long time and is very fortunate that he has the opportunity to make it into Cooperstown. That's going to be a good thing for him. He's having his number retired here with all the other great Red Sox players and it should be fun. I know he's definitely going to enjoy it. We'll see a lot more smiles out of him now that he's in the Hall of Fame. That's something that is good for him."

"He seemed like the most feared hitter for a pretty good stretch of his career, almost like a Sandy Koufax pitching," manager Terry Francona said. "I just thought he was such a feared hitter for a time period, he should have been in the Hall of Fame long [ago] . . . I'm happy for him."

Rice is one of 32 Red Sox players to receiver the honor, and only the fourth player inducted into the Hall of Fame who spent his entire career with Boston, joining Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski.

"He's a figure of the Boston Red Sox, a great outfielder," Youkilis said. "He just went about the game, played the game for a long time and was one of the most feared hitters in all of baseball."

The Red Sox will retire Rice's number 14 as a tribute to his exceptional career on Tuesday at Fenway Park in a ceremony which will be held prior to Boston's game versus Oakland. It will be the seventh number retired by the Red Sox.

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Adam LaRoche admitted that he had some butterflies in the hours before his first start as a member of the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

"A little bit, a little bit. I'd be lying if I said it was just an ordinary game for me. I expect I'm going to be going, and hopefully in the first couple innings kind of get my feet wet, and settle in a little bit," he said.

LaRoche, 29, was activated Friday night after joining Boston Thursday in exchange for minor leaguers Argenis Diaz and Hunter Strickland, but he didn't play.

"Very excited to get out there, to say the least," he said. "It was good [Friday]. As much as I would have liked to have played, it was nice to just kind of sit and get introduced a little bit. I was lucky enough to know a lot of these guys before I came in, so as far as being uncomfortable in the clubhouse, it's been great."

LaRoche has 30 home-run power and plays a good first base, but he had been languishing in obscurity in Pittsburgh. He had, however, always been a regular player.

He won't be that here, likely filling in for Youkilis when the starter gets a day off or moves to third base to sub for Mike Lowell, but that's no concern to LaRoche.

"I do know that obviously the more production I can put out there and help, that I'll probably be in there more. I've never really been in this situation before, I'm used to going out and playing every day, and having the occasional off day. It could be reversed now," LaRoche said "But I'll take that trade to be in this situation."

This situation, more specifically, is to be playing for a contending team in a baseball town. LaRoche has been soaking it all up. On Friday night, he looked around and admired the scenery — 38,000 screaming fans, so different from the situation he left behind in Pittsburgh — and knew that it was worth the tradeoff of being a part-time player.

"It felt like a playoff game, and that's what they said around here — it's a playoff atmosphere. I can't imagine, when the playoffs actually hit, what it's going to feel like. But again, it's great to be in the hunt," LaRoche said.

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After the rest of the team had concluded early drills and gone into the clubhouse Saturday afternoon, Jeff Bailey remained on the field, standing near first base. He'd take an imaginary lead, then take off around second base, and pull up near third.

Some runs were better than others. On a few, he made the turn around second base seemingly without pain. On others, it was clear that his injured right ankle was still troubling him, and he might not make it all the way to third base, gingerly crossing the infield to start again.

Bailey, 30, is still probably a week to two weeks away from returning to action, said Francona, following a high ankle sprain suffered during a play at first base in early July.

"He actually got his ankle rolled over pretty good. He's doing everything, he's just not doing it to the point where we can go let him go play. It just needs to heal a little bit more," Francona said.

Bailey has been participating in baseball activities like hitting and fielding, but the ankle injury is serious enough that he can't go full speed yet in a demanding game situation.

"We just can't let him go play in a game. And it might be another week, 10 days, two weeks. We'll have to see how he does. But he's not getting so far behind that he has to start over. He's doing all his baseball stuff. It just hurts," Francona said.

It's expected that when Bailey returns, he'd go back to the minor leagues, with LaRoche now in the fold to back up at first base.

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When the ball left Jacoby Ellsbury's bat in the seventh inning Friday night, it first looked like it might have been a home run. Then, it became clear the ball wasn't going to travel quite far enough, but it was still going to fly over the head of Baltimore center fielder Adam Jones and land in the crooked, deep corner of Fenway's center field.

That meant the hit had a chance to be something even better than a 420-foot home run into the seats: A 415-foot, inside-the-park homer.

Unfortunately, the ball bounced into the stands, ending the drama and making it nothing but a less-than-exciting ground-rule double.

But one of these days, considering Ellsbury's speed, his manager is sure the fleet young center fielder will get his inside-the-park notch in his belt.

"I thought last night was a chance. Off the bat, if that caromed the right way, I think that had a chance. That would have been a fun one," Francona said.

Ellsbury was eventually thrown out at home trying to steal on Dustin Pedroia's single. There will be other chances — "I know there'll be someday a day when somebody comes in and tries a shoestring catch," Francona said — and Ellsbury motors 360 feet to home plate. But everyone in the Sox dugout knew that this was a missed opportunity.

"This one, off the bat, you could see it. He saw it too," Francona said.

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