Tom Brice

Thomas Robert Brice

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 5", Weight 211 lb.

• School Faulkner State Junior College

• Born August 24, 1981 in Woodville, South Australia Australia

BR Register page

Tom Brice has played in the US minors, independent leagues, Taiwan and Australia. He has been on the Australian national team in many events.

Amateur career

Brice played for Australian youth and junior national teams. In 1999-2000, he pitched briefly in the International Baseball League of Australia. After being named the 2002 Alabama Junior College Player of the Year, he was picked in the 24th round of the 2002 amateur draft by the Chicago White Sox.

2002-2005: White Sox chain

He debuted professionally with the 2002 Bristol Sox, hitting .327/.395/.388 in 29 games for the Appalachian League champions.

In the 2003 Claxton Shield, Brice hit third for South Australia and went 12 for 24 with two walks and three doubles. He was second to teammate Craig Lewis in average and helped South Australia win a title. He was named the All-Star DH. Brice hit .280/.355/.350 for the Kannapolis Intimidators in 2003 as one of the starting outfielders.

In the 2004 Claxton Shield, Tom was 8 for 24 with 8 runs and four steals in 8 games. He was second to Brett Roneberg in stolen bases and tied Roneberg for 4th in runs. He split the summer between Kannapolis (.315/.397/.502 in 59 games) and Winston-Salem Warthogs (.273/.333/.422). He stole 15 bases in 20 tries. He played for Australia in the 2004 Olympics, hitting only .200/.259/.200 as their starting right fielder. In the Gold Medal Game, down 2-0 in the 4th with two on and two out, Brice hit a long fly to center against Norge Vera that was caught by CF Carlos Tabares at the wall in a controversial play that got Jon Deeble ejected for arguing the call. He finished 0 for 3 with a walk in the 6-2 defeat as Australia won Silver.

Brice was moved back to pitcher to start 2005 and threw 7 games for Kannapolis, allowing two runs in four innings with two hits allowed, five walks and four strikeouts. He then returned to first base, the outfield and DH and hit .286/.325/.390 in 20 games with 13 runs. Tom hit .226/.294/.419 as Australia's right fielder in the 2005 Baseball World Cup.

2006: Three countries and two international competitions

Brice only hit .200/.304/.350 in the 2006 Claxton Shield. In the 2006 World Baseball Classic, he performed very poorly. He was 0 for 2 with an error in a loss to Italy, was 0 for 2 against Venezuela before Luke Hughes pinch-hit for him and finished with yet another 0-for-2, this one against the Dominican Republic. Let go by Chicago, he signed with the St. Paul Saints and was 5 for 21 with 6 runs, a homer and 7 RBI before switching countries again. Moving on to the Macoto Cobras of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, he hit .284/.353/.401 in 60 games. Brice finished his busy year by producing at a .361/.439/.444 clip with 8 runs in nine games in the 2006 Intercontinental Cup.

2007-present

Brice batted .250/.310/.500 for South Australia in the 2007 Claxton Shield. He then played in the independent Shikoku Island League of Japan. In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, Brice hit .286/.286/.429 as Australia's RF-DH. He had a chance to provide the winning hit against the Cuban national team in what would have been a fine upset; with a 2-2 score, two outs and two on in the ninth, Deeble called on Brice to bat for DH Michael Collins. Pedro Luis Lazo struck out Brice to end the inning, though, and Australia blew it in the bottom of the 10th when Rich Thompson served up a gopher ball to Osmani Urrutia.

Brice hit .348/.464/.478 as the Australian right fielder in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament. He tied Matt Rogelstad and Chien-Ming Chang for third in the event with 9 runs, trailing Yong-kyu Lee and Young-min Ko. He produced three of their four runs in a loss to Mexico and scored four times in a 3-run win over South Africa. Despite Brice's fine play, Australia failed to advance to the 2008 Olympics.

In 2009, Brice signed with Sweden's Leksand Lumberjacks.

Sources

• 2003-2007 Baseball Almanacs
• KT Choi's CPBL Database
• IBAF site
• Australian Baseball Federation
• Flintoff & Dunn's Australian Baseball Almanac (2007 edition)