BOSTON -- In some sports towns, stars from multiple generations ago can become fuzzier as the years go by.
Then you have Boston, where somehow the legends and their exploits live on forever.
The 24th annual “The Tradition” event, put on as always by the nonprofit Sports Museum located at TD Garden, gave Boston fans their latest chance to reminisce.
This year’s Red Sox honoree, center fielder Fred Lynn, represented more than his fine playing career, but the iconic team he played for 50 years ago (Boston’s fabled 1975 squad) and a duo of stud rookies the likes of which you might never see again.
They called them the Gold Dust Twins. And there they were together at the event Tuesday night. Lynn, this season’s winner of the Tradition’s Baseball Legacy Award, was presented by Jim Rice, his twin from all those years ago.
Matter of fact, Rice and Lynn still jokingly refer to each other as “twin” when they see each other.
“No other city could have an event like this,” said Rusty Sullivan, executive director of the Sports Museum. “That’s because Boston is the greatest sports city in America and this is truly the family reunion of Boston sports.”
As far as the Gold Dust Twins go, there are only two things that could have made their joint legacy more powerful.
The first is if Rice hadn’t suffered a broken left wrist on Sept. 21 of that ’75 season, robbing him of the opportunity to join forces with Lynn, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Dwight Evans, Luis Tiant and others in that absolutely classic Fall Classic in which Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine beat the upstart Red Sox in seven games.
The second would have been if Lynn wound up staying in Boston for longer than six full seasons before he was traded to the Angels. Lynn also wound up having stints with the Orioles, Tigers and Padres. But he could never rediscover the prowess he displayed in Boston, where he won Rookie of the Year and MVP in ’75, was an All-Star in all six of his full Red Sox seasons and was a Gold Glove Award winner four times.
While everyone remembers the pure joy of Game 6 in ‘75, there is just one tinge of bitterness that remains for Boston players and fans from that magical World Series.
“I told [Johnny] Bench and [Tony] Perez and [Joe] Morgan this after the Series was over,” said Lynn. “I said, ‘You know what? ‘If we have Jimmy, we not only beat you, we beat you in six.’
“Three of our four losses were by one run. I kind of think he would have made a difference. He hit behind me in the lineup all season long, and it wasn't there. I could feel the difference. You know, if you're pitching against us, you’ve got to go through a pretty good lineup. If he's not in it, you breathe a little easier.”
Another painful near miss came in ’78, Rice’s MVP season, when the Red Sox won 99 games but lost game No. 163 to the Yankees, 5-4.
As crushing as that defeat was, Lynn and Rice felt they had the core to make several more runs at a title, but ownership had other ideas and started to disband a wildly-popular team for financial reasons after the ’80 season. Just like that, Lynn was an Angel. And the Gold Dust Twins were on opposite ends of the country. Rice was able to stay in Boston for his entire Hall of Fame career, which ended in ‘89.
“First of all, I didn't want to go to the West Coast. Let's get that straight,” said Lynn. “I wanted to spend my whole career here. I'm used to [Fenway fans] and the thing about playing in front of you guys and I'm going to say this truthfully, is you brought out the best in us. You go out to the West Coast, they’re out there drinking Chardonnay.”
Lynn and Rice first joined forces in 1973 at Double-A Bristol. The next year, they teamed for a full season at Triple-A Pawtucket, winning a championship together. Right after that, they were September callups.
And ‘75? That is, well, history.
Lynn had a slash line of .331/.401/.566, with 21 homers and 105 RBIs. Rice had a line of .309/.350/.491, with 22 homers and 102 RBIs.
“We hit three and four in the lineup. Who does that as rookies? It doesn’t happen,” Lynn said. “To have Jimmy come to [present] this for me, it means a lot. I mean, we're the Gold Dust Twins. So we're joined at the hip.”
Not to mention in Boston sports lore.