It’s been over half a century, but the Gold Dust still hasn’t settled.
And when you see Fred Lynn and Jim Rice together, you hope it never will.
At The Sports Museum’s annual gala, The Tradition, on Tuesday night, the legendary Gold Dust Twins reunited and relived the glory days of 1970s Red Sox baseball when Rice presented Lynn with the Baseball Legacy Award.
Keegan Bradley (golf), Gabby Thomas (track and field), Isaiah Thomas (basketball), Tim Thomas (hockey), and Vince Wilfork (football) were feted at the TD Garden event as well, receiving legacy awards for their achievements in their respective sports.
Lynn, whose tremendous career predated his fellow honorees, was the night’s exuberant grand finale. Along with moderator Tom Caron and an adoring audience, Lynn and Rice laughed and lightheartedly lamented their way down memory lane. All the way back to the Red Sox farm system, where their tandem talents were first forged.
“We came up in Double-A together. When I first signed in July of ‘73, Jimmy was tearing up the league,” said Lynn. “So we formed a relationship right then.”
At the time, the twins had no way of knowing how they would change the game in Boston.
“That’s the thing about us, we had fun,” said Rice. “We didn’t take it as a job. We had fun, and that’s why we played the way we did. We played like a bunch of kids.”
It’s easy to see why the twins found immediate and immense success together. They have genuine respect and deep admiration for one another, and both remain, after all this time, somewhat awed by what the other could do. Lynn spent much of his time on stage praising Rice, who received the award in 2006.
“He doesn’t get enough credit for his defense,” Lynn said of Rice. “I watched him go out every day with Johnny Pesky. Pesky would banger balls off the wall and he would religiously go out there every day. We all knew he could banger, but he made himself a really good outfielder. And he never killed me!”
Lynn firmly believes the ‘Curse of the Bambino’ would have ended in October ‘75 if Rice doesn’t miss the World Series with a wrist injury.
“I told (Johnny) Bench and (Tony) Perez and (Joe) Morgan this after the series was over, I said, ‘You know what? If we have Jimmy, we not only beat you – we beat you in six,’ ” Lynn said of conversations with stars from Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine. “You know, we lost four games to them all by one run. I kind of think (Rice) would have had a difference.”
These are the things the twins cannot change. But Lynn understands today more than ever how much that World Series loss hurt fans. He was a southern California boy who wanted to play center field for the Dodgers before he got drafted by the Red Sox in 1973. Once he put on the Boston uniform, he never wanted to leave. These days, he’s a Red Sox fan living in southern California.
“First of all, I didn’t want to go to the west coast, let’s get that straight,” Lynn said firmly, but adamantly of that infamous trade to the Angels in January ‘81. “I wanted to spend my whole career here.”
“Going back out to the west after the fans in the east, what a yawner,” he continued. “I got so ticked at our own fans. They’d come in the second inning and they’d be leaving in the seventh… I’d be used to you guys (Red Sox Nation). And the thing about playing for you guys, I’m gonna say this truthfully, is you brought out the best in us.”
“(This award) is in Boston, so that means a lot to me,” Lynn told the Herald. “I think of Boston as my second home, so any time I’m being honored here, it means more to me than somewhere else.”
Time is stealing the fleet-footedness and power that made Lynn and Rice superstar ball players, but it gives them gifts, too. They see everything through a different lens today, a viewpoint they did not have when it felt like they had endless careers and years ahead of them, and it makes them especially grateful for one another, the experiences they shared, and the legacy they created together.
“To be honest, our group of guys back then, I don’t think we had any idea what impact we were having,” Lynn told the Herald. “I didn’t know that kind of stuff until my career was over, by quite a number of years. I started doing things where I could interact with fans, and they started telling me things, and how important we were to them at a certain age. Kind of like track – you remember track when you were from 10 to 19, the same way you’re imprinted with sports.”
“It feels very special. The fact that we’re remembered, I’m remembered, I think a lot of it has to do with the ‘75 team,” he continued, “and Jimmy and I, we’re linked. We’re tied forever.”
They still play together, too. But today it’s golf, instead of baseball.
“Here’s the offer: we don’t play against each other, we’re teammates,” Lynn said. “Anybody out there want to challenge us? OK. But we’re on the same side.”
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