Red Sox Legends Make Bold Claims About Boston’s Rising Stars

There’s a youth movement afoot in Boston. Led by rookies Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Carlos Narváez, the Red Sox enter the All-Star Break on a 10-game winning streak — their longest since 2018.

It’s reminiscent of the 1975 season, when “Gold Dust Twins” Jim Rice and Fred Lynn propelled Boston to the American League pennant as rookies.

Much has changed in baseball in the 50 years since then, and Rice and Lynn both believe the Red Sox’s current rookie class has it easier than they did half a century ago.

“The Big 3 is not anything like us. Don’t compare them with us,” Rice told MassLive’s Chris Mason. “You look at opposing teams that we played, (they) were much better than what you see now. The pitching was much better than what you see now.”

Lynn agreed, adding that teams are much more welcoming to rookies nowadays.

“Rookies today are treated vastly differently than when we were rookies,” Lynn said. “We didn’t speak to the veterans unless we were spoken to, basically. You had to earn your stripes… These guys today, people are helping them. They have people help rookies! We didn’t have any of that!”

While it’s true that rookies were more isolated back then (Carl Yastrzemski was no Alex Bregman), they also faced far less pressure during their formative years in the Minor Leagues. Prospect coverage was limited, and Lynn admits that he didn’t give his first interview until he reached the Major Leagues.

Rice’s assertion that teams were better back then is reasonable, as there were only 24 teams compared to 30 now. Boston faced two dynasties during the 1975 postseason in the Oakland A’s and “The Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds, so it probably felt that way.

However, his claim that pitching was better in his day is harder to justify. Pitchers today throw harder and nastier pitches than they did back then, plus bullpens are much deeper. The game is much more specialized now, so modern batters rarely get to face tiring starters or long relievers. They also have to deal with opponents who have advanced scouting reports on all of their habits and weaknesses.

Throw in defenses that know everything about a hitter’s batted ball tendencies and position themselves accordingly, and it’s never been harder to be a Major League hitter.

While his reasoning is questionable, Rice is ultimately correct. You can’t compare rookies today to rookies in 1975. The game is totally different now, and technology has changed things dramatically.