"Thunder & Lightning"

They both were rookies on the '75 Red Sox team.  They both were multi-sport athletes.  That is where the similiarities ended. 

Jim Rice, an African-American, was from South Carolina and a track star.  Fred Lynn, a Caucasian, from Illinois attended USC on a football scholarship.  Rice batted right-handed, Lynn from the left.  Rice struggled in the field starting off as a designated hitter, while the graceful Lynn won 4 Gold Glove awards as a Center Fielder.  Rice was the ultimate power hitter with short compact swing and a dead pull hitter while Lynn had a smooth, graceful swing reminiscent of the great Stan Musial.  Rice rarely hit to the opposite field while Lynn mastered hitting doubles off of Fenway Park's Green Monster.  Rice had a great rookie year while Lynn won both MVP and Rookie of the Year honors '75.  Rice was unable to play in the World Series due to an injury while Lynn hit 3 HRs against the Cincinnati Reds.

Lynn was traded to the California Angels and ended up playing for several teams.  Rice played his entire career for the Red Sox.  Lynn, who aggressive play often resulted in his crashing into outfield walls, caused him to have an injury-filled career, missing good portions of several seaons.  Rice was relatively healthy and played 16 seasons. 

Though Lynn had the meteoric rise to superstar status, injuries limited his production.  Though he had a solid career, his career numbers will not get him into Baseball's Hall of Fame.   Rice was inducted into the Hall of Fame, just last year.  Rice eventually became a fixture in Fenway's left field in replacing another Hall of Famer Carl Yastremski who had succeeded the great Ted Williams.  Over a span of 50 years, from 1939 until 1989, the Red Sox had only three men play left field: Williams; Yastremski; and, Rice.

Given their left-right combination, they posed a tremendous offensive threat to opposing pitchers.  A fellow teammate once dubbed them "Thunder & Lightning".  Others referred to them as the "Gold Dust Twins".  Lynn's first love was football but gave up his full scholarship at USC and transferred to baseball after suffering a concussion in going head on to stop Sam "the bam" Cunningham during goal line stand practice session. 

I recall how fun it was to watch them on TV and hawk the boxscores each morning.  It is not often that a team can have two rookies come up the same year and contribute so much to a team.