Red Sox Hall Of Famer Fires Shot At Boston's 'Big 3' Rookie Sensations

Boston Red Sox icon Jim Rice believes the team's star rookies can't hold a candle to... Jim Rice.

In 2025, the Red Sox have a trio of former top prospects making their rookie debuts in outfielder Roman Anthony, infielder Marcelo Mayer, and infielder/outfielder Kristian Campbell. The so-called "Big Three" has been a source of hope for many fans all season, and since Anthony became the last to debut on Jun. 9, the team has taken off.

Boston has a 21-10 record since Anthony debuted, powering the team into playoff position. All three have had their ups and downs, including Campbell's demotion to Triple-A in late June, but they still look like fixtures of the team's future playoff-contending roster.

The Red Sox have had tandem, rookie sensations before, like in 1975, when outfielders Rice and Fred Lynn helped guide the team to a World Series appearance. It's easy to draw a comparison, but apparently, Rice isn't having it.

“The Big 3 is not anything like us. Don’t compare them with us. Don’t compare them with us,” Rice said recently, per Chris Mason of MassLive. “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. You had a 4-man rotation. You don’t have an 8-man, 9-man rotation. You don’t have that. You had a stacked bullpen when we played. You don’t have that. So you can’t compare us with them.”

Both players also seemed to balk at the notion that rookies these days come into the league and instantly garner respect and even guidance from their veteran teammates.

“You had to earn your respect,” Rice said, per Mason. “Guys come in now and they just yak, yak, yak, yak and think they already got 10 years in. No, no, no. It’s called respect. You’ve gotta earn it — and that’s what Freddie and I did. We earned it.”

“Rookies today are treated vastly differently than when we were rookies,” Lynn agreed. “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!”

There must be something genetic about ex-Major League Baseball players that makes them incapable of praising the younger generation.

Rice and Lynn were both phenomenal ballplayers, and their accomplishments are numerous. Rice is a Hall of Famer, both won Most Valuable Player awards, and Lynn was the 1975 Rookie of the Year. But why can't they just acknowledge that the sport they played has continued to evolve?

Thankfully, the "Big Three" will be judged based on how they perform against their competition in 2025, because if Rice's thesis is correct, they would have had no shot against the likes of "Spaceman" Bill Lee and Dick Pole.