How Red Sox Honored Luis Tiant, Legendary 1975 Team At Home Opener

BOSTON — The Red Sox are rooted in deep baseball history and properly honored a prominent team in the story of the franchise Friday.

The 2025 season marks the 50th anniversary of the 1975 Red Sox team that won the American League pennant and pushed the Cincinnati Reds to seven games in the World Series. Several members of the team took the field during the home opener Friday with Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Rico Petrocelli, Carlton Fisk and Bill Lee.

Carl Yastrzemski threw out the first pitch to Red Sox manager Alex Cora to lead the legendary team off the field.

The ceremony also included a video tribute to former Red Sox players who died over the last year, including the legendary Luis Tiant, the leading arm of the 1975 squad.

“We want to extend our heartfelt condolences to the Tiant family,” Sam Kennedy said Friday. “Looking forward to celebrating him today.”

“Luis is a guy we miss,” Alex Cora told reporters Friday. “Spring training was kind of empty in that aspect, right? He was always talking to the guys, teaching the guys. How he used to be and what it means to be a Red Sox. We miss him. … He was a proud individual. He knew where he came from.”

Cora fondly remembers days around Fenway when Tiant had a colorful way of jabbing the current players when the Red Sox weren’t playing well in order to jolt life into the clubhouse with a vocabulary that made him unique.

“I wouldn’t talk to my kids that way,” Cora joked.