Before the Red Sox kicked off the 2025 home slate with a 13-9 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that showcased Boston’s bright baseball future, they had to celebrate the past.

Last year’s home opener honored the ‘04 team for their 20th anniversary. This year, the ‘75 Red Sox turn 50.

It was equal parts thrilling and bittersweet to see 20 members of that ‘75 team emerge from under the enormous American flag that covered the Green Monster on this sun-soaked Friday afternoon.

The air, as Frank Sinatra would say, is rarified whenever Captain Carl Yastrzemski returns to Fenway. He doesn’t come around often; spending his entire 19-year career in a Red Sox uniform more than earned him some peace and quiet. But he’s 85 now, smaller and somewhat frail.

“We played 12 years together,” Dwight Evans said. “He was like an older brother to me, and kind of showed me the ropes.”

“Yaz, he’s got more memories than all of us put together,” said Fred Lynn, who couldn’t resist ribbing his longtime teammate about his ceremonial first pitch. “It’s great to see him. Shortest first pitch in history. He hit the cutoff man, though!”

It’s always a treat to see the great Jim Rice, a fixture on NESN, reunite with the stately Evans and effervescent Lynn; together, they were an outfield dream come true.

“It’s very special for us,” Evans said. “In 2002, they bought this club and they bought the history of the Boston Red Sox, and they’re honoring that by honoring us today. … Bringing us together, we don’t see each other too much, so it’s kind of neat to be with Freddie and Jimmy and the rest of the guys.”

“When we see each other, it’s like a time machine,” Lynn said. “We start going to conversations that we had 50 years ago.”

Some unique stretching from Bill Lee when the group reached the pitcher’s mound likely prompted parents and grandparents in the stands to explain to the younger members of Red Sox Nation why Lee’s nickname is ‘Spaceman.’

Rick Burleson, Bernie Carbo, Cecil Cooper and Rico Petrocellli were among those in attendance. Several players were absent. Others, including Tony Conigliaro, Dick Drago and Roger Moret, have passed away.

Bittersweet doesn’t begin to cover the idea of a Red Sox season without Luis Tiant. Or what it felt like for his teammates to reunite without him. Tiant and Evans were at Fenway the last time the Red Sox played, waving from the Legends’ Suite on the final day of last season. Less than two weeks later, Tiant was gone.

“I miss Louie, we all do,” said Evans.

Scattered throughout the pregame ceremonies were reminders of the cavernous hole ‘El Tiante’ left behind. Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy began Garret Crochet’s contract-extension press conference by including a tribute to Tiant.

“I think it’s important here on Opening Day to remember that we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us,” said Kennedy, “and it’s going to be a great day today, remembering that incredible team and especially the late, great Luis Tiant, who we tragically lost in the last year.

“So Garrett, if you want to throw 187 complete games,” he continued, referencing Tiant’s career total, “that’d be perfectly fine with us.”

Kennedy also took the opportunity to reiterate that Tiant should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. On several occasions the various voting committees have waited so long to elect worthy players that their inductions were posthumous, something that frustrated Tiant on behalf of the late Ron Santo. He hoped he’d live to see his own bronze plaque be enshrined in Cooperstown.

“Luis was a Hall of Famer as a pitcher, at least that’s our hope and dream and desire,” Kennedy said. “Everybody knows the talent, everybody knows the story, but I don’t think people know, who didn’t get to spend time with him night in and night out for the last 24 years, since John (Henry) and I have been here, and Tom (Werner), he’d be in the suite just about every night.

“And he was such an incredible person. He loves this franchise, loved the team, and we’re just so grateful for what he meant to so many of us. He sort of set the standard for what it meant to put that uniform on. He appreciated it each and every day, and we appreciated having him around for all those years.”

Manager Alex Cora spoke about ‘El Tiante’ during both pre- and postgame media availability. He shared that he has a stock of cigars, because Tiant would bring them to him even though Cora doesn’t smoke, and how Tiant would liven up the atmosphere when players were struggling.

“Luis is a guy that we miss. Spring training was kind of like, empty in that aspect,” Cora said. “He was always talking to the guys, teaching the guys how he used to be, right, and what it means to be a Red Sox.

“We miss him. I actually miss him here most of the time, the most is here, because he was always joking around with (players), kind of like, when they were down a little bit, he’ll go down there and talk (expletive) to them in a very unique way,” Cora continued. “Always with a smile. Kind of have that sense of proudness, right? He was a proud individual. He knew where he came from, and it wasn’t easy, the road to be in the big leagues, and for him to perform the way he did, I tip my hat to him, it’s amazing.”

Lynn and Evans recalled that Opening Day at Fenway 50 years prior, when Tiant pitched a complete-game against Henry Aaron and the Milwaukee Brewers, Boston’s American League East rivals at the time.

“His wrists were twice the size of mine,” Evans said.

“Mitts,” Lynn concurred. “His hands, his wrists were enormous.”

“That’s the first time I’m behind Louie,” Lynn recalled of Opening Day ‘75, when he was the rookie center fielder. “I’m watching him wind up like everybody else, and (thinking), ‘That’s different.’

“I wouldn’t want to have to hit against him, especially as a right handed hitter, but I’m sure Louis was emotional about it. You know, he loved pitching here. He just loved pitching, period. He was such a competitor, and I feel honored to play behind him as much as I did.”

Former Boston Red Sox stars Carlton Fisk and Carl Yastrzemski are introduced prior to Friday’s home opener at Fenway Park. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

“Well, Louie threw hard, but what Louie would do in the sixth or seventh or eighth inning is he changed speeds, he changed locations, he pitched,” Evans said. “He didn’t have the stuff he started the game with, but he pitched. He knew how to pitch. And I don’t see that so much in this game.”

“There’s very few that can do what Louie did,” Evans added.

“It’s called finishing a game,” said Lynn.

There were Tiant tidbits during the game, too. In the bottom of the first, Trevor Story’s three-run homer soared to the top of the Green Monster, bouncing off the National Car Rental sign just left of the Tiant tribute on the light tower.

In between innings, the Red Sox played a Tiant highlight reel. For many years, it ended with the cameras showing Tiant in the Legends’ Suite. This time, for the first time, it panned to the light tower instead.

Tiant’s absence was also felt in what the Red Sox didn’t do. They wore No. 49 jersey patches all last season to honor Tim Wakefield after his tragic passing the previous October, and put No. 2 on the ‘22 jerseys for Jerry Remy.

The Red Sox, for whatever reason, decided not to honor Tiant in kind. Several of his teammates, including Lynn and Evans, were surprised and bothered by it.

For them, and all who loved Luis Tiant, the jerseys looked bare. The hearts of his teammates, family and fans, less full. And even with a sold-out crowd, Fenway Park felt a little emptier.