Mo Vaughn and Mike Greenwell were back in Boston over the weekend to be inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame. It was a homecoming for the two men who played a combined 20 years with the team but left under contentious circumstances.
It has been 10 years since Vaughn wore a Red Sox uniform and 12 since Greenwell played left field. Since then, a lot has changed: new ownership, a renovated ballpark, two world championships.
The current baseball climate couldn't be more different than the one that prevailed over Fenway Park when Greenwell retired in 1996, two years before Vaughn left for free agency.
"There was a period after (Jean) Yawkey passed away where the organization was going in the wrong direction," Greenwell said before Friday night's induction in Boston.
"A lot of guys didn't feel good playing there. It wasn't a fun place to play. Former players weren't welcomed, and to see the new ownership come in and do what it has done is a big part of their success."
The induction brought Greenwell full circle. The Red Sox uniform was the only one he wore in a dozen major league seasons, yet he had refused to set foot in Fenway Park since leaving.
"It's completely different now," said Greenwell. "They've become the type of organization that really takes care of people. The players on the field, the people in the organization are taken care of. They've really become one great family."
Greenwell's lifetime batting average of .303 is 12th on the team's all-time list.
In 1988, he finished second in the American League MVP voting to Jose Canseco. He once drove in all of Boston's runs in a 9-8 win in Seattle in 10 innings.
George Digby, the scout who signed Greenwell, also was inducted into the team's Hall for his 50-year scouting career. He couldn't help but have a little fun with Greenwell.
"When I signed him, he couldn't field too well," said the 91-year old Digby, "but he could hit."
So could Vaughn.
Nicknamed The Hit Dog, Vaughn hit .304 with 230 home runs and 752 RBI in eight years with the Red Sox.
He was the AL MVP in 1995 and finished in the top five in MVP voting in 1996 and 1998.
Like Greenwell, his final years in Boston were uneasy, as he clashed with management. He left after the 1998 season and signed a free-agent contract with Anaheim.
Injuries started piling up almost immediately, and Vaughn was never the same player with the Angels or the Mets.
A successful businessman whose company owns, rehabilitates and manages more than 2,500 low-income housing units in the New York City area, Vaughn has been impressed by the turnaround he has seen in Boston.
"I'm very proud of what's going on up here," said Vaughn. "I'm jealous. I wish I had played in this time, but I see the vision and the idea of the Red Sox from afar in New York.
"It's nice for us to be making the right decisions. It's nice for us to be making the right choices and for things to come out the way they've come out. It's nice for us to be the top organization in (baseball)."
And this weekend, it was nice to see two men who played the game so well for the Red Sox return to their baseball home to take their rightful spots among the greatest to wear the Boston uniform.
Tom Caron is the studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on the New England Sports Network. His column appears in the Press Herald on Tuesdays.
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