Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz lead 2020 Red Sox Hall of Fame class

On Tuesday, the Red Sox announced their 2020 Hall of Fame class, and it is highlighted by two recent sluggers. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are going in together, as it should be. Along with those two finishing out the class are Rich Gedman, Bill Dinneen and Dan Duquette.

We’ll start with Ortiz and Ramirez, because it’s hard for me to express how happy I am that these two are going in together. As someone who came of age in the 2000s, these two largely defined my childhood of watching baseball. The most fearsome one-two punch in baseball, they of course led Boston to a pair of championships including the first one in 2004. Even better, they did it with a smile on their face. Ortiz obviously made a bigger mark on the franchise and stayed for almost a decade longer, and Ramirez’ tenure in Boston did not end well. Still, they are forever tied together in Red Sox lore and now they get to enter the franchise’s Hall of Fame together as well.

Gedman, meanwhile, was one of the stalwarts of the Red Sox teams in the 1980s, including on that 1986 team that came oh so close to winning it all. He was an All-Star in both 1985 and 1986 and spent 11 of his 13 big-league seasons with the Red Sox. In fact, he is still with the organization, serving as their Triple-A hitting coach.

Dinneen was a pitcher for the Red Sox from 1902-1907, pitching to a 2.81 ERA over his six seasons with the club. He won three games in the team’s World Series win over the Pirates in 1903, and after his playing career he became an umpire and was eventually the home plate ump for the first-ever All-Star Game.

Finally, Duquette was of course the team’s GM in the 1990s and early-2000s, making some of the key acquisitions that eventually led to the organization’s great success in this century. He made the trade that brought Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe to Boston as well as drafting Nomar Garciaparra, trading for Pedro Martinez and of course signing Manny Ramirez.