BY DOUG HARLOW

Staff writer

I have a photograph somewhere of Ted Williams instructing a young player at the old Boston Red Sox spring training facility in Winter Haven, Fla.

Teddy Ballgame, through the fence at Chain of Lakes Park in 1984.

1984. What a year to be at spring training.

A young phenom by the name of Roger Clemens was in camp as a rookie.

Pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd was on the roster, and my wife and I sat next to his girlfriend for a couple of games that week in March. Lots of fun.

Names that we would come to know two years later during the 1986 World Series were also on the field: Wade Boggs, Dwight Evans, Bob Stanley, Jerry Remy and Dennis Eckersley, who was traded to the Cubs in '84 for a former National League All-Star first baseman, Bill Buckner.

But it was a quick wave from left fielder Jim Rice that we still talk about 25 years later. A quick wave from one of the top sluggers of his era.

We were leaving the ballpark late in the game, walking out the left field gate, when I shouted, "See ya, Jim," and threw my arm up, nonchalant like, as if I would see him later at dinner or back at the hotel.

You know, like a buddy, a pal an old friend. Jim Rice threw us back a big wave, thinking such a casual "see ya later" certainly had come from somebody he knew.

He waved and then looked right at us, squinting. We met eyes and we both waved again, only slower and with less certainty. Who was that young couple, he must have finally wondered.

And that was that.

The season opened and Clemens would get his first major league start in May at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. He finished with a no decision and was 9-4 that season. The Red Sox were 86-76 to close out the season in fourth place, 18 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the old East Division of the American League.

The Sox, who had been in Winter Haven since 1966, moved to the new City of Palms Park in Fort Myers in 1993. The old park was history.

Ted Williams, the greatest hitter ever, died in 2002. The headline in the Boston Globe was, "Adieu, Kid."

Boggs went to the Yankees.

Oil Can Boyd moved a round a lot and played for a while in an independent northern league in Bangor before retiring, although he did threaten a comeback this year.

Remy retired to the television booth. Eckersley was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and is filling in on NESN this summer for Remy who is on the mend from cancer surgery.

Clemens is Clemens and, well, Billy Buckner has endured more than anyone would wish on their worst enemy.

And Jim Ed Rice is finally getting his due. Rice will be inducted into the Hall of Fame today. He'll be wearing his Red Sox cap.

Rice played his final game for the Red Sox on Aug. 3, 1989, after 16 years with the Olde Towne ballclub, the only major league team he ever suited up for.

And for us, my wife and I, we retell that story of making eye contact with the slugger and saying, "See ya, Jim," with a big wave 25 years ago at the old ball park.

And now Jim is a Hall of Famer.

Does he remember waving to us on that sunny afternoon in March 1984? I doubt it. But we do. So I say this month, "See ya, Jim." See ya in Cooperstown.

You deserve it.