despite the presence of future boston stars jim rice and fred lynn on the 1973 squad, the maiden season of the bristol red sox was a losing one — but the next nine editions of the club sported over .500 records and won eastern league titles in 1975, 1978 and 1981. other future mlb or red sox stars who played for bristol included marty barrett, wade boggs, oil can boyd, bo díaz, rich gedman, butch hobson, bruce hurst, steve lyons, al nipper, bob stanley, steve crawford, dave stapleton, john tudor and ernie whitt.