BOSTON -- There was an unusual sight before yesterday's Red Sox game. Manager Terry Francona was on the field, taking the ceremonial first pitch.

The reason? The guy throwing it was Dick Williams, his former manager. Williams, who recently was inducted into the Hall of Fame, was honored for his work as skipper of the Sox’ magical 1967 Impossible Dream team. Williams asked for Francona to “catch” him for yesterday’s ceremonies.

“I told him I’d gladly do that,” Francona said. The current Sox manager reminisced about the old-school Williams and his my-way-or-the-highway rule as a manager.

“Dick talks to me now more than he did when I was a player,” Francona said. “He was intimidating for young players. He had his way of managing. You couldn’t do it that way now. It wouldn’t work. You wouldn’t win. What are you going to do, suspend 25 guys? When you have guys making $140 million, you’ve got to keep them on the field. It’s just different. Life is different. Dick freely admits he couldn’t do it now and wouldn’t want to.”

Williams does not deny that. He told the story about speaking with his son, who now works for the Yankees.

“I told him I wouldn’t last a week now,” Williams related. “He told me, ‘Dad, you wouldn’t last a day.’ ”

Francona chuckled over a story about how Williams could be. It came from the 1981 Montreal Expos, where Francona played for Williams.

“It was one of my first at-bats in the major leagues and I didn’t get a bunt down. He got on me so bad it got to the point where I teared up,” Francona said. Yet Francona said he and other young players had respect for their tough manager.

“We all knew he was ahead of the game,” Francona said. “He’d tell you who was going to be pinch-hitting in two innings and why.”

Francona hardly projects the same type of demeanor as a manager, but he said he was told by Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson that there have been some things he has said or done that have intimidated youngsters sent up from Pawtucket to Boston. That surprised him, he said, because that was not his intention.

“That made me think about things I’ve said or presumed,” said Francona. “We don’t want to do that here. I don’t want them coming here with fear. I don’t think that helps.”

Williams’ appearance rekindled memories of that special 1967 season, a magical season Francona has come to appreciate.

“I understand now how the 1967 season seemed to transform the franchise for the fans,” he said. “It’s easy to look at the last four or five years and you see all the excitement, (but that excitement goes back to) what happened 40 years ago,” Francona said.

skrasner@projo.com