The three former players enshrined in the Red Sox Hall of Fame on Thursday all achieved great career success before and after their time in Boston.

Right-hander Mike Timlin already had two World Series rings from his Toronto tenure when he joined the Red Sox in 2003.

Outfielder Johnny Damon won a ring with the 2009 New York Yankees.

Left-hander Jon Lester, the rare homegrown Red Sox ace, went on to star on the 2016 Chicago Cubs team that broke its own 108-year cursed championship drought.

But Boston is a world apart. On that they could all agree.

“It’s everything,” Lester said of what Boston and the Red Sox mean to him.

Lester was drafted by the Red Sox in 2002, and debuted almost exactly 20 years ago, on June 10, 2006. Barely two months later, he was scratched from a start due to a sore back, and found out he had lymphoma. After offseason chemotherapy, he returned to the Red Sox and helped pitch them to the 2007 World Series championship, and a second trophy in 2013.

“To go through kind of my personal stuff in ‘06 and ‘07 and to stick with me, and treat my family the way they treated us,” Lester said. “Two of my kids were born here. I mean, this was home for us for a long time, and it meant a lot to us, and the rots that we had here, the friendships we had. And you add Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox to that equation, just makes everything kind of perfect.”

Timlin won four World Series championships in an 18-year career from 1991-2008. The Red Sox were his sixth and final big-league team, but the one for whom he pitched the most innings and games.

“When I won the first two in Toronto early in my career, ‘92-93, I don’t think I really had the experience in the league to know what it meant to win the World Series,” Timlin said. “I mean, it was really cool and it was a lot of fun, but to go through the next 10-plus years trying to get back, and meeting so many guys that have never been, have been in the playoffs very few times, you finally get a sense of, this is what the culmination of a season is. And to get back, and to win it here, and then at the time that we did, to end the 86-year drought, it was like a cherry on top.”

“I had four amazing years here that was topped by winning a World Series in 2004 and breaking the curse, being a part of history, changing the culture here,” Damon said.

Induction carried a different meaning for Damon, who went from beloved to betrayer when he signed with the Yankees after the ‘05 season. Growing up in Florida, he had no concept of the rivalry until he joined it.

“I get to Boston, and spring training games were a big deal against the Yankees, and I just never saw it until I saw the passion, and I loved it,” Damon said.

Damon then found out what it was like to switch sides: not pleasant. He had to literally cut away the free-spirited self-proclaimed “Idiot” Red Sox version of himself, the long hair and beard that earned him Jesus and Caveman nicknames, in order to comply with the Yankees’ grooming policy. At the short-haired, clean-shaven Damon’s first game back at Fenway in 2006, fans held up a sign that read “JUDAS DEMON.”

Back in the Boston fold in recent years, Damon is long-haired once more.

“Yeah, I feel back,” Damon said of his hair.

“It was a tough departure,” Damon said. “The sports world, I mean, the business side of it is absolutely horrible. We understand everything that happened, but everyone knew how much I loved playing for Boston, and how much I love coming back here. I’m going to be spending a lot more time here in the future.”

And he’s thrilled that Red Sox fans are happy to see him again. He’s looking forward to re-immersing himself in the organization he never wanted to leave in the first place. So much so that he saved the trimmings from that infamous first Yankee haircut.

“I sure hope (fans are over it), because it’s been 21 years,” Damon said. “It’s definitely ‘let bygones be bygones.’ … Became the fan favorite, and when the fan favorite isn’t brought back and you go elsewhere, it’s a tough one. And I saw so many fans yesterday who congratulated me, and told me the reason why they love the Red Sox and I was their favorite back in the day, and hopefully still their favorite now.”

“Both sides of (the rivalry), was fantastic just seeing how the fan bases interact over that eight-year stint that I had with these two teams,” Damon added. “It’s amazing. I’m glad I was able to do it.

“But everyone knows this was home, this, Boston had a very special place in my heart.”