Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are a major league baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and the current World Series Champions. They play in the Eastern Division of the American League at Fenway Park.

History

Golden Age (1900-1919)

The team was founded in 1900 as one of the newly christened American League's showcase teams, put in direct competition with the older and more established National League team in town.

For the first two decades of its existence, the team (first known as the Somersets, Americans, Beaneaters, and eventually as the Red Stockings by 1907 [2], which eventually was reduced to its current form we see today) was one of the league's best franchises, winning pennants in 1903, 1904, 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918 on the backs of legendary baseball figures such as Cy Young, Tris Speaker, Smoky Joe Wood and Babe Ruth. Ruth's sale to the New York Yankees in the winter of 1919 would begin a dark age for the team and the beginning of a fierce rivalry between the two teams.

Rebuilding, Tom Yawkey, and Ted Williams (1920-1960)

With the loss of Ruth, the team began to finish near the bottom of the league consistently until the early 30s, when the team was bought by Tom Yawkey, who began the renovation of Fenway Park as well as acquiring future Hall of Famers such as Lefty Grove, Bobby Doerr, Joe Cronin, Jimmy Foxx, and perhaps the best hitter in baseball history, Ted Williams.

A courtly and wealthy young Southerner, Yawkey was, however, one of very last team owners to integrate his team with black players on April 16, 1945, he conducted mock workout at Fenway Park for Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. It would be another 14 years before the Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate through the signing of Pumpsie Green, 12 years after Robinson broke with the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Williams led the Sox to the pennant in 1946, only to lose to the St. Louis Cardinals. The prime of Williams' career was shortened by stints as a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War.

Williams to Yaz, and the Impossible Dream (1961-1967)

Williams' spot in the leftfield shadows of Fenway Park would be ceded to a then Long Island youngster and eventual fellow hall of famer Carl Yastremski in 1961. Yastremski became the leader on the "Impossible Dream" pennant winning team of 1967, who beat 100-1 odds at the end of the year to win the American League championship on the last day of the season.

While they eventually lost the world series to Bob Gibson and the Cardinals, 1967 proved a turning point in the franchises' history from a doormat to a perennial contender.

Close, But No Cigar (1968-2003)

In the last three decades of the 20th Century and the cusp of the 21st, the Sox were known for having good teams that could not win the ultimate prize of a world championship.

The were American League champions in 1975 and 1986, both lost both series in seven games to the Cincinati Reds and New York Mets respectively. With the advent of division play in 1969 and the Wild Card in 1995, the Red Sox became frequent participants in the new post-season format, winning the American League East division title in 1975, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1999, and 2003, and winning the American League Wild Card in 1998.

A New Golden Age (2004-Present)

In 2004, the Curse of the Bambino, the teams' 86 year streak without a world championship, ended with a miraculous defeat over the dreaded rival Yankees, becoming the first team in baseball history to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a Best of 7 series. The Sox repeated as world champions in 2007, sweeping the Colorado Rockies in one of the most lopsided World Series in history.

Retired Numbers

• 1Bobby Doerr
• 4Joe Cronin
• 8Ted Williams
• 9Carl Yastremski
• 27Carlton Fisk
• 42Jackie Robinson(retired across baseball)

Stadiums

The Red Sox originally played in the Huntington Grounds, but moved to Fenway Park in 1912, where they have played since.

Fans

The Sox have a fervent fan base known colloquially as "Red Sox Nation", stemming back to the Royal Rooters of the early 1900s.