About Me
"Baseball is not a matter of life and death, but the Red Sox are."Before the Boston Red Sox became the Boston Red Sox, the club was formed in 1899 as the Buffalo entry into the Western League, and was predominantly referred to as the Boston Americans. The team moved to Boston in 1901 when the Western League came to be known as the American League and established itself on the Major League circuit. The Boston Americans gained an impenetrable reputation in 1903 with their 5 games-to-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in Major League Baseballs first ever World Series. The Boston Americans had their rep tried the next year, 1904, as the New York Giants of the National League refused to enter into any playoff competition with an inferior American League ball club. The Boston Americans became known as the Red Sox in 1908 when the team first donned red hosiery. The team would change ownership several times after the opening of Fenway Park in 1912, despite the fact that the team would take four World Series out of the next six, ending the run in 1918. Following the financial failure of the 1918 World Series and other economic difficulties caused by World War I, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold his most profitable player, George Herman Babe Ruth, to the New York Yankees for a total sum of $125,000 and a loan of $300,000 on January 3, 1920. This is a transaction that would define the franchise for generations to come. The team was purchased in 1933 by Tom Yawkey, and despite the mans racism which kept the likes of Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, and Willie Mays off the team, he really turned the Red Sox around. After purchasing the contract of Ted Williams from the Pacific Coast League before the 1936 season, Yawkey helped make the Red Sox into a contender when at the time of World War II the Sox were known as a second rate club in a city of second rate clubs. Williams would go on to have a legendary career and establish himself as the greatest Red Sox player of all-time. The Splendid Splinters accomplishments include, but are not limited to, hitting .406 in 1941 (the last Major League player to do so) and becoming the all-time Red Sox leader in home runs with 521. 1946 was the only chance Teddy Ball Game regarded by some as the greatest hitter of all-time - would ever have to play in a World Series. The Cardinals would take the Sox in 7 games, highlighted by Enos Slaughter's mad dash. In the 1960s, owner Tom Yawkey would again base the team around another hard-hitting left fielder in Carl Yastrzemski. The 60s would culminate in the Impossible Dream of 1967, where the Sox, who finished in last the year before, would take the pennant on the back of Yastrzemski's Triple Crown season. The Red Sox would fall short once again in 7 games to St. Louis Cardinals. The 1970s was the decade the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry would really take off. With a dirty slide into home by Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, young Sox catcher Carlton Fisk would inspire a team, like his future successor Jason Varitek would thirty years later, with the blow of his fist. In 1973 the Boston/New York rivalry burned anew, resulting in the end of Bill Lees career in 1976, and the infamous Bucky Bleepin Dent game in a one game playoff in 1978. The Red Sox would play the Cincinnati Reds - dubbed the Big Red Machine - in 1975, in what is haled by many baseball fans as the greatest world series of all-time. The series was highlighted by a dramatic home run by Carlton Fisk in which he waived the ball fair as it flew through the crisp October air, but the Sox would fall short in the 7th game of the series. According to Fisk, the Sox won that series 3 games-to-4. The 1980s would follow as a decade of desperation, where the founding members of a pennant winning team would either retire or leave Boston, one by one. Spurned on by a young pitcher in 1986 by the name of Roger Clemens, the Sox would take the pennant from the Angels in always dramatic fashion (Angels relief pitcher Donnie Moore critically wounded his wife and killed himself two years later). The Red Sox came within 1 strike of winning the 86 World Series against the New York Mets in Shea Stadium, but a 10th inning Mookie Wilson groundball down the first base line in game 6 would break Red Sox Nations collective heart as the championship drought continued. 2004 would be the storybook year for the long burdened Red Sox. Spurned on from a year of epic proportions of almost, the Sox would take the American League Wild Card for the second consecutive year. After sweeping the Anaheim Angels in 3 games with a David Ortiz walk-off home run over the Green Monster, the Sox would face the Yankees yet again in the ALCS -- something theyd done to no avail in both 1999 and 2003. In 7 games, the 2004 Boston Red Sox would come back from a 3 games-to-none deficit against their century long rival New York Yankees - a feat never accomplished in the history of Major League Baseball - to win the American League pennant. Following the tremendous momentum from the ALCS, the Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in 4 games on the backs of World Series MVP Manny Ramirez and pitcher Keith Foulke. The so called Curse of the Bambino (the only curse Boston suffered from was poor management) was eradicated. 86 years of tormented history was vindicated. The Boston Red Sox had achieved the greatest victory in the history of Major League Baseball.- Charles MacLean and James Burns, SoxSpace exclusive.
