Glory Days T he history of baseball in Boston stretches back to the 1800s The city has been home to winning teams since the 1870s In 1901 the American League AL played its first season It placed a team in Boston to compete with the National League NL club that already played there The new team tried a couple of different names before settling on Red Sox around 1908 By then Boston had already won the pennant twice in 1903 and 1904 The club was successful because it convinced many NL stars to join the team Players such as Jimmy Collins Bill Dineen Cy Young Chick Stahl and Buck Freeman were well known to Boston baseball fans In fact all of them had played for the city’s NL team in 1900 From 1912 to 1918 the Red Sox won the AL pennant and the World Series four times These teams were among the greatest in history Boston’s incredible pitching staff included Joe Wood Rube Foster Ernie Shore 6
LEFT Harry Hooper was the finest outfielder of his time RIGHT Tris Speaker and Joe Wood were stars of the team that won four pennants from 1912 to1918 Dutch Leonard Carl Mays Joe Bush and Babe Ruth Tris Speaker Harry Hooper Larry Gardner and Duffy Lewis were the hitting stars In 1918 the Red Sox decided that Ruth was too good a hitter to be a full-time pitcher They moved him to the outfield and he led the league in home runs that season Ruth also won 13 games on the mound In 1919 he set a new season record with 29 home runs That was quite a feat since ballparks were very large and baseballs did not travel as far as they do today After the season Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for 100,000 Some believe Frazee decided to use the money to fund a play instead of spending it to improve the team The play was a success but Boston started to lose During the 1920s and 1930s the Red Sox often finished in last place 7
Their luck began to change at the end of the 1930s when they traded for slugger Jimmie Foxx and pitcher Lefty Grove A great young hitter named Ted Williams also joined the team The Red Sox weren’t finished They later added Bobby Doerr Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio Those moves paid off when Boston won the pennant in 1946 Unfortunately the Red Sox fell in an exciting World Series in seven games Boston continued to strengthen its roster with more good players including Ellis Kinder Mel Parnell and Jackie Jensen But the team did not capture another pennant until 1967 That season the Red Sox won a four-way battle for first place in the AL They were led by manager Dick Williams and young stars Carl Yastrzemski Reggie Smith and Jim Lonborg Again Boston lost the World Series in seven games In 1975 Yastrzemski was joined by All-Stars Carlton Fisk Jim Rice Fred Lynn and Luis Tiant The Red Sox reached the World Series once more but again they lost in seven games Eleven years later Boston challenged for the championship again The leaders of that club were Roger Clemens Wade Boggs and Rice The Red Sox advanced to the World Series where they met the New York Mets LEFT Skinny Ted Williams was nicknamed the Splendid Splinter ABOVE Carl Yastrzemski was known simply as Yaz 9
