The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts which was founded in 1901 as one of the American League’s eight charter franchises. The Red Sox’s home ballpark has been Fenway Park since 1912. The “Red Sox” name was chosen by the team owner, John I. Taylor, around 1908, following previous Boston teams that had been known as the “Red Stockings”.
Boston was a dominant team in the new league, however, they then went into one of the longest championship droughts in baseball history, called by some the “Curse of the Bambino” after its alleged beginning with the Red Sox’s sale of Babe Ruth to the rival Yankees in 1918, an 86-year wait before the team’s sixth World Championship in 2004. However, the team’s history during that period was hardly one of futility, but was rather punctuated with some of the most memorable moments in World Series history, including Enos Slaughter’s “mad dash” in 1946, the “Impossible Dream” of 1967, Carlton Fisk’s home run in 1975, and Bill Buckner’s error in 1986.
Red Sox history has also been marked by the team’s intense rivalry with the New York Yankees, arguably the fiercest and most historic in North American professional sports.The Red Sox are consistently one of the top MLB teams in average road attendance, while the small capacity of Fenway Park prevents them from leading in overall attendance. Every home game since May 15, 2003 has been sold out—an MLB record that has spanned almost eight years!!!!
As mentioned above, Fenway Park has been the home of the Red Sox since 1912 and is it has been the oldest venue used by a professional sports team in the United States since the 1991 demolition of Comiskey Park in Chicago.
The Green Monster is famous green wall used for preventing home runs on many line drives that would clear the walls of other ballparks. A side effect of this is to increase the prevalence of doubles, since this is the most common result when the ball is hit off the wall (often referred to as a “wallball double”). In honor of the famed wall, the Red Sox mascot is a furry green monster, named Wally.
Fabiana and Kirsten will be taking students to the Red Sox Game on Wednesday, July 28th. Come to the front desk to sign up to experience a part of Boston sports history.