Early Years and Glory Days

The Boston Red Sox were born in 1901 as the Boston Pilgrims, a charter team in the fledgeling American League. They got off to a running start, winning the first modern world series in 1903 against the powerhouse Pittsburg Pirates. They won the AL pennant in 1904 as well, but the NL, trying to shoot down the AL, which it saw as a competitor, did not elect to have a series. The NL soon accepted the junior circuit, though, and the Pilgrims, renamed the Red Sox in 1907, became a excellent team, winning the series in 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918. They had great players during that run: right fielder Harry Hooper could hit, field, and run with the best of them; left fielder Duffy Lewis was a superb fielder who mastered the incline in front of the left field wall, which was renamed "Duffy's Cliff", in his honor; center fielder Tris Speaker was a five tool (I originally said that nobody in his era had power but have decided to count his record number of doubles as a sign that he was a power hitter) star, who played center field so shallow that he regularly threw out runners at first on balls hit through the infield; pitcher Joe Wood threw blazing heat and earned the nickname "Smokey"; Dutch Leonard set a still standing major league record for ERA in 1914 with a 0.96 mark; and then there was Babe Ruth, a good lefty pitcher, who could also hit an amazing number of home runs. The team was excellent. Then along came Harry Frazee. He bought the Red Sox, but his real interest was in the broadway musicals he would finance. After the 1918 season, Frazee needed money to finance a new show "No, No, Nanette". For this, he sold Ruth to another club, the New York Yankees.