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The Boston Red Sox have a history as old as baseball itself. The team, a charter fellow member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, is one of the longest running sports franchises in all American professional sports. The only team that comes close is the Chicago Cubs, but they took two seasons off after the fires. The Red Stockings, also known as the Red Caps and Beaneaters, eclipsed the National League through the late 19th century. So it was a real shock when the American League set up shop in 1901. Many of the top Beaneaters left the team to move to the American League because they were offered better contracts. The Beaneaters didn’t match the higher salaries, so leaving was an easy decision. The “Americans” did not take long to beat the National League Braves; the 1903 World Series was won by the Americans. Tessie, the official cheer, was introduced by the Royal Rooters that year (it is still played at each Fenway win, but now sung by hometown heroes The Dropkick Murphys). The team went by the Americans until 1907; the Beaneaters stopped wearing red socks for fear of infection and the Americans speedily nicknamed themselves the Red Socks. Meanwhile the Beaneaters/Red Stockings went through a assortment of names: from Socks to Doves to Rustlers, in the long run settling on Braves in 1912. Though there was some back and forth, from 1901-1913 the Sox were in general the better team. The Braves came from nowhere to win a 1914 miracle season. The Braves sat 15 games behind the New York Giants in mid July when they came from (far) behind to take the Series. It was after this extraordinary win that the team moved from South End Grounds to their new Braves Field. The Sox won a few Series Titles: 1912, 15, 16, and 18, but were cursed into 86 years of failure when Babe Ruth was swapped to the New York Yankees. The Braves fell off after the 1916 season; it took until 1932 for them to return to competitory standings. Ironically, the Braves manager acquired Babe Ruth in a Depression Era move to fetch fans to Braves Field. Babe Ruth finished out his career in the same city he begun it, but playing for the opposing team. But that was short lived; Ruth scarcely made it to July before retiring. The team came back again in 1946, and stayed in the game until 1953 when they were moved to Milwaukee. Boston has always been competitory when dealing with sports so it comes as no surprise that citizens were diehard fans of one team or the other. Today the Red Sox are still everyone’s #1 team and the Braves moved on to Milwaukee and 13 years later to Atlanta, where they reside today. |
