fenwaypark100

Let’s see if you pay attention. I begin with the essential question which is this; what do the Bulldogs, Shamrocks, Redskins, Bears, Yanks and Patriots have in common? Now before you go off all willy nilly and start thinking this or that, pause, look about and then answer. Very good….Outstanding deductive reasoning will bring you to the correct answer. That’s right, they are all football teams. But more than that they are all professional football teams and even more than that, they are all professional football teams which called Fenway Park their home!

 Fenway… ready for football, 1933.

Fenway Park’s initial foray into pro football came in 1926. It was the first incarnation of the American Football League which was started by Red Grange, (he of galloping ghost fame).  The Boston Bulldogs did not last a season, going 2-4 in six games before disbanding. Their plan was to split home games between Fenway and Braves Field. They played…

The Sox head to Yankee Stadium tonight (the fake one) where their historic 2012 season could effectively be put to death. I have written a few times about the rivalry and thought this would be a good time for the seventh stanza.

Following the 1951 season, the Red Sox/Yankee rivalry went dormant, for the two franchises were, once again, headed in two distinctly different directions. The Yankees won their third consecutive World Series in ’51’, on their way to five straight. In fact, the 50s brought the greatest period of Yankee dominance in their history. Try this on for size, from 1949 through 1964 the New York Yankees won the American League pennant 14 times. Did you catch that? FOURTEEN TIMES! The only years they did not win was 1954 and 1959! They won the World Series in nine of those years!

Yogi Berra played in 14 World Series with the Yankees.

The story of the 1950 and 1951 Red Sox is part of my aforementioned “Litany of Futility” visa vie the Red Sox/Yankee rivalry. It would prove to provide the closing act on this version of the passion play which would take nearly three decades to resume.

 The 1950 season saw a raw kid from Moosup Connecticut ensconced at the Red Sox first base position and he responded splendidly hitting .322 with 34 dingers and he knocked in 144 of his mates as well on his way to becoming the first Red Sox player to win the Rookie of the Year Award.

He joined a starting lineup in which Bobby Doerr had the lowest batting average at .294, three players had 120 RBI or more, five players scored 100 runs or more, and they had a utility man who hit .354 with 424 at bats.

Ted Williams, Vern Stephens and Walt Dropo hit…

Well we’ve been through a few stanzas of the Red Sox/Yankee rivalry song. The last verse was the Joe D/Teddy Ballgame wonder of the summer of ’41’. Therein the stage was set for the rivalry that would blossom at the end of that decade.

On Tuesday April 23, 1946, the Red Sox lost an 11 inning game to Washington which dropped their record to 6-2 and in a tie for first place. The next day they were beaten by the Yankees and dropped into second place by a full game.

They would not lose again until May 11th and after 15 straight wins (a team record) they held a 4 1/2 game lead which would be their smallest lead for the remainder of the season. They ran away with their first pennant in 28 years finishing 12 games ahead of the Tigers and 17 games ahead of the third place…

It has often been said that 1941 was the last year of innocence. The war in Europe was raging, the debate in America about whether we should enter it or not, was raging. And the debate in the baseball world, DiMaggio or Williams was raging.

Japan ended the debate about the war on December 7th,

but not before Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio captivated the country throughout the 1941 baseball season.

Joe DiMaggio arrived in New York in 1936 and he was an instant star, hitting .323 with 29 homers and 125 RBI! He was a veritable RBI machine as in his first five seasons his totals were, 125, 167, 140, 126 and 133 an average of 138 a season. He averaged 34 homers a year, including a league leading 46 in 1937 and his batting average was .345 including back to back American League batting titles in 1939 and…

Babe Ruth’s trade to the New York Yankees, marked the second time in five years that the Red Sox had traded someone who was arguably the best player in the American League. Yet the trade of Tris Speaker in 1916 did not adversely effect the Red Sox efforts, as they won the World Series in both 1916 and “18′.

However, with Babe Ruth trading in the pinstripes of the Boston Red Sox for the pinstripes of the New York Yankees; the turn around for both franchises was profound, immediate and everlasting!

In 1920, Babe Ruth shattered his record of 29 home runs in a single season when he hammered 54 of them. He led the league in HR, RBI, Runs Scored, On Base Pct, Slugging Pct and Walks and did it all while hitting .376. The Yankees finished with 95 wins (the most in their history) but were three games back of the White Sox in third place. Their…

There is an axiom in baseball that is as old as the game itself and it is a simple one; great pitching will beat great hitting.” It is a mantra which continues to be uttered and that is simply because it is true. It was true then and it is true today, so it is then apropos that the first player of the 1912 Red Sox we meet, after the manager, is non other than “Smokey” Joe Wood, the ace of the 1912 staff!

Wood first joined the Red Sox as an 18-year-old in 1908 and by the time he was 21 he was the top pitcher on the Red Sox pitching staff. He won 23 games in 1911, the only starter with a winning record, and as it turned out that was but a prelude to brilliance, for brilliant is what Wood was in 1912.

First the simplicity of the numbers; he was 34-5 with a…