Cy Young Award
Winners
1967 - Jim Lonborg
1986 - Roger Clemens
1987 - Roger Clemens
1991 - Roger Clemens
1999 - Pedro Martinez
2000 - Pedro Martinez
2016 - Rick Porcello
Rookies of the Year
1950 - Walt Dropo
1961 - Don Schwall
1972 - Carlton Fisk
1975 - Fred Lynn
1997 - Nomar Garciaparra
2007 - Dustin Pedroia
Boston was a last-minute entry into Ban Johnson's new and improved American League in 1901. He initially wanted to avoid planting a team there to avoid conflict with the National League and its Boston club, but once it was clear the National League wasn't prepared to play nice on other fronts, Johnson took the club slated to play in Buffalo and placed it in Boston. Financing was provided by Charles Somers (who also owned the A.L.'s Cleveland club). In an era before official, trademarked team names, the club was initially known generally as the Americans. Over its first several years, they were occasionally called the Pilgrims, the Puritans and the Somersets, briefly, in a play on the owner's name. When the N.L.'s Boston Beaneaters dropped the red socks from their uniforms after 1907, the A.L. team quickly adopted them, to include a logo of a large red stocking on their uniform tops, and became known as the Red Sox ("Sox" was a commonly used alternative to "socks" to refer to articles of mens clothing in the years around the turn of the 20th century).
Boston began its history in fine form - they won 6 pennants between 1903 and 1918, 5 of which they parlayed into World Series titles. They maintained a perfect Series record, though, because one pennant came in 1904, when no World Series was played. It probably seemed to many that the club would dominate for years, especially given the emergence of their star pitcher-cum-slugger, George Herman Ruth. But, something happened on the way to that glorious future.
On January 5, 1920, Boston owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000. As part of the deal, Frazee also acquired a personal loan from Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert in the amount of $300,000. Frazee failed to meet the terms of repayment, which activated a clause in the agreement which conveyed the mortgage on Fenway Park to Ruppert. For the next decade, the Yankee owner owned Fenway and the Sox had their worst decade on record with 8(!) last place finishes. Shortly after purchasing the club in 1933, Tom Yawkey retired the mortgage.
Yawkey owned the club until his death in 1976. He was elected to the Hall of Fame because of his with the Red Sox, but one is forced to wonder why. During his ownership, the club had only 3 first place finishes and only 8 2nd place turns. It was a period of sustained mediocrity, made interesting only by the play of stars like Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski.
During these years and beyond, fans endured innumerable heartbreaks - four game 7 World Series losses, , Bucky Bleeping Dent, and the worst of all, Aaron Boone's home run off Tim Wakefield to end the 2003 ALCS. But, fortune finally looked with favor on them in 2004 - their historic 3-game comeback against the Yankees in the ALCS that season began a new era of winning. With 4 World Series victories, the current century is shaping up to be what fans might have thought they had in store at the beginning of the last one.
Because of my personal affinity for the Sox, this site offers some additional features that my other team history pages don't include. Most notably, it presents images of every man to have played, managed or coached for the Red Sox since the team was founded in 1901. Here you will find visually documented all 935 pitchers, 1,046 position players, 48 managers and 163 coaches (as of 2025) to have appeared in uniform for Boston (a total of 1,978 men have played; three are counted individually as both pitchers and position players - see below).
Links below will take you to the galleries housing the complete inventory of images. Where possible and practical, I used pictures of actual baseball cards because that it is the medium through which I, and I suppose many others, first discovered the game. Where necessary, I designed my own images. Images of actual baseball cards were obtained at the Card Cyber Museum, and for my own designs I used photos found at host of different sites, but none moreso than the wonderful forum at Out of the Park Developments. That great on-line community of ethusiasts is doing more to catalog and preserve the photographic history of major league players, coaches and managers than any other group I know of.
Where possible, I tried to show all subjects in a Red Sox uniform. However, whether because of the lack of blanket photographic coverage of the game and its players in the early 20th century, or because the player simply wasn't in uniform for more than a few games, I occasionally was forced to use images showing them with other teams. If anyone out there thinks they have an image that would help in this regard, please drop me a line using the contact tool at the bottom of this page.
I claim no rights to, or ownership of, any of the photographic images I've used on these pages. You are welcome to use them yourself. All I ask is that that if you use any of my personal creations on line, you give credit to my site.
1998
1999
2003
2004
2005
2008
2009
2021
2025
MVP Award
Winners
1912 - Tris Speaker
1938 - Jimmie Foxx
1946 - Ted Williams
1949 - Ted Williams
1958 - Jackie Jensen
1967 - Carl Yastrzemski
1975 - Fred Lynn
1986 - Roger Clemens
1995 - Mo Vaughn
2008 - Dustin Pedroia
2018 - Mookie Betts
The Huntington Avenue Grounds, where the American League's Boston club played from 1901 through 1911, before moving into Fenway Park.
An early panoramic view of Fenway, the team's home since 1912.
Fenway as it appeared mid-century.
Fenway as it appeared for much of the late 20th century.
Fenway in its current form - Monstah seats and all.
Managers are listed chronologically, all others alphabetically. Clicking on any image will enlarge it and provide a link to that person's Baseball Reference page.
Managers of the Year
1967 - Dick Williams
1975 - Darrell Johnson
1986 - John McNamara
1999 - Jimy Williams
2013 - John Farrell
On June 29, 1916, the Sox hired their former infielder Heinie Wagner as a coach, scout, part-time utility player and a member of manager Bill Carrigan's "Board of Strategy". As such, Wagner became the first Red Sox coach, and one of the first coaches in MLB history. Since that time, the Sox have gone through well over 100 coaches, from former players like Jim Rice and Dwight Evans, to future managers like Darrell Johnson and Don Zimmer, any many others besides. Their images are displayed here in alphabetical order. Images here are linked to their Retrosheet page, as Baseball Reference doesn't yet track coaching assignments effectively.
Even though all uniformed personnel are documented above, I still wanted to provide the same sort of broad overview as I do on my other team pages of those who were most prominent. Players are generally included if they spent two seasons as a starter, and managers if they managed for two. Coaches are generally included if they spent five years with the club. Note: Dates given are the individual's total years with the club, and not necessarily only their years of prominence.
The Huntington Avenue Base Ball Grounds - this image was taken before the start of a game in the 1903 World Series between Boston and Pittsburgh. Boston won the 1903 Series, the first ever played, and won another four in the next 15 years. All looked promising for a bright future....
...until team owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. In reality, the decades of mediocrity which began in the 1920s probably can't be blamed on that single action, but it sure didn't help.
Tom Yawkey bought the club in 1933 and owned it until his death in 1976. He was beloved by many, and has since been elected to the Hall of Fame as an executive. But why? The Red Sox were the last club to integrate, waiting until 1959 to do so, but was that because Yawkey was racist? Maybe (probably?). But the mystery of his presence in Cooperstown is less related to what was in his heart than in the fact that over the course of his ownership the club produced just 3 pennants, no championships, and a lot of poor teams.
The brightest aspect of Yawkey's ownership was the presence of Ted Williams. Considered by many the greatest pure hitter to ever play, the fact he put up the career numbers he did while missing nearly 4 full seasons to active-duty military service is nothing short of astonishing.
Following Williams' retirement in 1960, he was replaced in left field by Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz would go on to become one of the greatest and most beloved players in club history, retiring in 1983.
In one of the greatest "what might have beens", Tony Conigliaro burst onto the scene, hitting more than 100 home runs in his first 4 seasons from 1964 to 1967, before a pitch from the Angels' Jack Hamilton found his head on August 18, 1967. He came back for a couple seasons after that but was never able to escape the long-term effects of his beaning.
The arrival of the "Gold Dust Twins", Jim Rice and Fred Lynn, in 1975 provided a new spark to the club which entered a new era of competitiveness starting with a pennant in 1975.
The 1975 pennant set up one of the most memorable moments in Sox history - Carlton Fisk's game-winning HR to win game 6 of the 1975 and force a game 7.
In June of 1976 the A's sold Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Sox as part of Charlie Finley's deconstruction of his chamionship team. The sale was voided by Bowie Kuhn after three days, and neither ever saw action for the Sox. Rudi (right) would eventually come to the Sox for real in 1981.
The 1980s had some good moments - the arrival of Roger Clemens as one of the most dominant pitchers in history was one. Another was Dave Henderson's HR in game 5 of the 1986 ALCS. Strangely, I can't seem to remember what happened in the World Series that year....
Things changed in 2004. Terry Francona took the helm, Dave Roberts executed the most important stolen base in franchise history, the Sox came back from down 0-3 to the Yankees in the ALCS, and, on October 26, the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918.
During the club's resurgent years, arguably the two most important members of the club were Big Papi, AKA David Ortiz, and Tim Wakefield. Wake will never be enshrined in Cooperstown, but for 15 years he was the a leader in the clubhouse and did everything the team ever asked of him to help them win - start, close, and everything in between.
October 28, 2018 - Their 4th title in 14 years. When the Cubs finally won in 2016, I told a friend who had lived and died with the Cubbies his whole life that the greatest outcome of finally winning is that your favorite team goes overnight from being a lovable loser, forever cursed to find novel ways to go down in defeat to just one of thirty clubs trying to go out and win each season. If you aren't a Sox fan (or a Cubs fan), the relief that this brings may be something you can't understand.
Every so often, usually during a blow-out, position players will be called upon to take the mound. A number of Boston non-pitchers have received this call, and their exploits are are listed below with appropriate links to the pertinent games. Not included in this list are three men who either exclusively played the field, then exclusively pitched, or who did both more or less simultaneously. Each of these three are included above as both pitchers and as players: 1) Harry Wolter, who pitched extensively in the minors, played some outfield and first base for the Sox in 1909 and also pitched in 11 games for Boston that year, starting 6; 2) Ron Mahay, an 18th round draft pick by the Sox in 1991, played outfield initially in the minors, and during a brief call-up with the big club in 1995. After spending 1996 at Sarasota working on pitching, he returned to Boston as a pitcher for 1997 and 1998, and went on to throw for 7 other clubs between 1999 and 2010, and 3) a guy named Babe Ruth...you know the rest.
Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis - 10/3/13
Tris Speaker - 10/7/14
Hack Eibel - 3 games in 1920
Ernie Neitzke - 2 games in 1921
Doug Taitt - 7/25/28
Jack Rothrock - 9/24/28
Bobby Reeves - 9/7/31
Doc Cramer - 8/30/38
Jimmie Foxx - 8/6/39
Ted Williams - 8/24/40
Eddie Lake - 6 games in 1944
George Schmees - 2 games in 1952
Danny Heep - 5/25/90
Steve Lyons - 7/21/91
Andy Tomberlin - 5/20/94
Mike Benjamin - 6/21/97
David McCarty - 3 games in 2004
Jonathan Van Every - 4/30/09
Nick Green - 8/27/09
Dusty Brown - 9/30/09
Jonathan Van Every - 5/8/10
Bill Hall - 5/28/10
Darnell McDonald - 8/26/11, 5/6/12
Mike Carp - 4/24/14
Ryan LaMarre - 7/2/16
Mitch Moreland - 8/25/17
Eduardo Nunez - 4/5/19
Kevin Plawecki and
Jose Peraza - 8/13/20
Tzu-Wei Lin - 9/24/20
Kevin Plawecki - 7/29/21
Kevin Plawecki - 5/1/22
Jackie Bradley, Jr. - 7/8/22
Pablo Reyes - 5/15/23
Pablo Reyes - 8/6/23
Pablo Reyes - 4/27/24
Dominic Smith - 3 Games in 2024
Abraham Toro - 5/23/25 (1)
Nate Eaton - 6/27/25
Here you'll find a collection of Sox team photos. There are a number of missing years, most notably during the 1920s. I will try to update as I can. Each photo is linked to the team's Baseball Reference page for that year.
Red Sox No-Hitters:
May 5, 1904 - Cy Young, 3-0 over Philadelphia (Perfect Game)
August 17, 1904 - Jesse Tannehill, 6-0 over Chicago
September 27, 1905 - Bill Dineen, 2-0 over Chicago
June 30, 1908 - Cy Young, 8-0 over New York
July 29, 1911 - Smoky Joe Wood, 5-0 over St. Louis
June 21, 1916 - Rube Foster, 2-0 over New York
August 30, 1916 - Dutch Leonard, 4-0 over St. Louis
June 23, 1917 - Babe Ruth (0) and Ernie Shore (9), 4-0 over Washington
June 3, 1918 - Dutch Leonard, 5-0 over Detroit
September 7, 1923 - Howard Ehmke, 4-0 over Philadelphia
July 14, 1956 - Mel Parnell, 4-0 over Chicago
June 26, 1962 - Earl Wilson, 2-0 over Los Angeles
August 1, 1962 - Bill Monbouquette, 1-0 over Chicago
September 16, 1965 - Dave Morehead, 2-0 over Cleveland
April 4, 2001 - Hideo Nomo, 3-0 over Baltimore
April 27, 2002 - Derek Lowe, 10-0 over Tampa Bay
September 1, 2007 - Clay Buchholz, 10-0 over Baltimore
May 19, 2008 - Jon Lester, 7-0 over Kansas City
