What are 10 facts/stats I need to know about the Boston Red Sox, if I want to be a fan?

Question

I've decided to follow the Red Sox and I need to know somethings.

I live in North Carolina so I don't have a home team. Everyone else I know is a Yankee, or Braves fan so I picked the Red sox's to be different, and once I pick a team, I don't jump ship. I just started watching baseball and needed a team to follow.

Answer 1

1. Yankees Suck! (most important, always remember it)
2. Yankees fans are arrogant, rude, dbs, therefore they suck
3. In Papi we trust! (most clutch player in the game)
4. Did I mention Yankees suck?
5. They are saying Youk not booing
6. Misery loves company
7. Fenway is the most beautiful place on Earth
8. Sure it took 86 years but it was well worth the wait, especially to make the greatest moment in sports history
9. Choke is the official beverage of the 04 rivals
10. If you are a true Red Sox fan, you are a fan for life you don't just jump bandwagon to bandwagon

Answer 2

Historically:
1. The Red Sox have had the two best hitters in history, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams (obviously, at different times).

2. The franchise has six World Series championships (1903 -- the first one, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, and 2004).

3. The Sox committed one of the worst deals in history, selling Ruth to the Yankees. (This became known as "the curse of the Bambino", as the Sox never won again until 2004 -- 86 years -- while the Yankees proceeded to win 26 championships in that time. The effect was real, a long and often dismal slog through the Sox desert, but the cause was nonsense. Anyway, the "curse" is broken and over.)

4. Yaz == Carl Yastrzemski, left fielder/1B/DH from 1961-83. Great player while young, really good during a long second half of his career. Hall of Famer.

5. Rocket == Roger Clemens, the Sox #1 draft pick in 1983 from UTexas, presently doing his now-annual long waltz into summertime before signing with a team. He could come back to the Red Sox (I doubt it though). Has won seven Cy Young Awards, the first three while with Boston (played there 1984-96). First man to strikeout out 20 in a nine-inning game, and then did it again 10 years later.

6. Fenway Park is the oldest major league park in continuous use. It opened on April 20, 1912, five days after Titanic went down.

7. The Red Sox were the last team to integrate. Jackie Robinson tore down the segregation barrier in 1947; the Sox got backup second baseman Pumpsie Green in 1959.

8. Williams is the last man to bat .400+ over a full, qualifying season, posting a .406 average in 1941. He also homered in his last at-bat in 1960. (Search for a John Updike essay entitled "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" -- it's out there -- wonderful piece about Williams' career from the point of view of his last game, and that last, epic shot of his brilliant career.)

9. That big wall in left field is known as "The Green Monster".

10. "Game 6" can refer to that game from either the 1975 World Series -- when Fisk hit a bottom-of-the-12th homer to win the game, coaxing the ball fair (it hit way up the left field foul pole) with dazzling body English while dancing to first base -- or from the 1986 World Series, when the Sox blew a two-run lead in the bottom of the tenth and then lost the game on a grounder that went right between Bill Buckner's legs. In each Series, the Sox then lost Game 7.

11. Your two favorite teams are the Red Sox and whoever is beating the crap out of the Yankees.

That should get you started.

For specifically the 2007 team, well, there's more than enough available all over the web.

Answer 3

Historically:
1. The Red Sox have had the two best hitters in history, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams (obviously, at different times).

2. The franchise has six World Series championships (1903 -- the first one, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, and 2004).

3. The Sox committed one of the worst deals in history, selling Ruth to the Yankees. (This became known as "the curse of the Bambino", as the Sox never won again until 2004 -- 86 years -- while the Yankees proceeded to win 26 championships in that time. The effect was real, a long and often dismal slog through the Sox desert, but the cause was nonsense. Anyway, the "curse" is broken and over.)

4. Yaz == Carl Yastrzemski, left fielder/1B/DH from 1961-83. Great player while young, really good during a long second half of his career. Hall of Famer.

5. Rocket == Roger Clemens, the Sox #1 draft pick in 1983 from UTexas, presently doing his now-annual long waltz into summertime before signing with a team. He could come back to the Red Sox (I doubt it though). Has won seven Cy Young Awards, the first three while with Boston (played there 1984-96). First man to strikeout out 20 in a nine-inning game, and then did it again 10 years later.

6. Fenway Park is the oldest major league park in continuous use. It opened on April 20, 1912, five days after Titanic went down.

7. The Red Sox were the last team to integrate. Jackie Robinson tore down the segregation barrier in 1947; the Sox got backup second baseman Pumpsie Green in 1959.

8. Williams is the last man to bat .400+ over a full, qualifying season, posting a .406 average in 1941. He also homered in his last at-bat in 1960. (Search for a John Updike essay entitled "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" -- it's out there -- wonderful piece about Williams' career from the point of view of his last game, and that last, epic shot of his brilliant career.)

9. That big wall in left field is known as "The Green Monster".

10. "Game 6" can refer to that game from either the 1975 World Series -- when Fisk hit a bottom-of-the-12th homer to win the game, coaxing the ball fair (it hit way up the left field foul pole) with dazzling body English while dancing to first base -- or from the 1986 World Series, when the Sox blew a two-run lead in the bottom of the tenth and then lost the game on a grounder that went right between Bill Buckner's legs. In each Series, the Sox then lost Game 7.

11. Your two favorite teams are the Red Sox and whoever is beating the crap out of the Yankees.

That should get you started.

For specifically the 2007 team, well, there's more than enough available all over the web.

Answer 4

To add to a few of these answers, I'm wondering if you're deciding to change to liking the Red Sox because your home team sucks or because you just decided you should have a baseball team? Sounds odd. Maybe you're really doing this for a school thing? Anyway, a fact I'll add is don't cheat the game by liking a new team every year. Frontrunners are frowned upon by true fans.

Good to hear you passed on being a Braves fan like some of your friends. Go Mets! So now instead of me hating your team you will learn to hate mine. Funny how that works.

Answer 5

I'm not 100% a red sox fan but there are in one my top 10 favorite list i put them as #6.

Answer 6

i agree with blue. dont follow a team just because they are good. my great grandfather, grandfather, father and myself were and are the biggest red sox fans in the world. growing up in new hampshire was a blast. i was constantly going to sox games with my family. the point is, it isn't the same being a red sox fan just because they are good compared to a child growing up a red sox fan. i moved to kentucky when i was 11. i am 19 now. anyway, when the sox won the world series in 2004, there were all of a sudden hundreds and thousands of red sox fans in kentucky! i was almost ashamed of wearing my red sox cap because i felt like i was just cheering for them because they won, like everyone else. i believe you can't be a red sox fan if you aren't from new england and grew up a sox fan, just like your father and grandfather did. you want to be a red sox fan, go ahead, it won't be the same. i am a TRUE red sox fan. you are just another fan because the red sox are good.

Answer 7

1) the Yankees will in the end 90% of the time always beat the Redsox
2) they've one 6 world championships
3) Their mascot's name is wally
4)Manny being Manny
5) Their best player ever was Ted Williams
6) when attending a game at fenway you must get drunk and scream stupid things that make no sense
7) aside from being a historic park Fenway is a dump
8) Chowda
9) to be a true redsox fan you must be from new england
10) its almost impossible to get tickets to a game because they only have 35,000 seats.



PS.
Root for YOUR hometown team; don't be a sellout and just pick a team because you think they are good

Answer 8

This is a good summary. There is so much more but this is the essential stuff to know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Red_Sox

Answer 9

You have to learn how to get over diappointment every year, Know your role, and of course learn that the YANKEES RULE.

Answer 10

If you dont know the words to "Tessie" or "Sweet Caroline", youre not a true fan.