The Boston Red Sox are a Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1912 to the present, the Red Sox have played in Fenway Park.[1] The "Red Sox" name originates from the iconic uniform feature. They are sometimes nicknamed the "BoSox", a combination of "Boston" and "Sox" (as opposed to the "ChiSox"), the "Crimson Hose", and "the Olde Towne Team".[2] Most fans simply refer to them as the Sox.
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Boston in 1901. They were a dominant team in the early 20th century, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in 1903. They won four more championships by 1918, and then went into one of the longest championship droughts in baseball history. Many attributed the phenomenon to the "Curse of the Bambino" said to have been caused by the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920. The drought was ended and the "curse" reversed in 2004, when the team won their sixth World Series championship.[3] Championships in 2007 and 2013 followed. Every home game from May 15, 2003, through April 10, 2013, was sold out—a span of 820 games over nearly ten years.[4] The team most recently won the World Series in 2018, the ninth championship in franchise history.