Manual Scoreboard

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The "Red Sox" name was chosen by the team owner, John I. Taylor, c. 1908, following the lead of previous teams that had been known as the "Boston Red Stockings", including the Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves). The team has won nine World Series championships, tied for the third-most of any MLB team, and has played in thirteen World Series. Their most recent World Series appearance and win was in 2018. In addition, they won the 1904 American League pennant, but were not able to defend their 1903 World Series championship when the New York Giants refused to participate in the 1904 World Series. The Red Sox were a dominant team in the new league, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in 1903 and winning four more championships by 1918. However, they then went into one of the longest championship droughts in baseball history, dubbed the "Curse of the Bambino" after its alleged inception due to the Red Sox' sale of star player Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees two years after their World Series championship in 1918. The Sox endured an 86-year wait before the team's sixth World Series championship in 2004. The team's history during that period was punctuated with some of the most memorable moments in baseball history, including Enos Slaughter's "mad dash" in 1946, the "Impossible Dream" of 1967, Carlton Fisk's home run in 1975, and Bill Buckner's error in 1986. Following their victory in the 2018 World Series, they became the first team to win four World Series trophies in the 21st century, with championships in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018. The team's history has also been marked by its intense rivalry with the New York Yankees, arguably the fiercest and most historic in North American professional sports.

In Their Own Story

The scoreboard has witnessed some of baseball's most iconic moments, serving as the vantage point for a camera that captured Carlton Fisk's famous 'body English' wave during his game-winning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. The operation requires intense coordination; while American League scores are updated from behind the wall, National League scores must be adjusted manually from the front between innings. This unique requirement highlights the board's physical integration into the playing field itself. Over decades, three scorekeepers have worked in tandem to manage the heavy plates, ensuring accuracy despite the lack of automation. The board survived the 2001-2002 era when Riverfront Stadium temporarily held a taller 'Black Monster' wall, and it remains in place even after the removal of the safety netting that once allowed grounds crews to use a ladder attached to the scoreboard for ball retrieval.

Reader's Guide

The Red Sox are owned by Fenway Sports Group, which also owns Liverpool of the Premier League in England, the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins and partially owns RFK Racing of the NASCAR Cup Series. They are consistently one of the top MLB teams in average road attendance, while the small capacity of Fenway Park prevents them from leading in overall attendance. From May 15, 2003, to April 10, 2013, the Red Sox sold out every home game—a total of 820 games (794 regular season) for a major professional sports record. Both Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and the Standells' "Dirty Water" have become anthems for the Red Sox. As of the end of the 2025 season, the franchise's all-time regular-season record is 10,044–9,336–83 (.518).

Did You Know?

• The name Red Sox, chosen by owner John I. Taylor after the 1907 season, refers to the red hose in the team uniform beginning in 1908.
• The team name "Red Sox" had previously been used as early as 1888 by a "colored" team from Norfolk, Virginia.
• The Spanish language media sometimes refers to the team as Medias Rojas, a translation of "red socks". The official Spanish site uses the variant "Los Red Sox".
• The name is often shortened to "Bosox" or "BoSox", a combination of "Boston" and "Sox".
• The formal name of the entity which owns the team is "Boston Red Sox Baseball Club Limited Partnership".