Though numbers have been retired by teams since 1939, when the New York Yankees retired Lou Gehrig’s number 4, it wasn’t until the 1970s that teams began to commonly retire uniform numbers of past players. There are no general guidelines written to determine whether or not a player’s number should be retired, so each team is left to decide its own policy for honoring past performers. In Boston, the only two requirements that must be met by a former player are as follows: (1) a minimum of ten years with the organization, and (2) election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Originally, there was also a third requirement: a player had to finish his career with the Red Sox. However, this requirement was waived in order to allow Carlton Fisk, who had finished the latter half of his storied career with the Chicago White Sox, to be so honored.

Of the thousands of players that have donned a Boston uniform in the 108-year history of the team, only 29 players meet the minimum ten-year requirement and, of these players, only seven have been elected to the Hall of Fame. Five of these players already have their numbers retired by the team: Bobby Doerr (1), Joe Cronin (4), Carl Yastrzemski (8), Ted Williams (9), and Fisk (27).[1] The other two players eligible are outfielder Harry Hooper and third baseman Wade Boggs. Hooper’s absence is explained by the fact that he played for Boston between 1909 and 1920 at a time when the Red Sox did not issue uniform numbers; in fact, it wasn’t until 1931 that the Sox assigned uniform numbers, two years after the Yankees became the first to do so. Boggs’ absence is not as clear, as he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, one year after being inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame. No announcement has been made to this point as to when the Sox would retire his uniform number (26).

There are two other likely future candidates. The first is former outfielder Jim Rice (14), who fell just short of election into the Hall of Fame in January on his 14th ballot; he will have one more opportunity to gain induction next year and chances are very good that 2009 will finally be his year. It is possible that, were this to happen, that both Rice and Boggs would be honored together sometime during next season. The other is former pitcher Roger Clemens (21), who appeared to be a lock for Hall of Fame induction on his first ballot until recent allegations of drug use to enhance performance on the field soiled his candidacy. Should he remain retired, he would first be eligible for election in 2013, the earliest that the Red Sox would consider adding his number to the honor roll.

[1] The number 42 has also been retired by Boston as well as the rest of Major League Baseball in recognition of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American major league baseball player of the modern baseball era.

Monday afternoon, the Boston Red Sox announced that eight people, including Mo Vaughn and Mike Greenwell, were elected to the club’s Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2008. Joining Vaughn and Greenwell will be former pitchers Wes Ferrell, Bill Lee, and Frank Sullivan, shortstop Everett Scott, scout George Digby, and former player development executive Ed Kenney, Sr.. Ferrell joins his brother and former Sox catcher Rick, who was automatically granted induction based on his previous election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984 by the Veteran’s Committee. The committee also selected the home run hit by Ted Williams in his final Major League at-bat as its Most Memorable Moment for Hall of Fame recognition. The induction dinner is scheduled for Friday, 7 November 2008, at the Marriott Copley Hotel in Boston.[1]

This is the seventh class to be honored since the Hall opened in 1995 and elections have been held every two years since 2000. Selections are made by a committee consisting of Red Sox executives and broadcasters, media members and representatives of the New England Sports Museum and BoSox club. To be eligible, a player must have played a minimum of three years with the club and been officially retired from baseball for at least three years, while non-uniformed honorees, like former inducees Curt Gowdy (broadcaster) and Dick O’Connell (general manager), are added only by a unanimous vote of the selection committee.

[1] Vaughn headlines 2008 Sox HOF class. MLB.com, 25 February 2008.

25 February 1933 - Seventy-five years ago today, in the midst of the Great Depression, Bob Quinn sells the Red Sox franchise to Thomas Austin Yawkey, who four days earlier had celebrated his 30th birthday. Quinn had owned the franchise since 1923 and the team had suffered considerably under his ownership; his clubs had averaged 99 loses against only 54 wins and suffered five seasons with 100 or more losses in ten years. In fact, since going 75-51 in the war-shortened 1918 campaign and winning the club’s fourth World Series in seven years, Boston had suffered 14 consecutive losing seasons under Quinn and previous owner Harry Frazee.

In 1932, the team had won just 43 games, fewest in team history, while ending up on the losing end of the score 111 times. Not only was Quinn’s ballclub suffering, Fenway Park had been left to deteriorate as Quinn’s debts mounted. At the same time, Yawkey, who had been born into wealth and whose uncle (and adoptive father) had once owned the Detroit Tigers, was looking to buy a baseball team. He turned down an offer to purchase a minor league team and refused another to buy half of the Brooklyn Dodgers; for him, it was all or nothing. He eventually heard through one of his sources that the Red Sox were available and quickly got his lawyers busy looking into the opportunity. By early 1933, talks were underway and, in the end, Quinn agrees to sell both the team and the park to Yawkey to the tune of $1.2 million dollars, a bargain price even at the time.

Within two years, Yawkey not only had Fenway Park renovated using his own money while employing several out-of-worker Bostonians but, with trusted confidant and former Philadelphia Athletics star Eddie Collins installed as vice president and general manager, also had the team performing better on the field, finishing at .500 in 1934 and winning 80-plus games in 12 of 15 seasons between 1937 and 1951. Yawkey would own the team for 43 seasons until his death in 1976, and ownership would remain in his trust until 2002, when the team was sold to current owner John Henry and his investment group for nearly $700 million.

With two world championships in the last four years to his credit guiding a team that hadn’t won a World Series since 1918, Terry Francona received a three-year contract extension Sunday from the Boston Red Sox that will keep him at the helm until at least through the 2011 season. The contract also includes a club option for two additional years, making it possible that the 44th manager in team history may be with the franchise for several years to come. Francona took over managerial duties in 2004 and immediately found success, taking Boston to its first World Series in 18 years and winning the club’s first title in nearly a century with a four-game sweep of St. Louis. The team repeated that success last season, capping the 2007 season with another four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, and Francona became the first manager in MLB history to win his first eight World Series games without a loss.

In 648 games over his first four seasons, Francona has 375 wins and a winning percentage of .579, the best among Boston skippers with at least three full seasons or 462 games managed. The only other Red Sox manager to equal that mark over the same span of games is Don Zimmer, who took over for Darrell Johnson midway through the 1976 season and remained with the club until being fired with five games left in the 1980 season; his career winning percentage at the helm of the Red Sox is four percentage points behind the incumbent skipper. Francona is also one of only five managers in team history to lead a club to a world championship and the only manager other than Bill Carrigan (1915 and 1916) to lead a Boston club to two titles. In addition, he is one of three Boston managers to win two pennants and the first to take his club to the post-season three times.

As Red Sox players gather in Fort Myers to begin spring training and prepare to defend the team’s 2007 World Series championship, it is a far cry from the very first Boston team pre-season. American League president Ban Johnson had only awarded a franchise in his upstart league to Boston in early January 1901 to Charles Somers and the season was slated to start just over three months later in Baltimore. Looking to directly compete against the well-established National League in Boston, franchise Somers and Johnson spent the first two months of the club’s existence putting together a team and signed Jimmy Collins, who had played for the Boston NL franchise only last season, to manage the club and play third base. Johnson also managed to lure Collins’ teammate, outfielder Chick Stahl, and another big-name National League star, Cy Young, into the fold.

With a roster in place, the team left South Station in Boston on 28 March and headed south to begin practice at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville; by coincidence, the “Americans” were on the same train carrying the “Nationals” from Boston, who continued on to their training facility in Norfolk. Unlike major league players today that spend a good percentage of the off-season working out in order to enter camp in near-peak physical form, the stars of yesteryear needed every moment of spring training to prepare for the long season and this remained true for many decades. For Boston’s first training camp, the standards of the day were followed; mornings were spent by the players taking practice at the plate and in the field, while the afternoons were devoted to long hikes in full uniform to build endurance. After less than a week of conditioning, the new club squared off in an exhibition against the squad from the local university on 05 April and soundly defeated the collegians by a score of 13-0. Unfortunately, the game was followed by a week of rain that made practice near impossible, as there were no field houses or indoor batting cages at the team’s convenience. The team managed only a few more practices before finally breaking camp and heading back north to Baltimore, where they would play the first game in franchise history on 26 April 1901 and lose, 10-6.

With pitchers and catchers due to report this Thursday, so begins the defense of the 2007 World Series title by the Boston Red Sox as the club tries to become the first team since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees to win consecutive championships. Unlike the team that tried and failed to repeat as champions following an 86-year title drought, the 2008 Red Sox club is nearly identical to the one that took the field last season. The biggest challenge over the off-season, the re-signing of free agent third baseman Mike Lowell, was quickly put to rest as the 2007 World Series MVP signed a new three-year deal with Boston less than one month after the end of the season, forgoing the opportunity to serve a longer contract for more money elsewhere in favor of remaining with an atmosphere that offered him the most comfort. Veteran pitcher Curt Schilling, who had previously voiced the desire to retire after last season but then decided to continue for at least one more, also signed a new contract while avoiding free agency. However, Schilling will likely be on the shelf for at least the first half of the season as the team and Schilling’s doctor, former team physician Bill Morgan, argue over what the proper course of action will be to treat his ailing shoulder.

Overall, the clubhouse remains intact with relatively few additions and subtractions. While a few high-profile players left via free agency, including pitchers Matt Clement and Eric Gagne and former Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske, these losses have little if any impact on team chemistry. The most significant addition was the signing of veteran first baseman Sean Casey, who comes to Boston via free agency after more than a year in Detroit; although he has enjoyed the position of being a starter for most of his career, he will likely back up current first baseman Kevin Youkilis. Casey should start on days that either Youkilis is given an off-day or when the Gold Glove first baseman is moved to third to give Lowell a rest. Boston also considered an offer from the Minnesota Twins to trade for Cy Young winner Johan Santana, who would have made the Red Sox rotation nearly unmatched in baseball, but the price was considered too steep for their taste or for the Yankees, and Santana instead was shipped to the other New York team, the Mets.

Perhaps the biggest question that will be answered in spring training is whether Coco Crisp or Jacoby Ellsbury will be the Opening Day center fielder. At present, popular opinion is that Ellsbury, who had a strong September and started the last six post-season games for Boston in place of a slumping Crisp, will take that spot; however, Crisp has electrified the center field position defensively in his two seasons with the Red Sox and, barring injury or a poor showing this spring, manager Terry Francona will likely go with the veteran over the rookie flycatcher. Schilling’s injury will also impact the club, but this may also settle the question as to whether Jon Lester or Clay Buchholz will be named the fifth starter. Though Boston would prefer to give Buchholz, who pitched a no-hitter in only his second major league start last September, more time to develop in the minors, those familiar with his stuff feel that he already has the make-up necessary to be an everyday starter. Don’t be surprised, however, if Boston instead looks for a free agent pitcher to fill the void in Schilling’s absence and move forward with starting Buchholz in Pawtucket this spring; there are still several unemployed, free agent pitchers that might consider a chance to pitch in Boston for less money, including the likes of Bartolo Colon, Josh Fogg, and Kyle Loshe, to name a few available starters.

Opening Day is just 42 days away with the Red Sox starting the season against the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, Major League Baseball’s third season-opening series in the Land of the Rising Sun.[1] With 29 other teams looking to knock Boston from its perch at the top of the mountain, 2008 should be an exciting season for Red Sox fans everywhere.

[1] Red Sox, A’s Japan-bound in 2008. MLB.com, 14 November 2007.