Boston Red Sox Franchise Timeline

In 1901, the only baseball organization that had sustained success in the United States was the National League. Founded in 1876, one of its charter franchises was the Boston Red Stockings from the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, or simply the National Association, which had won four of the league's five championships. Other leagues, including the American Association and the Player's League, had attempted to mirror the success but failed to break the monopoly held by the NL. Then Ban Johnson, the owner of a small but successful minor league system from the Midwest, decided to directly compete with the National League and turned his circuit into a major league unit. Originally, one of the eight charter franchises was supposed to be in Buffalo, where the minor league Bisons were already established, but league ownership at the last minute voted in favor of Boston over Buffalo in part to directly compete with its NL counterparts. The rest... is history.

• 1901 - 1911: Humble Beginnings
• 1912 - 1919: Baseball Dynasty
• 1920 - 1938: Down and Out in Boston
• 1939 - 1960: The Age of "The Kid"
• 1961 - 1983: "Yaz," The Impossible Dream, and Game Six
• 1984 - 1997: The Rocket, Morgan Magic, and the Hit Dog
• 1998 - Present: Champagne and Championships