Baseball was, is and always will be the best game in the world. – Babe Ruth

The day after a crushing Game Seven loss in the 2003 American League Championship Series for Red Sox fans, I arrived at work to find a youth-sized Yankees cap on my chair. One of my co-workers, an unabashed New York fan, had pinned a note to it: “Give this to your son so that he’ll know what it feels like to root for a REAL team!”

Needless to say, I was less than happy – no, actually, I was pissed – and I threw the hat and the note into one of the bottom drawers of my file cabinet, knowing well enough that my then six-month-old son would NEVER be a fan of any team other than the Boston Red Sox.

It wasn’t the first time someone had harassed me due to my undying loyalty to the local nine; in fact, I was so used to it that most often it didn’t bother me. Heck, I had married a girl from upstate New York whose family was primarily Yankees fans, and I took grief from them at every holiday gathering, save for my one nephew whom I had somehow convinced to root for the Sox (and still does).

But the sting of watching Boston blow a late-inning lead the night before, followed by a game-winning home run from Aaron Bleepin’ Boone in extras to send New York to yet another World Series – the Evil Empire’s sixth trip in eight seasons – was still fresh in my mind, and I wasn’t in the mood for what was really a harmless poke.

Why I didn’t just toss the hat in the trash, I don’t exactly remember. Maybe I didn’t want him to come by later, see it filed away with the garbage, and give me more grief. Maybe I thought hiding it deep in a drawer at work to collect dust for a finite period of time would keep it unworn by anyone, let alone my young son. Again, I don’t remember.

But one year later, all that changed. You know the story: down three games to none in the 2004 ALCS, I witnessed the point at which the fortunes of the franchise turned. With three outs to go in the game, from the center field bleachers at Fenway Park, I watched Dave Roberts steal second base; the rest is history, and ten days later, baseball crowned the Red Sox as World Series champions for the first time in 86 years.

Almost by instinct, I knew what next to do. With sleep still in my eyes, I returned to the work the following day and fished that cursed cap along with the appalling note out of my file cabinet (I hadn’t touched it in all that time). You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I found my co-worker standing with some of our other co-workers, shooting the breeze on the shop floor.

“Hey!” I called out as I approached him. The conversation stopped suddenly as every eye turned to look at me. I calmly handed him what he had gifted me a year earlier and said: “You can keep this [censored] hat, because my son DOES know what it feels like to root for a REAL team!” Dumbfounded for a moment, he then broke into a big smile and congratulated my team for finally ending 86 years of frustration. Of course, he had to add with a chuckle: “Think you’ll be around when they win their next championship in 2090?”

Fast-forward 14 years and here we stand, having seen our beloved Red Sox win a fourth championship in 15 seasons and the first in five years. Let that sink in: four championships in almost the blink of an eye. Even the most rabid of Red Sox fans would never have imagined this after that crushing defeat in 2003.

Each banner season has been special in its own unique way: this year, Boston was unstoppable, winning an improbable 108 games during the regular season, a new franchise record, and then taking down two 100-win teams en route to the sweet reward of a World Series win. Manager Alex Cora, who won it all with Boston in 2007, now has a collection of 119 photos framed on his office wall, one from each win in this, his rookie managerial season.

Longtime Boston Globe reporter and editor Martin Nolan, in an article written after the 2004 World Series ended, spoke about his father, rooting for his beloved Red Sox, either from the stands at Fenway Park or beside his radio at home in his kitchen, running through the emotions all too common of a frustrated Boston baseball fan. Late in life, his father said: “Marty, my boy, I don’t think the Sox are going to make it again in my lifetime. And I’m not too sure about yours.” A year after his father passed, the ball went between Bill Buckner’s legs, leading Nolan to observe, “The Red Sox killed my father, and they’re coming after me,” which David Halberstam quoted in his book, The Teammates.

While I did not suffer as long as Nolan – 1986 was the first time I vividly witnessed what others has painfully observed for years – it’s reason like this that I don’t take any of this recent success for granted; as the saying goes, winning never gets old. I don’t consider myself spoiled; I’m blessed. Blessed to witness a moment in time that this storied franchise leaves its mark on the sport. Blessed to share the excitement of a championship with my kids and my parents, the latter of whom suffered in the same vein as Nolan and earlier generations of Red Sox fan.

15 years ago, someone facetiously thought I would be doing my son a favor to let him become a Yankees fan. Whether due to shameless optimism, stubborn loyalty, or blind faith, I’m glad I choose to file away that cap.

For the eighth time in team history and the third time in the past ten seasons, the Boston Red Sox are the world champions of baseball, winning the 2013 World Series championship thanks to a 6-1 win in Game Six.  David Ortiz was named the series MVP after batting .688 / .760 / 1.188 with 11 hits, including two home runs at six RBI. Down 2-1 after three games, Boston won three straight to close the series and clinch a world championship at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918, when the Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs four games to two, with Carl Mays earning the win.

John Lackey picked up the win for Boston in the final game and became the first pitcher in league history to win the clinching game of a World Series twice, having done it once before in Game Seven of the 2002 World Series for the Anaheim Angels.  The Red Sox also became the first time to win three World Series in the 21st century.

The Red Sox, after faltering in late 2011 to miss the postseason and finishing last in the American League East with just 69 wins in 2012, managed to far exceed all preseason expectations, as most prognosticators picked John Farrell’s club to finish in the cellar for a second straight season.  Instead, the Sox finished with the best record in the American League and tied with the St. Louis Cardinals, their World Series opponent, for the best record in baseball at 97-65.  Boston then managed to best the rival Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS, three games to one, before winning its 12th pennant by defeating the Detroit Tigers in six games.

With Boston’s 15-5 win Wednesday night in Colorado, the Red Sox now stand at 96-63 with three games to play this season.  The 96 wins matches the same number of games won by the 2007 world championship team. This is made even more remarkable given that the team won just 69 games last season, its worst season since 1965, when Boston limped to a record of 62-100.

In franchise history, only six other teams have won more games in a single season:

• The 1912 team boasts the best record in franchise history, a record of 105-47; that club also won the World Series over the New York Giants four games to three. It is the only Series that featured a game which ended in a tie; the second game was called after 11 innings due to darkness with the teams tied at six.
• The 1946 team finished 104-50 and lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. This was Ted Williams‘ only World Series appearance; he was injured in an exhibition contest prior to the series and, although he refused to use it as an excuse, batted just .200 (5-for-25) with one RBI over all seven games.
• The 1915 squad finished 101-50 and bested the Philadelphia Phillies four games to one in the Fall Classic.  It was the first of two straight world championship titles for the Red Sox, the only instance in club history of back-to-back titles.
• The 1978 club finished tied with the Yankees at 99-63. Forced into a one-game playoff at Fenway Park, New York edged Boston 5-4 thanks to Bucky Dent’s surprise three-run home run. Officially, the team’s final record is 99-64.
• The 2004 Red Sox finished 98-64, then won its first World Series in 86 years with a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. This came on the heels of a American League Championship Series win over the Yankees, who had led three games to none in the series before Boston stormed back and won the final four games.
• Finally, the 1977 team finished 97-64, but that was only good enough for a tie for second place with the Baltimore Orioles in the seven-team American League East division. First place went to the Yankees, who finished 100-62 and later won the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.

In total, 29 teams in franchise history have won 90 games or more in a season; 16 of those teams have appeared in the postseason.

The franchise, which had been founded in 1901, had spent the previous 11 seasons playing its home games at the Huntington Avenue Grounds.  In 1911, then-owner John I. Taylor purchased land in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston with the intent of building a new ballpark.  Ground was broken on 25 September of that year and construction was overseen by the Charles Logue Building Company at a cost of $650,000.

The opener actually came two days later than expected.  The original date, 18 April, had been rained out, as was a doubleheader scheduled the following day.  It was also not the first game played at the new ballpark; 11 days earlier on 09 April, the Red Sox had played an exhibition contest against the Harvard Crimson baseball team, winning 2-0 as snow flurries made for less-than-ideal playing conditions.

Boston went on to its most successful regular season campaign in franchise history with 105 wins against only 47 losses.  Led by manager Jack Stahl and featuring outfielder Tris Speaker and pitcher Smoky Joe Wood, the team also capped off the season with its second World Series championship, winning four games to three against the New York Giants.

Boston only trailed for three innings in the entire series and, after taking Games One and Two at Fenway Park by scores of 13-1 and 2-1, the switch to the high altitude at Coors Field seemed to make little difference to the Red Sox, who won Game Three by a score of 10-5 before closing out the series Sunday night in gritty fashion. Rookie outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who started all four games of the series after starting the last two of the ALCS, got Boston on the board first with a double followed one out later by a David Ortiz RBI single on the drawn-in infield. Boston got another run in the fifth on an RBI single by catcher Jason Varitek as Lowell slid home ahead of the tag, and the club got two more runs on solo home runs by Lowell and Bobby Kielty in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. Colorado made it close with a solo home run by right fielder Brad Hawpe in the seventh and a two-run shot by third baseman Garrett Atkins in the eighth with one out, but Papelbon recorded the last five outs for his third save of the series.

The Sox have now won eight straight World Series games dating back to its Fall Classic sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, when Boston won its first title since 1918, a span of 86 years. It marks the seventh World Championship in franchise history, and the Sox are the first club to win two titles in the 21st century as it ends a seven-year streak of seven different teams winning the title, which began in 2000 with the New York Yankees.