001Welcome everybody. My name is Mina Jane. I'm the director of the Ashlin Public Library in Massachusetts. And um as you can see from the chat, we have people from everywhere coming to join us to chat with David Crew, one of my very favorite speakers about um what's going on with the the Red Sox. No, the history of the Red Sox. What's up with the Red Sox? That's what I was just going to say. Although I' I've heard they're winning this year, so it's not too bad. But um we'll get to him in just a second. I just want to say thanks to the friends of the Ashlin Public Library for supporting all of our programs. And I'd also like to thank David for letting us share this program with other libraries because when libraries work
002together, you know, we have like fun a you know, massively fun programs like this. So um thank you David. if um so David's got slides as you can tell and while his slides are uh playing and he's talking I will turn the chat off so that you're not distracted and then when we come back for the Q&A I'll turn it back on but if you have questions for him at any point put them in the Q&A and I will ask David those questions at the end of the um the slides and and we'll get to as many as we possibly can. So you might know David Crew because he has been with us several times. He's an author. He's a he's a historian. He's been is a spokesperson webmaster for the big dig. He's been
003retired for a few years and he has written and spoken about some of the most fascinating topics I think we've ever really had here like the big dig and we were just talking about like Shakespeare. I mean your interests are just so far reaching. It's amazing. So today, like I said, we are talking about um No More Curse: A History of the Red Sox, but it's more than that because this was based on a play that you wrote. Is that correct, David? Uh musical. Yes. So, what can't you do? Well, I can't tell you if the Socks are going to win this year. That's what I can't do. So, you can't tell the future, huh? If I could, I'd be on Bed MGM and, you know, not being I'd really have Fenway Park behind me.
004That's right. And you wouldn't be doing this for peanuts. Get it? Oh, very nice. Nicely done. All right, I'm going to go off screen and let you do your thing. And I'll be back when we get to the questions. Thank you so much, Mina. And hello everybody from around the country. I'm seeing people from Oakland. And uh by the way, you folks, I feel so badly for you cuz there's next to the Red Sox fans, uh Oakland fans were so devoted. You guys, what they did to you guys, taking your team away. But anyway, um welcome everybody. I am going to turn off uh my video because I would like you all to focus on this which is um a uh cartoon that um that I had uh seen um many many years ago. And
005of course, I cut it out and I had to save it. Uh, back before 2004 when Red Sox fans were filled with nothing but frustration, coming for so many years so close to winning at all only to have well things that we're going to be talking about tonight. Um, this frustration, this coming so close and this Sisophian type existence that the Red Sox had is what inspired me to write a musical which premiered at Boston's Lyric Stage way back in 2001. And then, well, I I shouldn't be sad because the Red Sox actually did win the World Series. um we ended up having to change the name of our musical uh to the curse of the bambino is over. But I've always been those of us who those of you who've seen my talks before,
006you know how much I love history and the story of the Red Sox and how they came to Boston and how they won our hearts and frustrated our souls for all those decades is a fascinating one. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight. As far back as 1871, Boston had a baseball team. When the Cincinnati Reds stockings, which was professional baseball's first team, re went to amateur status. Teams did that a lot back then. They were pro, then they went amateur, then they went back to being pro. But several members of this Cincinnati team moved to Boston and joined the National Association, a group of professional teams. Now, in 1876, that association disbanded and was replaced by the National League. And Boston's team, which you see here, became one of the team's hottest
007franchises. They won 12 pennants over 25 years. Now, if you were a fan of those Boston uh those B that Boston uh baseball team, you probably went here. This was the third base at 940 Columbus Avenue in the south end of Boston. It was nicknamed the third base. Why? Because as the owner Nuff said McGrevy used to proclaim it was the last place she went before going home. Now among the many fans who hung out there were John Honey Fitz Fitzgerald and Sport Sullivan a fellow who would someday arrange the fixing of the 1919 series. Now, it was an interesting time because many owners owned pieces of other teams. And this may sound familiar. There was a great collusion case in 1899. Brooklyn bought some of the better Baltimore players and Boston would drop to
008second place. So between the collusion and the reputation that the sport had gained and not unwarranted for gambling, drinking, cheating, and fighting at the games and the fact that half of the 12 teams of the league were off and out of the race by midsummer, the uh attendance began to drop. To the rescue of the National League came Ban Johnson, a former reporter who became president of the Western League, which was a minor Midwestern League way back in 1894. Ban was a visionary, but he was also an autocrat. He standardized umpiring, outlawed fighting, and attendance and profits soared, and his Western League was saved. In 1900, Ban Johnson decided to take his league professional and he renamed it the American League and he moved teams to Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. But he first stayed
009away from Boston out of respect for the National League because they were the powerhouse of the time. But when the National League tried to fight the American League by fronting a bogus third league that they called the American Association with a franchise in Boston, Johnson decided to take off the gloves. And in March of 1901, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on a site on Columbus Avenue, very close to today's Rugles Orange Line stop for a new ballpark, literally within a home run of the South End grounds where the Nationals played. It costs a whole $35,000 for the brand spanking new Huntington Avenue grounds. It was state-of-the-art, featuring showers and a separate locker room for visiting teams. Now, Johnson knew that for his new league to survive, certain cities had to be assured of winning clubs.
010And since since Boston was home to the Royal Routers and was a huge baseball town, Johnson the Autocrat made sure that as American League teams raided the National League that certain players would go to certain towns and that's how Boston Nationals third baseman Jimmy Collins was uh ended up being basically handed to the Boston Red Sox. They also got this guy. He is the answer to a trick trivia question. Who is the only pitcher to have won over 500 games in his career and not win a Sai Young award? And the answer is Sai Young, who by 1901 had already won 285 games when he joined the Americans. That's the Boston American League franchise. and he was already the ripe old age of 33. When he got here, he won 192 games for Boston in
011the next eight seasons, which I coincidentally was as many as a certain other pitcher who a certain general manager said was too old, a guy named Roger Clemens. Sai Young would pitch the first game at the Huntington Avenue grounds against the Philadelphia Athletics, which was won by Boston 12-4. Now, Boston was a pretty good team. They would finish their inaugural season four games behind the pennant Chicago White Socks, but with many more paying customers than Boston's National League team. And get this Red Sox fans, every regular position player stole at least 20 bases. In 1903, Sai Young threw seven of the league's 97 shutouts, often on two days rest. In 342 innings, I'm going to say that number again. 342 innings. He walked only 37 batters. And don't forget, this was before the DH, so
012he had to hit, too. The Red Sox and Sai Young treated Boston to the kind of season fans would later call typical, a strong start and a midsummer fold. Only in 1903, they recovered and went on their way to their first pennant. But Ban Johnson had created such a strong league that to keep him from rating every good player they had left, the National League agreed to treat the American League as an equal. So, the owner of the first place National League team in Pittsburgh and the First Place American League team here in Boston both saw an opportunity to make a few more dollars and they arranged to meet in a best of nine contest. test. The series and Boston was a wild success. By the third game, grandstand seats that normally went for a
013buck sold for a whole $5 with box seats going for as high as $10. Of course, no fans could match the enthusiasm of the Royal Rooters who followed the Americans who had won that third a third game back to Pittsburgh where they banged drums and generally harassed Pittsburgh's players. I'm not saying they were the reason, but the following spring behind solid pitching from Sai Young, Boston claimed the first World Series. And that spring in 1904, they raised their first championship banner. But despite his World Series win, Boston Americans owner Henry Calia was tired of the beatings and secondguing by the press and the fans. And by the way, this was long before Sports Talk Radio. And he wanted out. Now, John I. Taylor, the son of Boston Globe owner Charles Taylor, was bought the team
014by his father to run. Now, that young John was a huge baseball fan is not in question. Neither is the fact that through mismanagement and bad trades, he would drive this world championship team into utter mediocrity. However, in Taylor's first season as owner, Sai Young would pitch a perfect game. the first of only of the only ones ever pitched in the history of the game. Despite the first of many bad trades he would make, Taylor's Boston Americans shown playing here at the Huntington Avenue grounds would eventually win their pennant for the second year in a row. But there would be no World Series because despite the so-called peace treaty with the American League, John Brush, the owner of the National League pennant winning Giants, was so angry that the Baltimore team, that American Association Baltimore
015team, had been moved north into New York to compete with him, that he refused to allow his Giants to play. That team was eventually renamed the Yankees. So technically, we could say this was the first time that the Yankees prevented the Boston team from winning the World Series. Anyway, Taylor continued to trade away young prospects as his team aged and fell in hard times. In 1906, the team finished with the worst record in baseball. So Taylor's fix was to replace player manager Jimmy Collins with this fellow. His name was Chuck Stall. Now Chuck's great accomplishment in life, aside from being a pretty good baseball player, was his ability to arouse the strangest passion in women. One tried to stab him and another tried to shoot him. In late 1906, Stall would marry a young woman
016who left him when he signed on as manager for the Red Sox. Not saying that's the reason, but anyway. In the middle of spring training in 1907, tragically, Stall took his own life after another woman whom he had put in a family way, as they used to say, tried to blackmail him. So with a new manager, without a manager, um John Taylor decided that he himself would manage the club, but Ban Johnson quickly stepped in and said, "Not that." And he was forced to hire uh an actual manager. So now it's the end of the 1907 season, and John Taylor made the decision for which he is perhaps best remembered. He ordered new uniforms for his team. A gray trimmed in red with blue socks at home and bright red socks on the road. To
017celebrate the change, he renamed his club the Red Sox. Now, with his lease on the Huntington Avenue grounds expiring in 1911, John Taylor began searching for a site for a brand new ballpark. several other wooden ballparks had burned down and insurance costs were far too high to stay at the Huntington grounds. Anyway, now the fact that his father owned a large chunk of property near the fence and fen and Kenmore Square might have had something to do with the fact that he took a large undeveloped site near Kenmore Square and built a ballpark. The elder saw that the ballpark was a great way to increase the value of his family's holdings. He was quite right because as soon as the ballpark began to go up, the city began to plan to extend trolley lines into
018the area to support all of the fans. So, in late 1911, with only a few months to go before opening day, construction began on what he would call Fenway Park. John Taylor gave it that name because, as he put it, hey, it's in the Fenway, isn't it? Now, the new ballpark would be oriented with respect to the sun the same way as the Huntington Avenue grounds, which meant that the third baseline basically pointed north. But that street that ran behind the ballpark, behind that left field uh side of the ballpark, was too valuable for the elder, the big real estate developer to give up. So they shortened the left field wall and they uh created a tall wall, but that left field would only be 300 feet away approximately. So since this was what they
019call the dead ball era when the baseballs were not stitched as tight and really didn't fly as far, nobody thought it was a problem. And so they proceeded with building the park with these dimensions. The park had several firsts, including an electric scoreboard. Now, before the 1912 season, John Taylor sold the Washington Senator's manager, a fellow named James Mleier, a half interest in the club. And he stopped meddling in what today would be a general manager's role, the acquiring and the trading and selling and buying of players. Instead, Taylor would run the ballpark and the real estate interests of the Taylor family in that part of the city. Mlealier, a real baseball man, would actually run the operations of the club. In other words, he would become the de facto general manager. Mleier began building
020a Red Sox team that would dominate baseball for seven years. They already had outfielder Harry Hooper who would join the club in 1909. Then there was Tris Speaker, another outstanding outfielder who like Hooper would make it to the Hall of Fame. Then there was that left field wall built higher because of its closest lands down street. Adding to the unique situation was a 10-foot slope. It's hard to see in this picture, but it was a 10-ft slope that ran along the wall, and it was put there so standing room only crowds could see over each other. Remember, this was the dead ball era, and not too many players were expected to be able to hit a ball anywhere near that fence. But the slope would gain fame thanks to the brilliant way that left fielder
021Duffy Lewis used to play and catch fly balls hit out there. It became known as Duffy's Cliff. The Socks also had pitcher Smokeoky Joe Wood who compiled the greatest record of any Red Sox pitcher in 1912. He won 34 games and lost only five. And with these and other great players, the Socks took their first pennant since 1904 and again would be scheduled to play the Giants in the World Series. a World Series that would get played. However, it was supposed to be a best of seven, but there was a tie due to darkness and so it became a best of eight, which Boston won for its second world championship. That's Mayor and Royal Rooter Honey Fitz with Jake Stall, a different Jake Stall of course, and Smoky Joe Wood in a car during the
022Red Sox victory parade. Sorry folks, no duck votes back then. But even then, being a Red Sox fan meant you were riding a roller coaster. And as great as the 1912 season was, the 1913 season was disappointing. And the Socks were out of contention early. Now, we're going to talk about another kids game, dominoes. And you know how you like to line dominoes up and you push that one domino at the end and dink dink dink dink dink all the dominoes start to fall. Well, now we're going to talk about the first domino. In 1914, it was announced that the Midwestern Federal League, which was a minor league, was going to turn pro. And they just like Ban Johnson had done back in 1903 with his brand new American League. Well, the Midwestern Federal League
023began raiding both American and National Leagues for players and Red Sox owner Mleier saw the rising salary request from his players and and he was done. He wanted out. So he sold his share of the team to a guy named Joe Lannon, a real estate mogul who was a minority owner of the Boston Braves. In mid 1914, Mleier bought out John Taylor's shares to own the club outright. Meanwhile, something was happening in Baltimore. Here's another domino, folks, which would change the course of Red Sox in baseball history. Because even though they were in first place, the American League's Baltimore franchise was having a terrible time trying to compete with the new Federal League team. And in the middle of the year, they began selling off players to keep from going out of business. One of
024them was this 19-year-old pitcher who had a decent 14-6 record for Baltimore. His name was George Herman Ruth. Now, some legends are true. On July 11th, 1914, his very first day in Boston, Ruth met waitress Helen Woodford at a coffee shop. She would later become the first Mrs. Ruth. That afternoon, he went out and pitched his first game for the Socks against the Cleveland Indians. Now, truth be told, his first season was less than stellar. In fact, he was having so many problems that he was sent down to the miners for a few weeks near the end of the season. Now, there was a World Series held at Fenway Park in 1914, but it was not it was not the Red Sox who played it. It was the National League Braves. You see, their south
025end grounds were being replaced by a brand new ballpark nearby on Commonwealth Avenue. And during construction, Red Sox owner Lannon was more than happy to charge them rent to play at Fenway Park. By the way, it was the underdog Boston Braves who swept the Philadelphia Athletics in that series and would forever be known as the Miracle Braves. Now, in 1915, the following year, the Red Sox returned to contention and won their third pennant. This time, the Braves would return the favor by renting out their much larger Braves field for the World Series, thus allowing Lannon to make even more money. And in a really interesting bit of synergy, the World Series of 1915 featured the same two cities that played in 1914, Philadelphia and Boston. only now it was the American League Red Sox and
026the National League Phillies, but the result, at least city-wise, remained the same. Boston Red Sox took the 1915 title, and here they are, your 1915 world champions. Now, here's another domino. Following the 1915 season, the Federal League went out of business and now the owners of the National and American Leagues could, no pun intended, play hard ball with their players contracts. The Red Sox owner cut Tris Speaker and Smokeoky Joe Wood's salaries, arguing that their production had dropped and they weren't worth the big bucks. Smokeoky Joe Wood refused to sign and he sat out the 1916 season. So Lannon sold Wood to Cleveland in what up to that point was the most expensive sale in baseball, $50,000. But Boston still had the league's best pitching. And for the second year in a row, they won
027the American League pennant. And they had the right to face the National League champions, the Brooklyn Dodgers. And the 1916 season again played at the larger Braves Field which held those extra 10,000 playing uh paying fans. Boston won the series and for the first and only time won two World Series backto back. But owning the Red Sox seems to drain people. And Lannon started looking around for someone to buy the team. And he found one. It was a theatrical producer from Peoria, Illinois named Harry Fris. Now, normally in the old days before 2004, when I would put this picture up during my presentation, I'd hear a lot of booing, but as I reminded people back then, Harry Fris was he was the consmate self-made man. He was a successful theatrical producer. He dabbled in real
028estate, owned a stock brokerage house, and he loved sports and was a sometime boxing promoter. Now, Brazie paid half for the team in cash. The other half Lennon took as notes, promisory notes, which Fris expected to pay with the profits he naturally expected from the team that had just won two World Series. But remember this fact because that's going to play heavily in the legend of Harry Fris. Now under Fris socks had a pretty good year in 1917 but the White Socks over in Chicago they won the pennant and the series but 1917 turned out to be a difficult year for baseball. The fight for the Federal League with the Federal League had left many clubs struggling and America entered the First World War later that year and there was a draft which can threatened
029to deplete major league rosters. With young men being drafted to fight, many teams didn't have enough players to take the field. Here comes another domino. The Socks had the same problem. So they called on one of baseball's best pitchers, that's young Babe Ruth, to take first base on his off b off days. And Ruth immediately began displaying this amazing prowess with the bat that stunned baseball. He was hitting massive home runs in large numbers for that era. Remember, this was the so-called dead ball era. People couldn't figure out how this kid was mashing these loosely knotted up balls over uh uh baseball fences. He was so hot with the bat that the New York team, now renamed the Yankees and owned by a brewing magnet by the name of Jacob Jacob Rupert, offered Harry Fris
030$150,000 in cash. That's a lot of money any year. It was certainly a ton of money in 1918, but here's the interesting thing. FZ turned him down. Now, with American troops on the ground in France, the government announced a work or fight rule in 1918. That meant if you were of draft age, you either worked in the defense industry or you fought. Baseball owners went to Congress and argued successfully that baseball was good for the country's morale. An argument, by the way, that would work again in the Second World War. And the worker fight rule was lifted for ball players until September 1st. That meant the season would be shortened by a month. Well, but what about the World Series? They asked. Well, since the series was not part of the regular season, the owners
031further argued and they got an extra 15 days to play the World Series. But 1918 was a year where the babe was proving to be a handful. During the summer, he told his manager, a guy named Ed Barrow, that I don't want to pitch anymore. And since there seemed to be enough pitchers on the squad, Barrow put him in the outfield. But when Ruth Ruth slumped badly in June, and then ignored a take sign from his manager, he was benched. Ruth got angry. He jumped the club, joined a shipyard ball club in Pennsylvania, but he soon found out that they wanted him to pitch, too. Why not? He could bat. He could hit. He was like a show Otani, right? He went on. Um, so then he returned to Boston. He figured as long as
032he's got a pitch, he might as well play in the major leagues. He went on in 1918, even with his absence, to hit 11 of the total of 87 home runs that were hit in the American League that year. And when he pitched, he was close to lights out and had a 13-7 record and got the Red Sox back to the World Series, which um here they are, your 1918 American League pennant winners, who would play the Chicago Cubs in the first and only World Series to be played entirely in the month of September. Now, the 1918 series had its bumps. There was a brief kurfuffle over World Series bonus money which temporarily halted the fifth game. But the players egged down by angry fans already peaked over healthy young men playing a game while
033boys were dying in France eventually took back the field. But the games went on and Boston took its fifth world championship. And this would be the last time that Boston would read this headline in the 20th century. Now, the story I had read, this is back in 19, excuse me, 1997 when I had first conceived of the idea about a musical about this team. The story I had heard was the story we had all heard that before the 1920 season, Harry Fee found himself short of cash and needed money to produce a Broadway show called No Nanette. So he sold some of his players to the New York Yankees. One of them, of course, was Babe Ruth. Ruth would go on to star in New York, helping the Yankees, who to this point had yet
034to even appear in a World Series, to dominate the sport in the 20s and then in the 30s. The Yankees would go on to win, is it 26 or 27 World Championships? I've lost count. Some New Yorkers in the crowd will probably raise their hands and tell me. But the Red Sox would not win one more in at least in that century. But it wasn't just that the Red Sox weren't winning. It was the way they weren't winning. And of course, nobody told this part of the story better than Globe sports writer Dan Shaughnessy did in his best seller. You see, it took almost 30 years after the sale of Ruth to get back to the World Series. And when the socks did, fans watched or listened on their radios when in the bottom of
035the ninth inning of the seventh and deciding game of the series with the score tied, shorts stop Johnny Pesky held a relay throw from the outfield long enough to allow country enus slaughter of the Cardinals to make it all the way home from first base. Two years later in 1948, the Socks ended the season with the first ever tie for the pennant. A one-game playoff with the Cleveland Indians would decide who would go to the World Series. And with all stars like Ellis Kinder ready to play, manager Joe McCarthy instead chose a journeyman pitcher named Denny Gailhouse to take the mound. The Socks not only lost the playoff game, but the last chance Boston would have for a trolley series with the Boston Braves, who won one of their few nationally pennants. The Braves would
036lose the series to the Cleveland team, then known as the Indians. 1949. Frustrating as well for both the Socks and their belleaguered manager Joe McCarthy, who by the way did just swell when he managed the Yankees, taking them to several championships. But with the Red Sox, all he got was an ulcer. 1949 was classic. The Socks were 12 games behind in July and made it back to first place. But the problem was they still had to play in August and September. You know, for years, August and September always seemed to be a problem for the Red Sox, and they slumped. So, by the end of the season, all they were was just one and a half games over the Yankees. Excuse me. They were just one game o over the Yankees. They had to win
037one of two games over the New York Yankees to take the pennant. And of course, they would lose both. Nothing much happened at Fenway Park for almost 20 years as the team slipped further and further down the standings. In 1960, Ted Williams retired, homering in his last at bat and inspiring John Updike to write what I believe is the greatest work ever written about baseball. Hub fans bid kid a do. And then in 1967, after years when there were games at which, the joke goes, the players on the field would outnumber the fans in the stands, rookie manager Dick Williams led the team to their first pennant in 20 years behind the pitching of gentleman Jim Lawnborg and the defense and hitting of Ka Stressky in what was one of, if not the greatest single
038season by any player. And the Socks went on to play as they did in 1946. the St. Louis Cardinals, but they ran up against Bob Gibson, one of the greatest pitchers of his generation, who was the top of his game. Three of them, in fact. Bob Gibson won three of the Cardinals four World Series victories that year. But hope was renewed at Fenway and suddenly the Socks were the hottest ticket in town. In 1972, the Socks, seeking a little speed on the base paths, acquired this gentleman, Luis Aparicio, the American League's most effective base stealer, one of the great base steelers in all of baseball history. Now, proponents of the old curse of the bambino say his story is a classic example. For it was Aparicio who fell down rounding third base in a critical
039late season game, costing the Red Sox the pennant. But there's always next year, right? And for the Red Sox, that was the problem. Black cats always seem to be lurking around. I love this picture. In 1974, the year this one crossed in front of the Red Sox dugout, the Red Sox once again appeared poised to take the division, and they were leading the Orioles by seven games in July. But here comes August and September. And Baltimore took the division by seven games, a 14game swing in fortunes. It was the 1974 season when many socks fans have said they started to wonder if there wasn't something in the air over Fenway because those late season folds were starting to become a habit. But miracle of miracles in 1975 the Red Sox beat the odds and not
040only won the division but they swept the Oakland Athletics who had won the previous three World Series. How about that? And they took the pennant and they faced the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. But at a critical juncture in game three, batter Ed Armister of the Reds appeared to interfere with catcher Carlton Fisk on this play, but umpire Larry Barnett ruled otherwise, and the Reds scored from this opportunity, won the game, and eventually the series. 1978. In 1978, the Red Sox held a 14game lead over their closest rival in mid July, only to fold up like a cheap ironing board. And by the time the Yankees came to town for a four-ame series in September, their lead was down to four games. And you all know what happened. The Yankees swept them all in
041what some called the Boston Massacre. So when the season ended, the Red Sox, who were 14 games ahead with just two months earlier, were now tied. And a one-game playoff was scheduled for October 2nd, 1978. Now, I have a good friend about my age who grew up here in the Boston area and was a huge Red Sox fan. And even with the four wins this century, he still uses a certain old English word to describe what this light-hitting New York Yankee did in the seventh inning of the oneame playoff. Bucky Bleep and Dent had only five home runs throughout the regular season. After fouling a Mike Torres pitch off his foot, he took a few minutes to walk off the paint and eventually settle back in the batters box. Torres waited without throwing any warm-up
042pitches. He sent uh Bucky Dent would send Torres his first pitch into the net over the left field wall and the Yankees went on to win the playoffs and the World Series, which of course they won. More bad luck or ineptitude followed. In 1980, the Socks failed to send catcher Carlton Fisk. He of the greatest moment in baseball history. And I'll say no more. You either agree or you don't. Well, they failed to send Carlton his contract on time. And he went off to the White Socks. But by 1986, this here to four mediocre Red Sox team had rebuilt and won the division. Then they played in again my opinion one of the best playoff series ever against the California Angels which they won and then went on to the World Series against the New
043York Mets. And in game six in the bottom of the 10th inning ahead by two runs. The Socks just one strike away from claiming their first World Series championship since 1918 when everything unraveled. The Mets tied the game with a man on third and two outs. Mookie Wilson sent a Bob Stanley breaking ball, dribbling up the first baseline, which Bill Buckner playing on legs so bad that if he were a horse, they would have shot him, let go through his legs. I know. Why wasn't Dave Stapleton put in for defensive reasons as he was almost every other game in 19 Okay, we're going to move on. So, the Socks lost game six. The next day, the Socks led game seven by three runs, but somehow everyone knew it was not to be. They lost the
044series and didn't go back until 2004. And none of this would have happened if Handsome Harry for Zee, Handsome Harry, one of the nicknames I can say in public, if Mr. Fris, strapped for cash, had not sold off the babe to finance. No, no, no. The sail cursed the Red Sox to all those years of near misses. At least that was the legend. And that was the legend, frankly, I was happy to use in my musical. That's my Babe Ruth, played by a wonderful actor named JH Williston. He is surrounded by the ghosts of Red Sox failures. This shot is from the title song of the show, The Curse of the Bambino, in which all of the blame for the Red Sox troubles are laid on the head of one Harry Harrison Fris. But is
045it true? Not according to Dick Johnson, who is, by the way, the uh curator of the Boston Sports Museum at North Station. Visited. It's awesome. and Glenn Stout, a terrific writer of all sports. They chronicle in their book Red Sox Century, an ongoing escalating feud between Ban Johnson, our jealous autocrat, and Harry Fris, whom they paint as a smart, self-made man who was used to making his own decisions without interference. Oil and water. There were lots of things for each to be angry about. Uh Johnson made no secret of never wanting for Z to own the socks and he tried to block the sale. For Z tired of Johnson interfering with his club, including trying to avoid the sale of starcross pitcher Carl Mays to the Yankees, attempted a coup of sorts. He tried to
046get former President William Howard Taft to serve as a commissioner of baseball to basically usurp Johnson's power. The coup failed. Johnson claimed there was gambling going on at Fenway. Things got escalating. Fris saw this expensive legal battle looming. And with gate receipts uncertain in 1919. Remember, there was an influenza epidemic sweeping the country. He needed ready cash. So, he looked to sell some players. But here's the interesting part. What Johnson and Stout point out, five of the eight American League team owners supported Ban Johnson. Only Charles Kamisky, who owned the White Socks, and Jake Roupert, who owned the Yankees, uh, who each, by the way, had their own reasons for disliking Johnson. Well, they were the only teams with which Harry Fris could make a deal. Jake Roupert who was in the brewery business and
047that was about to be extinguished in 1920 thanks to prohibition. He really wanted to improve his baseball investment a team that to that point had yet to win a pennant. So on December 18th Rert got Duffy Lewis, Ernie Shore, and Dutch Leonard from Fris in exchange for cash and some minor leaguers. So on paper, the Socks still looked pretty good for 1919. And much of Boston's press corps and the team's fans agreed. But as the great Charlie Finley once said, they may have looked good on paper, but they stunk on grass. The 1918 19 season, excuse me, was a disaster. Even with Ruth, who overcame an early season slump to smash the record for home runs with 29. Now, before the 1919 season, Ruth got a three-year deal worth $30,000. When the season ended, Ruth
048looked around and he saw the salaries of other stars like Tai Cobb and Eddie Collins were actually higher than his, and he demanded a raise. Why not? The guy just hit 29 home runs. But for Z, who was busy battling Johnson in court and trying to hang on to his club, this was the last straw. And so Stout and Johnson say the sale of Babe Ruth, which included cash and Jake Roert holding notes on Fenway. Think about that. The owner of the Yankees is going to hold promisory notes on Fenway Park. Look, Ruth wasn't happy in Boston. He was making it difficult for the rest of the team and Rbert was more than willing to take him off of Fris's hands. And frankly, public opinion was not on Ruth's side anyway. One reporter suggested that
049Ruth's bad behavior had actually hurt the team more than his home runs had helped. And Boston's working class was not very sympathetic to a man earning $10,000 a year. Oh, and most of the Red Sox team agreed with the sale at the time anyway. So, everyone seemed to be on board with this, but the Socks then began to suffer injuries and slumps, and none of Fris's other trades seemed to be working out the way they used to, and the team played under 500 in 1920. While in New York, the babe was tearing up the American League, batting 376 and hitting an incredible 54 home runs. The next year, 1921, the Yankees won their very first pennant. And that's when Fris sold fan favorite Harry Hooper, and even his most ardent supporters were starting to question
050his abilities and his motives. Those questions bubbled until 1923. when Harry Fris exhausted from his battles with Ban Johnson and his team in last place sold the Red Sox for $1.5 million. It was then say Stout and Johnson that he turned his attention to a new musical Noette that was not doing well in its pre- Broadway road tour in 1924. FZ used the money to help overhaul the show with new stars and a new script and two new songs. The snappy T for two and I Want to Be Happy and the revised Noette was a big hit held over in Chicago for more than a year before coming a smash on Broadway. So, it was the timing of Fris's sale of the floundering Red Sox, his legal battles, the seemingly one-sided deals with Rupert, and
051the initial disaster that was no known Nette, which all came together in the mind of the public, thanks in no small part to still loyal Johnson supporters who vilified Fris. But according to S and Johnson, no Nette wasn't even on the radar screen when Fris sold the babe back in December of 1919. But whatever Fris's motives, the question still remains. Since that sale of Babe Ruth, the Socks, it was 86 years before they got and won a World Series. Was the team cursed? Was it a curse that East Boston's Tony Kigliro shown here in his first major league at bat in which he did what Red Sox fans? That's right, he homered. He was badly beamed during the great pennet race of 1967. Would the Socks have beaten Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals
052for even one game had he been healthy? What about the near misses of 1972 and 1974? Would they have been victories with a healthy Tony C in the lineup? What would the Socks have been like in the 1960s if a talented prospect named Harry Aanis had not tragically died early at a died at a very early age? When the Socks picked up Ferguson Jenkins, he was one of the winningest pitchers in the game. Was it a curse that during his two years here he barely pitched 500? And anyone want to talk about Jeff Bagwell or what would we do with Willie McGee? They were bad trades and missed opportunities. But I want to point out there have been a lot of good trades, too. Maybe some MIT grad student can quantify it all for us.
053You know, line up all the trades and the sales, the socks, and every other team has made. While it's a sure bet that the Yankees would rise above the median, I'm not sure that most teams, including the Red Sox, wouldn't lay pretty much in the middle. But as for curse, I make it a habit to never question anyone's religion or their superstitions. My own opinion is sometimes, like the bumper sticker says, and I'll clean it up for the youngsters, stuff happens. And then other times you bring that bad stuff on yourself. In 1945, the Red Sox were pressured into giving a try out to three outstanding Negro League players, Sam Jethro, Marvin Williams, and Jackie Robinson. None of them were signed, of course, and it wasn't until 1958 that the Red Sox would become the
054last team in the majors to integrate with the immortal Pumpsy Green. Now, who knows what impact Jackie or other Negro League players could have had on the Red Sox, who always seemed to be one hit, one strike, or one impact player away in those years between 1946 and 1960. Perhaps we wouldn't be here talking about some silly old curse. But then I never would have had my musical either, which I'm proud to say was and still I think remains the most successful in the history of Boston's Lyric Stage. This is a promotional shot from the musical. Sitting behind my lead character, a father, watching the Red Sox in the 1986 and then in the update, the 19 the 2004 World Series are the Royal Routers. Those fans of the Red Sox we already met at
055the third base. Throughout the show, they continued to relive through song the Red Sox various curses like a 20th century baseball Greek chorus. This is fun. The musical attracted even the attention of the great grandson of Babe Ruth himself, Chris Herline. That's Chris on the far left and in the middle is my babe JH Williston. The story we pitched to the press was that Chris attended the musical to help lift the curse, which of course it didn't. But I like to think the musical tapped into something very primal that ran very deep here in New England. the love of a team that may not have given any championships for 86 years, but one that gave more than our fair share of great moments. And what a treat in 2004 to be able to see this
056headline, subsequent World Series teams, 2007, 2013, and 2018. the 2013 team. I'll tell you right now, they're my favorite. That's the Boston Marathon team. That's David Ortiz and his epic moment on live TV. So, I'd love to know who yours is. And also, thank you all for having me today. I hope you enjoyed the show. And I want to say to all now, even you folks in San Diego and Oakland and Texas, go Red Sox. Okay, now I'm going to turn this off and I'll turn on my video. Wow, you're getting lots and lots of uh a thank you. Yay. Art's back everybody. Thank you. Um do you want to uh stop sharing your screen and we can go into questions? Yes, I will click the stop share button. Awesome. That engineering degree coming in
057handy. Oh, thank you. Bravo. Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful. And I am not a sports fan, but I was like, what's gonna what's he gonna say next? So, um, let's get into some questions. Some one came in the chat. Um, I'm going to remind you all if you have questions to put them in the Q&A because it's a little bit easier for me to follow. Um, but Gerard asked, "Was the Huntington Was the Huntington grounds where Nor Eastern University is now?" Yes. Yes. I think there are dorms there now. Okay, great. And um or a parking lot. A park, but it's really close to the Rugles station. Okay. Um Glenn Stout's Fenway 1912 is an excellent and detailed look at the park's first year in the team's World Series winning dry. Yeah, he's a terrific
058writer. Terrific, terrific writer. Good book, too. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, questions. Let's see. Um, do you know why Johnson and the American League adhere to the gentleman's agreement that banned black players from the National League before the AL and NL struck a truce? Were you just talking about this a minute ago with the uh No, actually we know we didn't talk about the quote gentleman's agreement um simply because there just wasn't enough momentum enough for that to happen back in 1903. Now we we know uh anyone who knows baseball history knows that there were black players in the very early days of of the game. Um, I think it was sometime in the 1880s when the uh the ban, if you will, went into effect. Okay. Um, was that just that wasn't just the
059Red Sox, though. That was um No, it was all it was it was all the majors. Yes. Yeah. Uh, interesting. And Roshan asks, "What was the longest curse, and is there still one going on? Well, let's see. I Let's see. So, the the Cubs had 108 years, I think, because they were they last won they won in 1908 and then they won again in 2016. Another terrific series, by the way. Um, I'd have to look that up. That's a Google question. Maybe I can ask Alexa what the longest uh baseball drought is. I think a hundred years is probably pretty good. Cleveland Indians 68-year drought is now the longest for a franchise. Uh uh uh she just answered my question. 68 years Cleveland Indians, the last one in 1948. When they beat the Boston Braves
060So we were talking about the um gentleman's agreement a second ago and Carl asks there was a Negroes League, right? So they were they like sort of like separate but equal? Equal. Well, it was separate but wasn't necessarily equal. But um there's we don't have obviously a lot of film of those players. We do know that um like a guy like Satchel Page who we never knew exactly how old Satchel was, but I think it was 1948 the Cleveland Indians signed him and he was you know in terms of baseball he was a geyser. he was, you know, in his late four and he was still mowing them down. They were amazing players and um and now of course the baseball hall of fame has included Negro League statistics and uh in along with the
061major the white major leagues up to 1945. Oh, interesting. Um there's a comment here that the Negro League started in 1920 when Rube Foster organized some independent teams into a league. Yes. Okay. There were a lot of barnstormering teams. Um the Yankees, I mean all the major leagues actually, they they would barnstorm and they would sometimes play these Negro League teams in in these they were pickup games basically. And um you know the the white players they sometimes they would just shake their head. could not believe how good these guys were. Uh but there was never that again that momentum pre-war for uh for there to be finally allowing black players to uh play in the white majors. Um so just a quick reminder if you can put your questions in the Q&A that's a
062little bit easier for me but we're I am uh answering qu asking questions from the chat right now. Was the gentleman's agreement influenced by reconstruction after the Civil War? I I can't say for sure. It It sounds I mean again, black players were playing for a decade or maybe two after the Civil War, but certainly when uh with the with reconstruction and um it probably it sounds logical to me, but I'd have to look that's something I'd have to look up. Okay. Um Okay. So, another comment. A terrific book, by the way, and unfortunately I have it on my iPad, so I can't hold up the cover, but there's a um a New England television host named Ted Reinstein. He's a terrific writer and he wrote a book about the Negro Leagues that it's it's
063a terrific book. It's also heartbreaking, but it it's a great book, and it it might be there, and I'd have to go to my iPad and bring up Kindle, but he might have the answer in his book. Okay, we'll have to look that up. He's a local speaker as well. I know a lot of Yeah, he's Yes, I'm sure you should. I'm sure you've had him. I have not personally, but I know he's hit a lot of libraries. You should book him. Giving you the giving you the plug. Yeah. So, another comment is the American Association of Major League at the time had black players until 1886 when the um National League forced the AA to agree to ban them in exchange for not rating AA rosters. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Awesome information. That's that's great.
064Thank you very much. Thank you. Didn't the Red Sox pass on Willie Mays because of race? Uh yes. Y but you know Tom Yi was a Southerner and uh that's what some people use as a either an excuse or a reason your choice about why we took so long to uh to bring in a block player. [Music] Um, Jorah says, "There are stories that the Braves did not bring Maize to the major so that they could move the team from Boston." [Music] Well, the Braves weren't doing very well. Yeah, that's right. I mean, but they moved in 53. I think that's when they moved to or 52, moved to Milwaukee. Um, we have some fans of Ted Rinstein in our audience. Carlos says, "Read Ted's book. It's fascinating." And somebody else says, "Just looked up
065his book. It's called Before Brooklyn. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's everything leading up to Jackie's um uh being brought into the Dodgers. So, so Katherine says, "Did not mention curse of 2003." I'm not sure what that is for. That's um because I love Tim Wakefield. Knuckle ballers have always been my one of my favorite positions uh types of pitchers. There's just I I was a big Wilbur Wood fan and Wakefield with that flutter ball of his and he gave up the uh winning home run to Aaron Boon who now manages the Yankees in the seventh game of the 2003 World Series uh uh excuse me, American League Championship. I've always said um you can't really and can't really talk about 2004 without the heartbreak of 2003 because that we were so close and and
066listen when the Cubs had their own little curse happened to them in their playoff with the with the Miami with the then known as the Miami Marlins. Um boy that that the odd opportunity that year with that we miss to have a Cubs Red Sox that either would have signaled the apocalypse or perhaps the greatest you know that would have been a World Series you just wanted to keep going forever but it was not to be. So, yes, 2003. Yeah, I I I don't put it in as a curse cuz again, Timmy, I see I see there's a little bit of bias here, but that's Yeah, of course. Listen, what what baseball fan isn't biased? Oh. Oh my gosh. I've never I I moved here from DC and I have I've never seen the the
067craze for sports as much as here. It's amazing. Yeah. Um, so just a quick comment and then one last question. Chuck says, "Uh, reconstruction was the era that allowed black Americans to vote and participate. The Jim Crow era ended reconstruction." Very true. And then, so um, last question. What about the story of the red seats and the bleachers? What's that all about? Okay, that's great question. And if you go to Fenway Park and um you'll see out in the cuz I don't have the I don't have the picture here in this image. There's a red seat. I think it's 52 feet from home plate. The story is that Ted Williams hit a home run and it struck a man wearing a a a boater, a straw hat who was sitting in that seat. And to
068mark that occasion, they put they painted that seat red. I cuz I've sat out in that part of the ballpark many times and I've always made it a point to stop by and sit in that seat. Um, some people say it's legend. Some people say it didn't happen, but you know, baseball is a is a game that makes you want to believe in legends like that. So, I I prefer to believe in it. And a little bit of followup for that, but um Doug does say it's seat 502. The wind was blowing out and it was a warm day, so quite possible. is that that couldn't have been the only person ever hit in by a baseball in the stadium. Like why did they make that one a red seat? Because it was hit by
069Ted Williams and nobody it was that nobody ever hit a ball out that far. Oh, okay. Gotcha. All right. And Katherine wants to uh fight with you a little bit. Did not blame Tim. Blame Grady Little for 2003. Okay. Yeah. Well, listen. Yeah, thank you. You're right. You're right. I don't want to even mention poor Grady's name. That's okay. So, I'm going to just share with you folks um to tell you if uh you'd like to learn more. I've got a few more fun things um on my website, davidcrrew.com. Uh, one of the pages is about the musical and uh, it also has links to all of the songs that were in the show and uh, I think if you're a baseball fan, especially if you're a Red Sox fan, you'll have a lot of
070fun. So, please visit uh, d-avv kr.com davidcrrew.com and uh, enjoy. Thank you. Yeah, his website's awesome. I will send a link to it um in email as well as well as the recording. So, David will be back with us. We just talked about this on September 29th. Might not be your cup of tea, but it's all about who really wrote Shakespeare. So, if you're a baseball fan and a Shakespeare fan, join us at I'll put a link to that um in my recap email as well. I like all the baseballs floating up as the emojis. I love it. All right. Well, thank you, David, so much. It looks like Heath Keith Slokum is pitching. Who knows baseballs? Sorry. Baseball fan. Obviously you know baseball very very well. Thank you Nina. Thank you Ashlin. Thank you
071everyone for coming tonight. Go Red Sox. That's right. Whoever's got the emoji finger. Um I'm impressed with you all. Thank you everybody. Thank you everybody. Bye bye.