The Boston Red Sox have been a part of baseball since 1901, when they played their first game as the Boston Americans. In 1902, the team name changed to the Somersets, and then in 1903, the Pilgrims. The three years as Pilgrims were good for the team: one playoff appearance, two pennants and one world championship. In 1907, the team began selling baseball tickets as the Red Sox. From 1907 to 2005, the Red Sox have had 16 playoff appearances, 9 pennants, and 5 world championships, including the 2004 World Series win that broke the legendary Curse of the Bambino.

After early years spent playing on what is now the grounds of Northeastern University, the Red Sox moved into Fenway Park in 1912. The first professional game on the new field was against the New York Highlanders, who would later be known as the Yankees. The Red Sox won that first meeting 7-6 in 11 innings. In the years since then, Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Carl Yastrzemski are just a few of the baseball legends who have called Fenway Park their home.

Those buying Red Sox tickets are admitted not only to a game, but to a ballpark rich in tradition. Features such as Williamsburg, Duffy's Cliff, and Peskey's Pole bear the names of great players of the past. And of course there is Fenway Park's signature item, the towering wall in left field known as the Green Monster.

Since winning that first World Series in 1903, the Red Sox have seen both delight and despair. Those earliest years brought the team four World Series championships in six years. In 1914, Babe Ruth joined the team, helping the team win three World Championships before he was sold to the Yankees in 1920. That sale was supposedly the basis for the Curse of the Bambino—the belief that when Ruth ("the Bambino") was sold, he carried with him all the good luck and winning touch of the Red Sox. The decades-long failure of the Red Sox to win another World Series (despite making it to the Series in 1946, 1967, and 1975) turned the Curse into legend.

1986 brought the team heartbreakingly close to a Series win. After winning the first two games in that Series, the Red Sox eventually lost to the New York Mets. But in 2004, after defeating the Yankees in seven games to win the American League Championship, the Red Sox took a mere four games (and a full moon/lunar eclipse) to bring the World Series championship back to Boston for the first time in 86 long years.