Welcome back to the past.
On Friday, we walked down the earliest stretches of Red Sox memory lane to revisit their first, 1,000th, 2,000th, and 3,000th victories.
In part two, we soldier on, through the end of the Ted Williams era into the Carl Yastrzemski years, and far beyond.
No. 4,000 – July 5, 1953 (10-2, Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium)
Red Sox manager: Lou Boudreau
President of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Boston’s 4,000th and 10,000th victories were won exactly 72 years apart, on July 5 1953 and 2025.
There was an element of full circle-ness for the Boston ball club on that day in Philadelphia. Some 52 years earlier, then known as the Americans, they had defeated the Athletics for their first-ever victory. Now, they were the Red Sox, and it was the A’s who were on the cusp of changing their name.
In the early decades of the 20th century, the two clubs had been the crown jewels of the American League. Led by Connie Mack, their part-owner since their inception in 1901 and manager for their first 50 seasons, the A’s won the World Series in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930. Long before legendary NBA coach Pat Riley trademarked the term ‘Three-peat’ and tried to lead the Lakers to one, the A’s may have completed the sports world’s first four-peat, if not for the Red Sox, who snatched the 1912 pennant (and won the championship).
But by the 1930s, the A’s were in trouble. Unlike Boston’s new young millionaire owner Tom Yawkey, who had money to burn, Mack wanted to shed salary. While Mack and other owners tightened their belts amidst the Great Depression, Yawkey acquired several Philly stars, including Jimmie Foxx and Lefty Grove.
July 5 wasn’t the last time the Red Sox would play the A’s in Philadelphia, but the end was drawing near.
During the ‘54 season, a heartbroken Mack gave his sons, Earle and Roy, permission to sell his beloved team. By ‘55, they had a new owner and a new home, in Kansas City.
Further completing the Boston-Philadelphia circle, the Red Sox completed their 4,000th win under manager Lou Boudreau, who ultimately departed Boston after the ‘54 season to helm the A’s for their first three seasons in Kansas City.
Looking at the A’s today, playing in a minor league ballpark in Sacramento as they construct a new ballpark in yet another city, it’s hard to believe they were once Boston’s rival dynasty on the east coast. The contrast between the club that abandoned Philadelphia and Shibe, and the club that plays at Fenway to this day, is stark.
But without Yawkey, the Red Sox may very well have met a similar fate. Between May 1926 and the end of the ‘33 season, they played in a charred, dilapidated Fenway which had last its left field bleachers to a fire in May ‘26. When Yawkey took over in ‘33, he not only repaired the ballpark, but made several upgrades. Twice, in fact, as a second fire ravaged the newly-upgraded outfield seats on Jan. 5, 1934.
Though they never managed to win a championship in Yawkey’s lifetime, and will forever be remembered as the last team to integrate, the Red Sox and Fenway survived and remained because he decided they should.
And as a result, you’re reading this.
No. 5,000 – Aug. 27, 1966 (3-2 at Baltimore Orioles, Memorial Stadium)
Red Sox manager: Billy Herman
President of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson
As we reach the halfway point of this retrospective, it’s worth pointing out that despite many lengthy peaks and valleys in their franchise history, the Red Sox reached each thousandth victory with some measure of consistency; it takes between 12-14 seasons for them to reach a new benchmark.
That was particularly impressive in the aftermath of the Babe Ruth sale, when the Red Sox failed to compile a single winning season from 1920-33.
Win No. 5,000 was also the club’s first in the expansion era. With the additions of the California Angels and a new Washington Senators – the previous Senators having relocated to become the Minnesota Twins in ‘61 – the Red Sox now had to contend with nine AL rivals, not seven.
On Aug. 27, 1966, the Red Sox, with a 57-77 record, were in the cellar once again. Their hosts, the Baltimore Orioles, were en route to a World Series championship.
So unsurprisingly, it was a close one. It was also the first of the thousands to be won at night, despite owner Tom Yawkey leading his beloved Fenway Park into the modern age of baseball back on June 13, 1947.
Several Red Sox and Orioles legends faced off at Memorial Stadium that summer evening: Luis Aparicio led off for Baltimore, with Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson batting third and cleanup.
This win is also unique because of who did not play. Carl Yastrzemski, whose 3,308 games played in a Red Sox uniform will likely stand as the franchise record until the end of time, appeared in 160 of his team’s 162 games in ‘66.
This wasn’t one of them.
After falling to the Orioles 3-2 in the 12th inning the night before, the Red Sox flipped the script. Led by Joe Foy, who went 2 for 4 with a double, run, and two RBI, the Red Sox scored all three runs off Orioles starter Frank Bertaina, knocking him out of the game after just 4.2 innings. A young Tony Conigliaro played right field. Despite issuing five walks, Jim Lonborg pitched 7.2 shutout innings, and was picked up by Bill Short and Don McMahon, who recorded two outs apiece to finish off the soon-to-be champs.
The following year, a Red Sox roster with many of those same players put together the Impossible Dream season.
No. 6,000 – May 6, 1978 (Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park)
Red Sox manager: Don Zimmer
President of the United States: Jimmy Carter
The circumstances of win No. 1,000 and No. 6,000 were oddly identical:
Fenway Park, doubleheader, Chicago White Sox.
With 38-year-old Yaz now playing first base, Carlton Fisk behind the dish, and a legendary outfield contingent in Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans and Bernie Carbo, Red triumphed over White twice that day. Jerry Remy, acquired from the California Angels the previous December, was just beginning to forge a bond with the Red Sox that would remain until his passing in 2021.
But whenever anyone in Boston thinks about the 1978 Red Sox, they unfortunately only remember the brutal period that punctuated the season’s sentence. Finishing with a 99-63 record to match the Yankees, the rivals went to a tiebreaker.
The Red Sox may have triumphed in both ends of the doubleheader on that day in May, but in the game that mattered most, the triumph belonged to a man named Bucky Dent.
Or “Bucky (Expletive) Dent” as he was known from that day on.
As Yankees-related postscript, Boston’s manager in ’78 went on to be a central figure in yet another chaotic moment in baseball’s greatest rivalry. A quarter of a century later, the Red Sox and Yankees met in the ’03 ALCS. When Pedro Martinez threw a pitch near Karim Garcia’s head and sparked a bench-clearing brawl during Game 3, Don Zimmer charged at the Red Sox pitcher. Martinez instinctively tossed the former Boston skipper and then-Yankees coach, 72 at the time, to the ground.
No. 7,000 – April 14, 1990 (4-3, Milwaukee Brewers at Fenway Park)
Red Sox manager: Joe Morgan
President of the United States: George Bush
Win No. 7,000 was another one-run close shave. This time, over the Milwaukee Brewers, who were, back then, an American League East team.
It wouldn’t be an early 1990s Red Sox triumph without Roger Clemens, though it wasn’t necessarily his best work. ‘Rocket’ struck out 10, but allowed all three Brewers runs, on eight hits and a walk, over his 6.2 innings. By comparison, Brewers starter Chris Bosio exited after five scoreless innings of two-hit ball, only to watch Don August give up all four runs (three earned) in the sixth.
Wade Boggs, leading off and play third, collected two of Boston’s seven hits and plated a run in the contest. Dwight Evans, batting fifth as the designated hitter, was the holdover from win No. 6,000 back in ’78.
The Red Sox entered the 1990s on a high note. They finished that season with an 88-74 record for the AL East crown. But like any Red Sox team since 1918, October brought little joy and no glory.
But back, for a moment, to this final thousandth victory of the 20th century.
It may very well have been the last one at Fenway, too. Boston’s ballpark was already a dinosaur when the Red Sox triumphed over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 early in the 1990 season. And when Major League Baseball gave the Red Sox the ’99 All-Star Game, they did so under the assumption that the emerald jewel of Boston wasn’t long for this world.
Instead, by the time the Red Sox reached their 8,000th victory, early in the new millennium, the ball club and its ancient cathedral were on the cusp of achieving something even greater.
But for that story, you’ll have to wait for Part 3.
