Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team that plays in the American League East division of Major League Baseball (MLB). The team plays its home games at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Red Sox began play as the Boston Americans in 1901 as an original member of the American League. In 1903, the club defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates of the older National League in the first World Series, greatly enhancing the American League’s prestige. The Boston team was sometimes called the Pilgrims or other names until the name Red Sox was adopted for the 1908 season. In 1912, the Red Sox moved into Fenway Park, now the oldest MLB park still in use.
From 1912 to 1918, Boston won the World Series four times. In 1920, the team sold its star player, Babe Ruth, to the New York Yankees. Ruth went on to become the greatest player of his era, while the Red Sox suffered numerous losing seasons and began a long championship drought. The team’s woes were superstitiously blamed on the “Curse of the Bambino” (Bambino was Ruth’s nickname).
From 1946 to 1986, the Red Sox fielded numerous stars and won four American League pennants—but no World Series. The team returned to the playoffs several times in the following years but never reached the World Series. Finally in 2004, Boston “broke the curse” and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win its first World Series title in 86 years. Since then, the Red Sox have regularly reached the playoffs, and the team won the World Series again in 2007, 2013, and 2018. 
A number of Red Sox stars have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. They include catcher Carlton Fisk; first baseman Jimmie Foxx; outfielders Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Jim Rice; pitchers Lefty Grove and Pedro Martinez; second baseman Bobby Doerr; shortstop Joe Cronin; third baseman Wade Boggs; and first baseman and designated hitter David Ortiz. Other star players have included pitcher Roger Clemens, second baseman Dustin Pedroia, shortstop Xander Bogaerts, and outfielders Mookie Betts and Manny Ramirez.
