[A PUBLISHED CORRECTION HAS BEEN ADDED TO THIS STORY.] THEOWNER OF BOSTON'S BASEBALL FRANCHISE HAD HAD ENOUGH. NO MATTER HOWWELL THE TEAM DID IT WASN'T ENOUGH FOR THE FANS, WHO CONTINUALLYRAILED AGAINST HIM, HIS TRADES, PURCHASES, AND OTHER PERSONNEL MOVES.HE WOULD SOON FIND OUT THAT SELLING THE TEAM WOULD NOT BE EASIER. Among the bidders for the beloved franchise was a local figure,favored by the people because of his well-known enthusiasm for theteam.
Outrage ensued after the favorite was passed over for someone who -popular thinking went - was firmly in the pocket of the man runningbaseball.
The sale of this team in 1904 (at the time known as the BostonAmericans) would be the first of a century's worth of examples ofhow, when it comes to the Red Sox, nothing is ever easy.
In 1903 the Boston Americans won baseball's first World Serieswhen they beat the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates in a best-of-nine series. In any other town, that would be cause for the owner tobe lauded. But Boston has never been just any town.
Problems began when it was learned that owner Henry Killilea hadmade a deal to split the gate receipts evenly with his players, whilethe Pirates owner had agreed to give all of it to his players. And somembers of the losing team made more money than the winners. Thisdid not sit well with Boston's fans, most of whom were working classand facing their own wage-related concerns.
Then there were the rumors that several games were fixed so theseries would be extended to increase the box office.
The final straw came when Killilea made a deal with the hated NewYork club (yes, even then), swapping a 20-game-winning pitcher forone who lost as many games as he won. The invectives heaped onKillilea were too much for him to bear, and he put the team up forsale.
That was fine with Ban Johnson, the strong-willed founder and headof the three-year-old American League. He preferred an owner whowould be more in line with his vision for baseball, anyway. (Is thisstarting to sound familiar?) Initially, the first bidder seemed tofit the bill. He was a rabid fan of the team who counted himself amember of the Royal Rooters, denizens of a South End bar that was thecenter of Boston baseball enthusiasts. He was also a formerMassachusetts state senator and US congressman, with plenty ofpolitical ties that could only help the nascent team and league.
His name was John 'Honey Fitz' Fitzgerald.
Honey Fitz saw ownership in the wildly popular World Champions asa sure ticket to the mayor's office, which he craved so dearly. ButJoe Pelletier, who was a lawyer for the Sox told his friend (andFitzgerald enemy) William McNary about Fitzgerald's offer. A meetingwith Ban Johnson was quickly arranged by McNary.
Aside from being tied to the New York Tammany machine, Johnson wastold, Fitzgerald was a likely shill for the National League, whichhad fought Johnson's attempts to place an American League team in NewYork. Johnson needed no further reason to put the kibosh on the deal(although it has been suggested that Johnson also held an anti-Catholic bias), and he ordered Killilea not to sell to Fitzgerald. Ban Johnson's power was that absolute, and Honey Fitz wasout.[CORRECTION - DATE: Monday, March 11, 2002: Editor's Note: AJan. 7 column by David Kruh on John Fitzgerald's attempt to buy theBoston Americans in 1904 should have credited 'Red Sox Century: OneHundred Years of Red Sox Baseball' by Glenn Stout and Richard A.Johnson.]
It is often said that the two biggest sports in Boston arepolitics and revenge. It took Honey Fitz an extra two years to claimthe mayor's office, but when he did one of his first acts was to hangone of Pelletier's friends out to dry in a corruption scandal. Butthis is Boston, and the story wasn't over yet. In 1913 Pelletier gotthe last laugh by helping to expose Fitzgerald's relationship with acigarette girl named Toodles, a scandal of such proportion that itruined Honey Fitz's political career.
Meanwhile, Johnson had found a more pliant owner in John I.Taylor, the son of Boston Globe owner Charles Taylor. (Assuming theJohn Henry team is approved by Major League Baseball, it will meanthat the owners of The Boston Globe have twice had at least partialownership in the team.)
Young John was a huge baseball fan but, like most baseball fans,wholly unequipped to run a baseball team. Through mismanagement(shades of Carlton Fisk, Taylor almost lost the services of TrisSpeaker by failing to send the star centerfielder his contract ontime) and bad trades (too numerous to mention) Taylor drove Boston'sworld championship team into baseball mediocrity.
Just before the 1912 season, Taylor sold controlling interest inthe franchise to James Mc Aleer. Out from under Taylor's thumb, theteam begin a seven year domination of baseball in which they won fourchampionships, including their last one ever, in 1918.
Taylor, despite his ineptitude, did leave two lasting, positivemarks on the team. One were the brightly colored socks he ordered aspart of their new uniforms in 1907, socks that inspired him to givethe team a new name - Red Sox. And in 1912 he was instrumental inbuilding an ultra-modern facility that he named Fenway Park, wherethe team still plays today.
Politics and revenge may be the most popular sports in Boston, butbaseball is a close third. They often come together, as they did in1904. Many believe they have done so in 2001. But none of that willmatter to the fans if the new owners of the Red Sox can produce whatnone has done since 1918, a world championship.
