The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and are the reigning World Series Champions. The Red Sox are a member and current champions of both the Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division and of the American League itself. From to the present, the Red Sox have played in Fenway Park.
The "Red Sox" name originates from the iconic uniform feature. They are sometimes nicknamed the BoSox, a combination of "Boston" and "Sox" (as opposed to the "ChiSox"), the Crimson Hose, and the Olde Towne Team. Most fans simply refer to them as the Sox.
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Boston in . Then playing at Huntington Avenue Grounds, they met the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in . In , the team won its fifth World Series, and then went into one of the longest championship droughts in baseball history. Many attributed the phenomenon to the "Curse of the Bambino" said to have been caused by the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in . The drought was ended, and the "curse" reversed in , when the team won their sixth World Series Championship.
The Red Sox lead all MLB teams in average road attendance, while the small capacity of Fenway causes them to rank 11th in home attendance. Every home game since May 15, 2003 has been sold out—a span of over four years.
