The past is certainly important and especially in baseball. The Boston Red Sox were a dominant team for the first two decades of the 20th century and here are the reasons why.
There are epochs in baseball history and the one that has intrigued me is the Dead Ball Era. Two gentlemen provided me with a wealth of primary knowledge regarding that period in baseball and their stories still resonate with me today. Both followed Boston baseball before there was a Red Sox team so I had a verbal tutorial that stretched from Honus Wagner to Tony Conigliaro.
As I aged, baseball has woken up to a far more diligent investigation of its past. The Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) has crafted books and programs around the Dead Ball Era. Authors such as Charles Alexander have covered the era with numerous biographies that have been meticulous research.
"“The Deadball Era was a period in the early 20th Century characterized by low scoring and an emphasis on pitching and defense. While its boundaries are not concrete, it is generally recognized to have stretched from the founding of the American League in 1901 to the elimination of the spitball in1920,” per Baseball-Reference."
The Red Sox of the Dead Ball Era was the best of the best from winning the first World Series in 1903 to a series of championships for 1912, ’15, ’16, and ’18 until the team was dismantled. Boston also experienced the ballpark revolution of that period as they escaped the Huntington Avenue ballpark for a new one in 1912 that is used today.
Now a look at my All-Stars from that era.