Boston Baseball

This board holds the pictures gathered for Boston Baseball, one of the books in James Lantos's Pictorial America series of illustrated histories. Boston has been a baseball town since the game first turned professional, and for a long stretch it had 2 major league teams.

The older club was in the National League. It began in the 1870s and went by several names, including the Red Stockings and the Beaneaters, before settling on the Braves. In 1914 the Braves were in last place in July and went on to win the pennant and sweep the World Series. They were called the Miracle Braves ever after. The team stayed in Boston until 1953, when it moved to Milwaukee.

The American League team arrived in 1901. It won the first modern World Series in 1903, beating Pittsburgh, and took the name Red Sox in 1908. Fenway Park opened in 1912, and the Red Sox won the World Series that fall, then again in 1915, 1916 and 1918. A young left-handed pitcher named Babe Ruth was part of those later teams. His sale to the New York Yankees after the 1919 season became the most famous trade in baseball history, and the Red Sox did not win another championship until 2004.

The early photographs come largely from news services that covered the game for the papers. They show players in baggy wool uniforms with small gloves, and wooden grandstands packed with men in hats. Boston fans were famous even then. A group called the Royal Rooters followed the team, sang, and traveled to away games.

Look at the ballparks behind the players. The Huntington Avenue Grounds, where the Red Sox played before Fenway, and the old South End Grounds of the Braves are long gone. These pictures are among the few ways left to see them.