Former Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan spent eleven springs preparing to pitch in the big leagues. Frank looks back on a time when a crowd of 500 was a good turnout for an exhibition game, when teams “barnstormed their way north playing exhibition games along the way, and when players of color had to deal with segregation in the South. Herb Crehan: Did you l [...]
For the past 67 years the Boston Red Sox have trained under the sunny skies of Florida, or from 1959 to 1965, in the desert warmth of Scottsdale, Arizona. But from 1943 through 1945, World War II travel restrictions required the Red Sox to hold their spring training camps north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
New manager John Farrell was hired by the Red Sox to get the team back to the playoffs. What does history tell us about new Red Sox managers and improved win totals? The Red Sox fired Billy Herman at the end of the 1966 season and replaced him with 37 year-old firebrand Dick Williams. Williams took the Red Flops of 1966 and turned them into the Impossible Dr [...]
Red Sox outfield prospect Bryce Brentz accidentally shot himself in the leg cleaning his gun just before spring training this year. Brentz is not the first Red Sox prospect to recover from a gun injury during spring training. In 1978, left-handed pitching prospect Bobby Sprowl was shot in his left arm while sleeping in his Winter Haven, FL, apartment. Spr [...]
After spending 2012 celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park it is timely to revisit the history of its near neighbor: Braves Field. When Braves Field opened in 1915 it was hailed as the “perfect ballpark.” The story of the planning and construction of “The Wigwam” is an important part of Boston’s baseball history.