Boston Red Stockings

The color red has been used in the names and commonly in the uniforms of several professional baseball teams in Boston.

  • Boston's first professional baseball club was established 1871 by Boston businessman Ivers Whitney Adams, and was named the Boston Red Stockings. Player-manager Harry Wright was brought to Boston to manage Boston's first-ever baseball team by Adams. He brought the nickname, the eponymous uniform, and three teammates from the Cincinnati Red Stockings when the Ohio team folded.
    • The Atlanta Braves of the National League are that Boston ballclub (established 1871) after a few name changes and two relocations.
  • The Boston Reds of the Union Association in 1884. The team was also called the "Unions".
  • The Boston Red Stockings of the Players' League in 1890 and the American Association in 1891. The team was called "Reds" more often than "Red Stockings".
  • The Boston Red Sox, established 1901 and still active. The club adopted the name "Red Sox" in 1908 after their intra-city rivals temporarily dropped the red trim from their uniforms. They were called "Red Sox" from that time, never "Red Stockings" or "Reds".

Famous quotes containing the words boston, red and/or stockings:

    “Those who first introduced compulsory education into American life knew exactly why children should go to school and learn to read: to save their souls.... Consistent with this goal, the first book written and printed for children in America was titled Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in either England, drawn from the Breasts of both Testaments for their Souls’ Nourishment.”
    —Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)

    “We have fought too much rhetoric and red tape to be lulled and comforted by a paid political advertisement showing a candidate tossing his grandchild in the air while a disembodied voice espouses “family values” in the background.”
    —Bernice Weissbourd (20th century)

    “Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
    No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
    Ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle,
    Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
    And with a look so piteous in purport
    As if he had been loosed out of hell
    To speak of horrors.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)