Editing Boston Red Sox (section)

==Nickname==
The name ''Red Sox'', chosen by owner [[John I. Taylor]] after the 1907 season, refers to the red hose in the team uniform beginning in 1908. ''Sox'' had been previously adopted for the [[Chicago White Sox]] by newspapers needing a headline-friendly form of ''Stockings'', as "Stockings Win!" in [[Large font|large type]] did not fit in a column. The team name "Red Sox" had previously been used as early as 1888 by a 'colored' team from Norfolk, Virginia.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1888-08-27/ed-1/seq-8/;words=Sox+Cuban+Red?date1=1836&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=&date2=1889&proxtext=%22red+sox%22+cubans&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0|title=The Start of the Red Sox|access-date=November 25, 2012|newspaper=New-York Tribune|date=August 27, 1888}}</ref>  The [[Spanish language]] media sometimes refers to the team as {{lang|es|Medias Rojas}}, a translation of "red socks". The official Spanish site uses the variant "Los Red Sox".<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 21, 2015 |title=Red Sox Launch Spanish Website losredsox.com |url=https://www.mlb.com/redsox/news/red-sox-launch-spanish-website-losredsoxcom/c-119617800 |access-date=April 8, 2020 |website=MLB.com |language=en}}</ref>

The Red Stockings nickname was previously used by the [[Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA)|Cincinnati Red Stockings]], who were members of the pioneering [[National Association of Base Ball Players]]. Managed by [[Harry Wright]], Cincinnati adopted a uniform with white knickers and red stockings and earned the famous nickname, a year or two before hiring the first fully professional team in 1869. When the club folded after the 1870 season, Wright was hired by Boston businessman [[Ivers Whitney Adams]]<ref>From George V. Tuohey (1897). A History of the Boston Baseball Club: A concise and accurate history of Base Ball from its inception. Boston, Massachusetts: M. F. Quinn & Co. p. 64.</ref> to organize a new team in Boston, and he brought three teammates and the "Red Stockings" nickname along. (Most nicknames were then unofficial—neither club names nor registered trademarks—so the migration was informal.) The [[History of the Boston Braves|Boston Red Stockings]] won four championships in the five seasons of the new [[National Association of Professional Base Ball Players|National Association]], the first professional league.

When a new Cincinnati club was formed as a charter member of the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] in 1876, the "Red Stockings" nickname was commonly reserved for them once again, and the Boston team was referred to as the "Red Caps". Other names were sometimes used before Boston officially adopted the nickname "Braves" in 1912; the club [[Boston Braves To Milwaukee|eventually left Boston for Milwaukee]] and is now playing in [[Atlanta]].

[[File:BostonRedSox1908logo.svg|thumb|left|The Red Sox logo worn on uniforms in 1908, announcing the team's first official nickname]]In 1901, the upstart [[American League]] established a competing club in Boston. (Originally, a team was supposed to be started in [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], but league ownership at the last minute removed that city from their plans in favor of the expansion Boston franchise.) For seven seasons, the AL team wore ''dark blue'' stockings and had no official nickname. They were simply "Boston", "Bostonians" or "the Bostons"; or the "Americans" or "Boston Americans" as in "American Leaguers", Boston being a two-team city. Their 1901–1907 jerseys, both home, and road, just read "Boston", except for 1902 when they sported large letters "B" and "A" denoting "Boston" and "American". Newspaper writers of the time used other nicknames for the club, including "Somersets" (for owner [[Charles Somers]]), "Plymouth Rocks", "Beaneaters", the "Collinsites" (for manager [[Jimmy Collins]])", and "Pilgrims".

For years many sources have listed "Pilgrims" as the early Boston AL team's ''official'' nickname, but researcher Bill Nowlin has demonstrated that the name was barely used, if at all, during the team's early years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/boston_pilgrims_story.shtml |title=The Boston Pilgrims Never Existed |author=Bill Nowlin |work=Baseball Almanac}} First appeared in SABR's ''The National Pastime'' (No. 23) on page 71. Apparently "Pilgrims" originated with a writer for ''[[The Washington Post]]'' during 1906, and by 1907 it started to be retroactively applied to the 1903 club, even by Boston newspapers.</ref> The origin of the nickname appears to be a poem entitled "The Pilgrims At Home" written by Edwin Fitzwilliam that was sung at the 1907 home opener ("Rory O'More" melody).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.celebrateboston.com/sports/baseball/bostonpilgrims.htm |title=The Boston Pilgrims Did Exist |publisher=Celebrateboston.com |access-date=October 31, 2013}}</ref> This nickname was commonly used during that season, perhaps because the team had a new manager and several rookie players. John I. Taylor had said in December 1907 that the Pilgrims "sounded too much like homeless wanderers."

The National League club in Boston, though seldom called the "Red Stockings" anymore, still wore red trim. In 1907, the National League club adopted an all-white uniform, and the American League team saw an opportunity. On December 18, 1907, Taylor announced that the club had officially adopted red as its new team color. The 1908 uniforms featured a large icon of a red stocking angling across the shirt front. For 1908, the National League club returned to wearing red trim, but the American League team finally had an official nickname and remained the "Red Sox" for good.

The name is often [[List of baseball nicknames|shortened]] to "Bosox" or "BoSox", a combination of "Boston" and "Sox" (similar to the "ChiSox" in Chicago or the minor league [[Worcester Red Sox|"WooSox"]] of Worcester, a minor league affiliate of Boston). Sportswriters sometimes refer to the Red Sox as the ''Crimson Hose''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.courant.com/colin_mcenroe_to_wit/2007/10/crimson-hose.html|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160516201342/http://blogs.courant.com/colin_mcenroe_to_wit/2007/10/crimson-hose.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 16, 2016|title=Colin McEnroe at the Hartford Courant}}</ref> and ''the Olde Towne Team''. Recently, media have begun to call them the "Sawx" casually, reflecting how the word is pronounced with a [[New England English|New England accent]]. However, most fans simply refer to the team as the "Sox" when the context is understood to mean Red Sox.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20080420&content_id=2559253&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos |title=Boston Red Sox News |website=Boston Red Sox |publisher=MLB |access-date=October 31, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080626102817/http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20080420&content_id=2559253&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos |archive-date=June 26, 2008 }}</ref>

The formal name of the entity which owns the team is "Boston Red Sox Baseball Club Limited Partnership".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/CorpWeb/CorpSearch/CorpSummary.aspx?FEIN=L86001121&SEARCH_TYPE=1 |title=Business Entity Summary ID Number: L86001121 |publisher=Office of the Secretary of State of Massachusetts, Corporations Division |access-date=October 24, 2013}}</ref> The name shown on a door near the main entrance to Fenway Park, "Boston American League Baseball Company",<ref>{{cite web |title=Boston American League Baseball Company {{!}} Lussier Photography |url=http://www.lussierphoto.com/2011/01/03/boston-american-league-baseball-company/ |website=www.lussierphoto.com |date=January 3, 2011 |access-date=June 16, 2011 |archive-date=January 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110119102406/http://www.lussierphoto.com/2011/01/03/boston-american-league-baseball-company/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> was used prior to the team's reorganization as a limited partnership on May 26, 1978.