Editing Boston Red Sox (section)

===1988–1991: Morgan Magic===
The [[1988 Boston Red Sox season|Red Sox]] returned to the postseason in 1988. With the club in fourth place midway through the 1988 season at the All-Star break, manager John McNamara was fired and replaced by [[Walpole, Massachusetts|Walpole]] resident and longtime minor-league manager [[Joe Morgan (manager)|Joe Morgan]] on July 15. The club immediately won 12 games in a row, and 19 of 20 overall, to surge to the AL East title in what was called ''Morgan Magic''. But the magic was short-lived, as the team was swept by the [[1988 Oakland Athletics season|Oakland Athletics]] in the [[1988 American League Championship Series|ALCS]]. The Most Valuable Player of that Series was former Red Sox pitcher and Baseball Hall of Fame player [[Dennis Eckersley]], who saved all four wins for Oakland. Two years later, in 1990, the [[1990 Boston Red Sox season|Red Sox]] again won the division and face the [[1990 Oakland Athletics season|Athletics]] in the [[1990 American League Championship Series|ALCS]]. However, the outcome was the same, with the A's sweeping the ALCS in four straight.

In 1990, Yankees fans started to chant "[[1918!]]" to taunt the Red Sox.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Pennant Chases in East Still Flying High, West All but Flagged|date=September 25, 1990|first=Mark|last=Maske|newspaper=The Washington Post|page=E3|quote=Yankees fans had taunted the Red Sox all weekend with chants of '1918, 1918!'—the last time Boston won the World Series—and the Red Sox are not allowed by long-suffering New Englanders to forget the pain they have wrought with years of excruciating near misses.}}</ref> The demeaning chant echoed at [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]] each time the Red Sox were there.<ref>{{harvnb|Shaughnessy|2005|p=26}}</ref> Also, Fenway Park became the scene of [[Bucky Dent]]'s worst moment as a manager, although it was where he had his greatest triumph.<ref name=BuckyDent/> In June, when the Red Sox swept the Yankees during a four-game series at Fenway Park, the Yankees fired Dent as their manager. Red Sox fans felt retribution to Dent being fired on their field, but the Yankees used him as a scapegoat.<ref name=BuckyDent/> However, [[Dan Shaughnessy]] of ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' severely criticized Yankees owner [[George Steinbrenner]] for firing Dent—his 18th managerial change in as many years since becoming owner—in Boston and said he should "have waited until the Yankees got to Baltimore" to fire Dent.<ref name="Dent-Shaughnessy">{{cite news|ref=none|title=His Back Was Against the Wall|date=June 7, 1990|first=Dan|last=Shaughnessy|newspaper=The Boston Globe|page=37}}</ref> He said that "if Dent had been fired in Seattle or Milwaukee, this would have been just another event in an endless line of George's jettisons. But it happened in Boston and the nightly news had its hook."<ref name="Dent-Shaughnessy"/> "The firing was only special because&nbsp;... it's the first time a Yankee manager—who was also a Red Sox demon—was purged on the ancient Indian burial grounds of the Back Bay."<ref name="Dent-Shaughnessy"/>  However, [[Bill Pennington]] called the firing of Dent "merciless".<ref>{{cite book|title=Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the '90s Dynasty|year=2019|first=Bill|last=Pennington|author-link=Bill Pennington|isbn=9781328849854|location=Boston|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|page=32}}</ref>