Time To Give Red Sox Ownership Their Due

John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group purchased the Red Sox from the Yawkey Trust on December 20, 2001.  In the twenty years that have passed, they have transformed the Red Sox into the most successful team of the 21st Century and Fenway Park into a ballpark that may just survive into the 22nd Century.

This is the modern miracle of Boston baseball.  The Yawkey's, and the Trust administered by John Harrington that took control after the death of Mrs. Jean Yawkey, owned the team for 69 years starting in 1933.  Yawkey's Red Sox never won a World Series (losing four times) and only made the playoffs nine times.  Fenway Park, opened in 1912, slowly fell apart in those years.  It was a dirty old ballpark that housed a franchise that was happy to embrace the "Curse of the Bambino" fate that seemed to ensure each season ended in misery.

Henry's purchase of the team changed all of that.  

Immediately, Fenway Park got a makeover.  New seats.  New concourses.  New bathrooms.  Paint.  Soap.  The park today in 2021 is significantly more enjoyable to visit than it was in 2000.

More importantly, the product on the field changed for the better.  They've qualified for the playoffs eleven times.  They've won the A.L. East five times.  They have appeared in seven American League Championship Series.  They have won the World Series four times.

Henry has certainly had his share of failures and mishaps.  The 2011 late season collapse that will forever be memorialized as the "Chicken and Beer" Red Sox.  The Mookie Betts trade to save money and avoid paying a "luxury tax".  Alex Cora's "suspension" in 2020 for his connection to the 2017 Astros cheating scandal (that may have bled in to the 2018 Red Sox championship team).  

There have also been complaints of Henry caring more for some of his other investments, particularly his ownership of the Boston Globe and of the Liverpool soccer franchise in the English Premiere League.  Some have wondered if Henry and the Fenway Sports Group are financially invested enough in the Red Sox, a complaint that only grew louder after the Betts trade.

Through all of this, Henry's Red Sox have managed to win.  Last night's win over the Rays in Game 4 of the ALDS punched their ticket to the ALCS for the seventh time in the last twenty years.  To put that in better perspective, the ALCS and NLCS were created in 1969.  In the 32 years that the ALCS existed under the Yawkey ownership, the Red Sox managed just five trips to that round of the playoffs and won only twice.

We've been blessed here in Boston.  This ALCS marks the thirtieth trip to at least the "Final Four" of their respective playoffs between the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics in the 21st Century.  Eighteen out of those thirty trips has resulted in a trip to the championship series/game.  Boston teams have won the whole thing twelve times (for those scoring at home there have been six Super Bowl titles, four World Series titles, a Stanley Cup, and an NBA title).

No ownership group is perfect.  However, this is a good time to sit back and appreciate the money invested and the successful teams produced under the Henry ownership.  

Thank you, John Henry.  Thank you, Fenway Sports Group.

Thank you, Red Sox.