Sports in Boston

Boston, Massachusetts, is home to several major league sports teams, including the Boston Red Sox (baseball), Boston Celtics (basketball), and Boston Bruins (hockey). The New England Patriots (football) and New England Revolution (soccer) play at Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough.

The city is home to two renowned sporting events: the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta. Several Boston-area colleges and universities are active in college athletics.

Baseball

Home of the Braves

By far Boston's most popular sport, baseball and Boston have almost become synonymous such is the city's great love affair with "America's pastime". Boston can lay claim to being the city to have sponsored a professional sports league franchise the longest. In 1871, the Boston Red Stockings, formed out of the nucleus of the former Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly professional baseball team, began play in the National Association.

Since then, there has never been a year without a professional franchise playing in the city. The Red Stockings joined the National League upon its founding in 1876, and would eventually become the Boston Braves. The Braves played in Boston until 1952, when they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to become the Milwaukee Braves, which, in turn, moved to their current home in Atlanta, Georgia in 1966. Despite four National Association championships, ten National League Pennants, and a World Series title (1914), the team was considered the "second" Boston team for most of its last five decades in the city, due to a team from an upstart league that began play in 1901. The first five Boston natives to play Major League Baseball were John Morrill (1876), George Fair (1876), Jim Ward (1876), John Bergh (1876), and Chub Sullivan (1877).

The Upstarts

The Boston Red Sox are a founding member of the American League of Major League Baseball, and one of the four American League teams (the White Sox, Indians, and Tigers are the others) to still play in their original city. The "BoSox," or "Sox" as they are colloquially called, play their home games at Fenway Park, located near Kenmore Square, in the Fenway section of Boston. Built in 1912, it is the oldest sports arena or stadium in active use in the United States among the four major professional sports.

Boston was also the site of the first game of the first baseball World Series, in 1903. The series was played between the Red Sox (then known as the "Pilgrims") and the Pittsburgh Pirates, [cite web | url=http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws_recaps.jsp?feature=1903 | title=1903 World Series—Major League Baseball: World Series History | publisher=Major League Baseball at MLB.com | year=2007 | accessdate=2007-02-18] while the team still played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds (the site is now a part of Northeastern University). The "Sox" won that series and six more since then (1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, and 2007). Recently the 2004 team is said to have broken the 86-year long "Curse of the Bambino." There have been many legendary players on the team; members of the Baseball Hall of Fame include Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, manager Joe Cronin and owner Tom Yawkey.

Basketball

The Boston Celtics basketball team, who play at the TD Banknorth Garden, were a founding member of the Basketball Association of America, one of the two leagues that merged to form the National Basketball Association. The Celtics have the distinction of having more World Championships than any other NBA team with 17 championships from 1957 to 2008. [cite web | url=http://www.nba.com/history/finals/champions.html | title=NBA Finals: All-Time Champions | publisher=NBA | year=2007 | accessdate=2007-02-20]

The list of Celtics who are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame include, among others, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Larry Bird, original owner Walter Brown (also president of the Bruins and owner of the Boston Garden), and longtime coach and team president Red Auerbach, who worked for the team until his death in 2006 at age 89. Longtime announcer Johnny Most was also honored by the Basketball Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Curt Gowdy Media Award. Now the Celtics are back and better than ever with a new big three. Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce make up one of the best defensive and offensive lineups in NBA history. With help of Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, coach Doc Rivers they once again made history by winning the 2008 NBA Finals and their 17th championship against long time rival Los Angeles Lakers.

Hockey

The TD Banknorth Garden, above North Station, is the home to the Boston Bruins ice hockey team of the National Hockey League. The Bruins, founded in 1924, were the first American member of the National Hockey League and a Original Six franchise, and have won five Stanley Cups, the last being in 1972. They reached the cup finals most recently in 1989. While they have made the playoffs in the early 2000s, they have come up short.

Such hall of fame players as Milt Schmidt, Eddie Shore, Raymond Bourque and the legendary Bobby Orr have played for the Bruins, and the team has been led by hall of famers such as team founder Charles Adams (namesake of hockey's old Adams Division), Art Ross (donor and namesake of the NHL's trophy for annual scoring champion), Walter A. Brown and Harry Sinden.

Boston's local colleges also are very strong in hockey. Boston College and Boston University are always remaining competitive and at the top of the college rankings. BC won the 2008 NCAA Frozen Four this year for the first time since 2001.

Football

The Boston Game

The Boston Game is thought to be the origins of American football, played by New England prep schools. In 1855, manufactured inflatable balls were introduced. These were much more regular in shape than the handmade balls of earlier times, making kicking and carrying more skillful. Two competing versions had evolved during this time; the "kicking game" which resembelled soccer and the "running" or "carrying game" which resembelled rugby union. A hybrid of the two, known as the "Boston game," was played by a group known as the Oneida Football Club. The club, considered by some historians as the first formal football club in the United States, was formed in 1861 by schoolboys who played the "Boston game" on Boston Common. They played mostly among themselves early on; though they organized a team of non-members to play a game in November, 1863, which the Oneidas won easily. The game caught the attention of the press, and the "Boston game" continued to grow throughout the 1860s. [cite web | last = Allaway | first = Roger | title = Were the Oneidas playing soccer or not? | work = The USA Soccer History Archives | publisher = Dave Litterer | date = 2001 | url = http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/oneidas.html | accessdate = 2007-05-15]

NFL

Although the team has been in Foxborough since 1971, a site closer to the state of Rhode Island, the New England Patriots are still generally considered to be Boston's football team. The team was founded in 1960 as the Boston Patriots, charter members of the American Football League. In 1970, the team joined the National Football League and moved to Foxboro Stadium in 1971.

While in Boston, the team played at Nickerson Field (at the time still known and configured as Braves Field), Fenway Park, Harvard Stadium, and BC's Alumni Stadium (technically, just outside of the city limits). The team has won three Super Bowl titles (2001, 2003, 2004) since the 2001 season, [cite web | url=http://www.patriots.com/history/index.cfm?ac=History | title=The History of the New England Patriots | publisher=New England Patriots | year=2007 | accessdate=2007-04-29] and currently is considered to be second in popularity only to the Red Sox. They share Gillette Stadium with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer.

Other sports teams

Another major league team is the Boston Cannons lacrosse team of Major League Lacrosse. The team plays at Harvard University's Harvard Stadium. The National Lacrosse League placed franchise in Boston named the Boston Blazers, and they were scheduled to begin for the 2008 season. They will play the TD Banknorth Garden. There have been other professional sports teams to play in the city, such as the Boston Blazers indoor lacrosse team, the Boston Beacons and Boston Minutemen of the NASL, and the Boston Breakers WUSA franchise.

Rugby in Boston has a strong following; the city is home to numerous amateur, college and semi-professional sides. The city has two teams in the premier division of USA rugby union, the Rugby Super League - the Boston Irish Wolfhounds and Boston RFC. The city formerly featured one rugby league team in the American National Rugby League, the Boston Braves.

Boston's first all-female flat-track roller derby league, Boston Derby Dames, formed in May 2005. The league is among the original members of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.

Longwood Cricket Club (despite its name) is the oldest tennis club in the New World, located in Chestnut Hill. It is the site of the first Davis Cup competition.

There has also been talk of a possible Arena Football League expansion team coming to Boston sometime in the next few years. [cite web | url=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/2007-02-28-arena-league-kickoff_x.htm | title=Arena Football League kicks off new season with business booming | publisher=USA Today | year=2007 | accessdate=2007-09-15]

Collegiate sports

Boston's many colleges and universities are active in college athletics. There are four NCAA Division I members in the city: Boston College (member of the Atlantic Coast Conference), Boston University (America East Conference), Northeastern University (Colonial Athletic Association), and Harvard University (Ivy League).

All except Harvard, which belongs to the ECAC Hockey League, belong to the Hockey East conference in hockey. The hockey teams of these four universities meet every year in a four-team tournament known as the "Beanpot Tournament," played at the TD Banknorth Garden (and the Boston Garden before that) over two Monday nights in February. [cite web | author=Bertagna, Joe | url=http://www.beanpothockey.com/tradition.html | title=The Beanpot At 50 — Still Inspiring and Still Growing | date=December 27 2001 | publisher=Beanpot Hockey | accessdate=2007-04-28]

The oldest continuously used indoor and outdoor sports stadiums in the world are used by Boston schools: Harvard Stadium (built in 1903) and Boston Arena (now known as Matthews Arena, built in 1910), which is used by Northeastern University.

Notable sports figures

Basketball

*Red Auerbach
*Dana Barros
*Bob Bigelow
*Bill Curley
*Ron Lee
*Bill Russell
*Bob Cousy
*Larry Bird
*Kevin McHale
*Robert Parish
*Kevin Garnett
*Paul Pierce
*Ray Allen

Baseball

*Jeff Bagwell
*Wade Boggs
*Roger Clemens
*Johnny Damon
*Cameron Drew
*Carlton Fisk
*Jim Rice
*Tommy McCarthy
*George Wood
*David Ortiz
*Mike Lowell
*Manny Ramírez
*Jonathan Papelbon
*Josh Beckett
*Curt Schilling
*Jason Varitek
*Carl Yastrzemski
*Ted Williams
*Johnny Pesky

Football

*Tom Brady
*Bill Belichick
*Tedy Bruschi
*Richard Seymour
*Randy Moss
*Troy Brown
*Drew Bledsoe
*Bruce Armstrong
*Andre Tippett
*John Hannah
*Jim Plunkett
*Doug Flutie
*Robert Kraft

Hockey

*Ray Bourque
*Rick DiPietro
*Phil Esposito
*Jim Fahey
*Hal Gill
*Cam Neely
*Bobby Orr
*Jeremy Roenick
*Ryan Whitney

See also

*U.S. cities with teams from four major sports

References