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by **JnB987** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 12:03 am

The Red Sox have retired five numbers: 1, 4, 8, 9 and 27. Before they retired Fisk's 27 the numbers were listed as 1, 4, 8, 9 above Pesky's Pole. However this was not always the case. The numbers were arranged in a different order before something happened.

What was the original order of the numbers, what was the significance of that order and who was responsible for the change?

by **metsfan1969** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 1:49 am

The retired numbers-were in this order: 9,4,1,8.
September 4, 1918- the date of the eve of Game 1 of the 1918 World Series.
The last series the Sox have won.

I can only imagine they changed them because they got into another world series in 1975. I am not quite sure who was responsible but I would guess Carlton Fisk since he helped them get into the world series and actually hit that great homerun in the 12th inning of game 6.

by **dinocam** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 9:41 am

I believe that the order was changed more recently (last 5 years or so) when the park was repainted. I can only guess that Duquette was responsible for reordering them.

by **dinocam** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 10:05 am

I think I figured out 'who' was responsible. I believe they changed the order when all MLB teams retired Jackie Robinson's #42.

by **sst2003** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 2:38 pm

The order was changed in 1988 to break the curse of the Bambino. The person responsible for the change would have to be Bud Selig as he was the person resonsible for retiring the number 42 of Jackie Robinson.

9-4-18 is indeed the date of the first game of the last World Series that the Red Sox have ever won, but 1918 was also the last year the Babe played for the Sox.

by **JnB987** » Thu Mar 20, 2003 8:29 pm

The answers pertaining to the order and significance are correct, but I haven't seen the answer I wanted for the third question.

I suppose I could've made this more clearer, but when I ask who's responsible I'm asking for who pointed out the fact that 9/4/18 was the scheduled first game of the last world series won by the Sox.

On a side note, that game was never played; it was canceled due to rain.

by **crowsato** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:56 pm

so who pointed out the number change?
I thought that Duquette said it was re-ordered after painting...

I would make a guess at someone on the Boston Globe staff...
maybe Dan Shaunnessy... or perhaps historian David Halberstaim...

If its a player than I have no idea...

"THIS IS THE YEAR!" - slogan for my 23 years of life<br><br><span class=gensmall>Accepted as answer by Arlo on 22 Mar 2003 11:08 EST.</span>

by **crowsato** » Fri Mar 21, 2003 2:41 pm

or maybe its Will McDonough from the globe...
man... i just want to know the answer!!! ahhh!!!!

by **JnB987** » Sat Mar 22, 2003 11:44 am

We got it. It was Dan Shaughnessy, the Globe's Red Sox beat writer.

Well done.

By the way, McDonough never covered baseball. He was the Patriots' guy.

by **Zoob** » Sat Mar 22, 2003 6:14 pm

I saw 3-4 guesses in one post. What's the ruling on this? :-?

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