The Boston Red Sox won five of baseball's first 15 World Series: their last, 1918, the year the Twenty-Sixth (Yankee!) Division entered France. By contrast, they have won two world titles since 2004 -- a far gentler century. Such divides unite the Old Towne Team.

Babe Ruth and Harry Frazee. Ted Williams and Jose Offerman. Carl Yastrzemski and Bill Buckner . The Impossible Dream and Bucky Dent. Years which ring like chimes -- 1946, 1948-49, 1974, 1977-78, 1986, and 2003. No baseball team has mixed such ghosts, deflations, and heartbreak of the past.  None set a grander stage for 2004's and 2007's Nirvana.

Curt Smith's book, The Red Sox Fan's Little Book of Wisdom (Diamond Communications, fourth printing, 2007, 112 pages, $7.95), uses fact, quote, and humor to recall more than 100 of the Red Sox most memorable moments. Longtime Sox announcer Ned Martin called this book "a bemused romp through the annual antics of this boundless, confounded team. Read 'em and weep -- or laugh -- or sing. And wrap yourself in this Red Sox thing." The book is available at bookstores nationwide, on amazon.com, or by calling 1-800-462-6420.