The Red Sox started the season by winning eight of their first nine games, the best start in franchise history.

But don't start partying yet.

Over the years, fast starts haven't often led to duckboats. Granted, only six other Red Sox teams started out 7-2 -- and, prior to now, it only happened once in the last 65 years -- but the ultimate fate of most of them was, ah, less than glorious. Though the first two did pretty well . . . 

FINAL RECORD: 95-59

WHERE THEY FINISHED: First

DID THEY WIN THE WORLD SERIES? No . . . but only because the N.L. champion New York Giants refused to play them

With Cy Young -- yes, that Cy Young -- winning 26 games while posting a 1.97 ERA, the Red Sox (or Pilgrims, as they were called then) beat out the Yankees (or Highlanders, as they were called then) by 1 1/2 games for their second straight A.L. pennant. There was no formal World Series in those days, so the Sox didn't get the chance to defend the championship they won in 1903 -- the flag of which they're shown raising on Opening Day '04, at left -- when the Giants said no thanks to their challenge.

FINAL RECORD: 75-51

WHERE THEY FINISHED: First

DID THEY WIN THE WORLD SERIES? Yes

The season was cut short because the country was fighting World War I -- hence the 126-game schedule -- but the Sox still finished first and went on to beat the Cubs for their third World Series title in four years. 

FINAL RECORD: 72-81

WHERE THEY FINISHED: Fifth in eight-team league

You might think no one would be crazy enough to claim their team would be better without Babe Ruth but that was the Red Sox' party line in 1920. The Babe, declared owner Harry Frazee, was "one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men that ever wore a uniform . . . It would be impossible to start [the] season with Ruth have a smooth-working machine. Ruth had become simply impossible, and the Boston club could no longer put up with his eccentricities." Frazee sold him to New York and proclaimed "I think the Yankees are taking a gamble."

Yeah. Right.

Frazee and his defenders were crowing when the '20 Sox started off 7-2, but we all know where this story is headed. No need to repeat it, is there?

FINAL RECORD: 74-80

WHERE THEY FINISHED: Sixth in eight-team league

It's 16 years later. Ruth -- now in his first year of retirement -- helped the Yankees win seven pennants and four World Series and broke virtually every hitting record in the book. The Red Sox finished (well) under .500 every year until 1934 and lost 100 or more games five times. Safe to say the Yankees won Frazee's "gamble".

In any case, the Sox were beginning to climb back onto their feet by 1936. But their laughs were still confined to things like Al Schacht dressing up in Native American garb -- those were pre-P.C. times, eh? -- while the '36 Yankees were about to start a streak of four straight World Series championships.

FINAL RECORD: 76-78

WHERE THEY FINISHED: Sixth in eight-team league

Any chance the Sox had of building on that 7-2 start (which actually ballooned to 10-2) ended on the day at left -- April 30 -- when Ted Williams was called back into the Marines for the Korean conflict. The Sox and their fans said a formal goodbye to Teddy Ballgame on that day, and well they should have. The team went 66-76 after that and wouldn't compete for a pennant again until 1967.

FINAL RECORD: 80-82

WHERE THEY FINISHED: Fifth in seven-team A.L. East

It would be another 41 years before a Red Sox team started 7-2, and it came on the heels of their worst season (the '92 Sox went 73-89) since 1966. Roger Clemens was the best pitcher in baseball and he helped the team hang in the pennant race until mid-August. But a 16-31 glide to the finish line dropped them under .500 for the second straight year.

And no Red Sox team has done it since then. We'll see where it leads.