After being one of the best teams in the American League during the 1940s, the Boston Red Sox were one of the worst for the 1950s and most of the 1960s. It wasn’t until the Impossible Dream pennant-winning season of 1967 that the team returned to respectability and being competitive on a (mostly) yearly basis.
While the Red Sox came up just short of achieving the ultimate goal of winning the World Series in 1967, that revitalized baseball in New England and gave birth to Red Sox Nation. It also sparked a run of teams that were competitive and resulted in the following decade, the 1970s, being one of the best in Red Sox history.