The title of “team historian’’ may be one that is unfamiliar or new to baseball fans. But it seems logical, even necessary, that any baseball franchise with a rich history would have its own person in charge of documenting it and making sure it receives proper acknowledgement publicly.

Tuesday, the Red Sox filled such a role by hiring someone who has documented the team as a reporter for two decades.

Fenway Sports Group announced the hiring of Gordon Edes as its strategic communications adviser and Red Sox team historian. Edes has been a reporter for 35 years, spending the last 18 primarily covering the Red Sox, first at the The Boston Globe from late in the 1996 season until 2008 and then, after a brief interlude at Yahoo! Sports, at ESPNBoston.com until accepting his new position recently.


Edes, a native of Lunenburg, was an accomplished reporter even before returning to his home state, having covered all four major professional American sports for the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times (where he covered the Magic Johnson-era Lakers), Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The National Sports Daily, and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Edes’s work has been honored on multiple occasions by the Associated Press Sports Editors.

“I am deeply gratified and humbled by the good fortune of spending nearly four decades in journalism, especially serving a readership as loyal and discerning as followers of the Red Sox,’’ Edes said in a statement. “I welcome the opportunity to apply my skill set and experience to serve Fenway Sports Group, and the Red Sox, in my new position.’’

Responsibilities of the team historian include overseeing Red Sox publications, the historical archives, and alumni relations. The historian also is instrumental in the selection of the annual Tony Conigliaro Award recipient and the Red Sox Hall of Fame selections.

Edes fills a position that has been vacant since the death of longtime Red Sox employee Dick Bresciani in November 2014. Bresciani’s efforts were instrumental in getting Jim Rice elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. When Rice was inducted in 2009, he thanked Bresciani in his speech.


“I am particularly honored to continue the work of the late Dick Bresciani as the club’s team historian,’’ said Edes in the statement. “I admire ownership’s commitment to preserving the rich tradition of the team and Fenway Park, and look forward to enhancing the understanding of that history for a new generation of Red Sox fans.’’