Is a player a Red Sox or Red Sock?

As a former English major, baseball fan, and cultivator of inane threads, I thought I'd put this out there. When talking about an individual player for the Boston Red Sox or Chicago White Sox (or Everett Aqua Sox or Colorado Springs Sky Sox or other Sox), do you keep the 'x' at the end of the team name? Or do you singularize it? Complete this sentence:

"After long negotiations, Giancarlo Stanton is now a Boston Red So___."

I don't think there's an actual rule for this, probably more of a stylistic preference. I could support taking the 'x' as a colloquial "cute" interpretation of "cks," as seems to be prominent in the early 20th century, and insisting on saying "Sock." But I could also see how "Sox" is its own word, a plural term, not a collection of individuals. But it's a little different from when Lebron took his talents to South Beach, he did not become a "joule," or unit of heat. In that case it would be more proper to formulate sentences in a way to avoid that distinction. One would always say,"Lebron joined the Heat," and not "Lebron became a Heat." If the latter case is correct, my sample sentence is not forumalated properly, either, and one would say,"Giancarlo Stanton was traded to the Boston Red Sox." But people don't say that. In major league baseball, unless you count the pair of Sox(es), every team name is a pluralized group of things, unlike hockey or basketball where new teams from the last 20 years are a singular thing or plural term (Heat, Wild, Avalanche). You hear it both ways, but I think I usually hear it singular when talking about a single player,"Dustin Pedroia is a career Red Sock." That's how I'd say it, but I feel a twinge when I do.

Red Sock.

I go back and forth on this, but it seems that it is Red Sox, even then referring to an individual. Sox is a made up word (to fit on the uni), not a plural of sock. So, yes, Jackie Bradley is a Red Sox.

I call them A holes myself

AnthonyCorona said:

I call them A holes myself 

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Be nice.

Re OP question: just call him a Beaneater.

I remember spending a long time on the following trivia question:

List the teams in the four major American sports leagues whose mascot names does not end in "s"

I have always been a fan of the non-count noun mascot names. I remember hearing, when Miami got an expansion hockey team, that the best name to give them would the Miami Humidity. That way, fans could say "It's not the Heat that's so bad..."

I've always said "He's a White Sox" for the very reason you made the thread (i.e., I'm a language geek and like conjuring inane conversation about stuff like this).

A Red Stocking of course

you need to change your meds

I would just say "After long negotiations, the Boston Red Sox have inked free-agent slugger Giancarlo Stanton to a new deal".

I'll go see what the AP stylebook has to say about this (if anything)

EDIT: couldn't find anything in the AP Stylebook to address this. SABR stylebook that I found would have it stylized as:

"After long negotiations, Giancarlo Stanton is now a Boston Red Sox."

Super Mario said:

Red Sock.

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Bloody Sock

I prefer S&R as that was what I used all through school so I know it a lot better. They'd agree using the team name and the organization as a whole would be preferable to referring to the player as a part of the team, going by the nickname.

Red Sox.