Ok, Sox fans, now that the outcome of the World Series is a foregone conclusion (yes, I do enjoy tempting fate), I don’t think it’s too early to try to nail down exactly what it was that broke the Curse of the Bambino?
Some hypotheses:
[ul]
[li]The turn of the century. I discredit this because of the Boone homer last year. Curse still on. [/li]
[li]The kid who lives in Babe Ruth’s old house getting hit in the face with a batted ball this year. [/li]
[li]A-Rod. And everything that goes with it. [/li][list][li]A-Rod not being allowed to go to the Sox last winter, signing with the Yanks. [/li][li]A-Rod spreading his losing aura to the recipients of the Bambino. [/li][li]And finally, A-Rod, swatting away the last of the curse with that little trick he pulled in the division series. [/li][/ul]
[li]The Red Sox coming back froma 3-0 deficit in the ALCS. Note, this was not an indication that the curse has been lifted. It is possibly the actual smashing of the curse that lead to the inevitable World Series victory. [/li][/list]
The curse is not broken. It’s alive and well. They’ll do something to fuck it up. At least this lifelong new englander hopes they will.
Shame on the supposed Red Sox fans who are hoping that the team will win the world series. It’s like rooting for the coyote to catch the roadrunner, or star trek Voyager to find it’s way home. It’s not victory, it’s a defeat. The end of the streak.
If the Sox win a world series then they are just another boring baseball team.
Oh, geez, you mean there isn’t really a mystical bad luck force surrounding one particular team which appeared because of one trade in the annals of baseball history?
Wow, I’ll have to rethink my entire concept of the last 90 years of Red Sox baseball.
One theory I’ve heard is that the jinx/curse/charm was broken by the discussions this year of ceasing to use The House That Ruth Built for Yankees games and building a new stadium. If you’re going to tear down the house he built, you’re not going to get any protection from El Bambino.
Another theory is that the success of the Sox and the downfall of the Yanks this year was due to the Cubbies Factor. The Yankees have no fewer than SIX ex-Chicago Cubs players, while Boston has, IIRC only one or two. The aura of failure surrounding the Chicago team, the story goes, is so intense that it carries forward to every team a player ever plays for after leaving Chicago.
So the only thing Mr. Steinbrenner can do is to (a) immediately announce that he has no intention, ever, of doing anything other than continuing to field the team in the current location, and that in fact he will pay for major physical improvements to the stadium and (b) get rid of ALL former Cubs. Oh, yeah, and get the farm team system working better again and for Og’s sake get some new starting pitchers. And a young backup closer. Mariano’s arm is not going to last forever.
**MLS ** hit the nail on the head with the ex-Cub factor. In this years edition of the World Series, Boston has Bill Mueller and Mark Bellhorn, while the Cardinals have Tony Womack, Julian Tavarez, *and * Ray King. It appears the Curse of the Bambino is finally over.
As a tepid Yankees fan (I was a passionate Yankees fan until I moved to Texas, where, astonishingly, I found myself gradually losing interest in baseball), I always enjoyed seeing the Red Sox fold… but I never toook any notions of a “curse” seriously. It was just a handy device with which to mock the opposition.
So, why haven’t the Red Sox won the World Series since 1918? Several reasons, including:
Racism. The Red Sox were the last team in baseball to integrate (in fairness, my Yankees weren’t much more progressive), and they shunned quality black players for yers after reluctantly adding Pumpsie Green to their roster. I know this galled many of the Red Sox players. Think Ted Williams would have liked to have a speedy black leadoff man to get on base for him, or a strong black hitter behind him in the lineup? The racism of Red Sox management kept the Sox out of contention for quite some time.
Bad luck. Don’t discount luck! The Red Sox have had some excellent teams (the 1978 squad was awesome), but they’ve had the misfortune of running into other teams just as good or a little better.
Lack of dominating starting pitchers. In my lifetime, prior to this season, the Red Sox have had some very solid starting pitchers, a few very good ones, but only onbe great one. They’ve had powerful lineups that could offset the mediocre pitching over the course of a 162 season, but before 2005, they didn’t have two stellar starting pitchers who could shut down the opposition in a short series.
I mean, over a 162 game season, Mike Torrez was a perfectly nice, serviceable pitcher… but was he REALLY the kind of guy you dream of having on the mound in a do or die game? No. But both Schilling and Martinez ARE that kind of pitcher.
One other thing- the Sox CAN still blow this series. But if they do, it’ll be because the Cardinals are very, very good! NOT because of any jinxes.
