Curse of the Bambino
From SoSH
The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited, often jokingly, but often with a sort of terror-filled awe, for the reason that the Sox could not win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 until 2004. While some fans took the Curse seriously, many used the expression in a tongue-in-cheek manner. However, once the Sox won in 2004, the mania spread on tee shirts across the Nation: "The curse has been reversed!"
In 2004, the Sox met the Yankees in the ALCS. After losing the first three games, including a 19–8 drubbing at Fenway in Game 3, the Red Sox trailed 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 4. But the team tied the game with a walk by Kevin Millar and a stolen base by pinch-runner Dave Roberts, followed by an RBI single off Yankee closer Mariano Rivera by third baseman Bill Mueller. They then won on a 2-run home run in the 12th inning by David Ortiz. The Red Sox would go on to win the next three games to become the first MLB team to win a seven-game postseason series after being down 3 games to none.
The Sox then faced the St. Louis Cardinals. They'd lost to the Cards in 1946 and 1967. Cardinals shortstop Edgar Rentería—who wore number 3, Babe Ruth's uniform number with the Yankees—hit into the final out of the game. The final game took place on October 27 during a total lunar eclipse—the only post-season or World Series game to do so.
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History
In 1914 the Boston Red Sox bought Babe Ruth from Baltimore, a minor league team during this era, and immediately signed him for $3,500 a year, three times the amount he was being paid. During the next 3-years Ruth was the best left-hander in baseball, with 18 wins in 1915, 23 in 1916 and 24 in 1917. In all 3 of those years opponents batted under .220 against him. In 1916 he led the league with a 1.75 ERA and had an amazing nine shutouts. In 1917, Ruth was 24-13, completing 35 of the 38 games he started. He allowed only 244 hitters in 326 innings. The "Bambino" as Ruth was called, intimidated batters with his imposing size, 6'2" 220lbs.
The Sox won four World Series in the eight years Babe Ruth played on the team. Trouble came when they sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and a $300,000 loan because Boston's owner Harry Frazee needed the cash to invest in a new play on Broadway. After the cash transaction, the once-lackluster Yankees became one of the most successful franchises in North American professional sports and Boston's inability to win a single World Series Title was attributed to The Curse of the Bambino.
The phrase itself first gained wide currency in 1990, when Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy used it as the title of his team history. The book brought it to national attention and triggered widespread usage by the national media, although it was not when the phrase originated.
Trying to Break the Curse
Red Sox fans tried to exorcise the curse by placing a Boston cap atop Mt. Everest and burning a Yankees cap at its base camp; hiring professional exorcists and Father Guido Sarducci to "purify" Fenway Park; spray painting a "Reverse Curve" street sign on Storrow Drive to change it to say "Reverse the Curse" (the sign wasn't replaced until just after the 2004 World Series win); and finding a piano owned by Ruth that he had supposedly pushed into a pond near his Sudbury, Massachusetts farm, Home Plate Farm.
A Boston Globe article talked about how some declared the curse broken when, on August 31, 2004 a foul ball hit by Manny Ramírez flew into Section 9, Box 95, Row AA and struck a boy's face, knocking two of his teeth out. 16-year-old Lee Gavin, a Boston fan who said his favorite player was Ramirez, lived on the Sudbury farm once owned by Ruth. That same day, the Yankees suffered their worst loss in team history, a 22-0 clobbering at home against the Cleveland Indians.
Others cite a comedy curse-breaking ceremony performed by musician Jimmy Buffett and his musicians --one dressed as Ruth and one dressed as a witch doctor -- at a Fenway concert in September 2004. Just after being traded to the Sox, G38 appeared in an advertisement for Ford, hitchhiking with a sign indicating he was going to Boston. When picked up, he said that he had a "curse" to break.
Curse Trivia
- The British memoir Fever Pitch, about author Nick Hornby's obsession with the Arsenal FC British soccer team, was adapted into an American film, Fever Pitch by the Farrelly brothers. The American adaptation was about an obsessive Red Sox fan, and contains many references to the curse. The film was made during the 2004 World Series, which necessitated the filmmakers' reworking of the film's story; the Red Sox were originally supposed to make the World Series and lose, but as the Sox were winning, the World Series victory was written in. The film's stars, Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, were filmed running onto the field as the Red Sox celebrated their World Series win.
External Links
- ESPN account of Ruth's sale to the Yankees
- [1] - A "Curse" Born of Hate
- [2] - "Taking teeth out of curse?"
- The Curse of the Bambino: an HBO documentary (2003)
- The Curse of the Bambino: A musical by Steven Bergman and David Kruh (2001)
