Curse of the Bambino
Posted on October 17th, 2004by Site Admin in SEO
If you’ve read any of my baseball posts (game winning ball, my first baseball game, my last baseball game) you’ll know that I’m not a big baseball fan. However when I was a young boy I was a big fan of the New York Yankees, which always makes October a great time to watch TV. If you’re not a Yankee fan you probably can’t understand the the rivalry that exists between the Boston Red Sox. As of this writing the Yankees have one three of the four games in the LCS, and need only one more win to move onto the world series.
For Yankee fans one of the greatest moments of schadenfreude is the Curse of the Bambino. As the story goes the Boston Red Sox have one 5 world series games in a row, something unheard at the time. One of the players largely responsible for this was George Herman Ruth, or Babe Ruth. The owner of the Red Sox sold his contract to the Yankees, to raise money for a play his girl friend was starring in. The play closed shortly thereafter losing money.
The Yankees however went on to win the world series the next year, and have become the winningest team in baseball, winning 26 world series as of this writing. Ruth went on to become part of the dreaded 1927 Yankees lineup known as murders row (Earl Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth and Lou Gerhig), and the curse of the Bambino was born.
The last world series the Boston Red Sox won was in 1918. Along the way they have come close, and none as heartbreaking as the 1986 world series. With one out to go Mookie Wilson hit a routine ground ball to Bill Buckner at first base. Inexplicably the ball rolled through his legs and the Miracle Mets went on to win the series.
So does the ghost of Babe Ruth come in and haunt the Red Sox? Possible, but unlikely. It’s much more likely the Red Sox pysch themselves out at key moments. The thoughts of the fans also have an effect. Imagine Fenway park packed with fans thinking only about the curse, that much negative energy can’t helpful. So the curse has become nothing more than a self fulfilling prophecy. Eventually the curse will be broken, but it’s going to take a hero with the strength of character to rise above, the fears and negative energy that suffocates the hopes of Boston baseball fans.
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October 17th, 2004 at 10:12 pm
First you don’t have to be a Yankee’s fan to know about that rivalry, just a real baseball fan. Second, when my teams are out, I pull for the Yankees. That was who my granddaddy was for before the braves came along.
Great blog.
October 18th, 2004 at 8:56 am
I think you are misunderstanding Gray’s point. To truly understand a rivalry, you must be a fan (part of it). Are you saying that just b/c someone watches the Army/Navy game, Texas/Oklahoma game, Celtics/76ers game that one “knows” the rivalry?
October 27th, 2004 at 8:41 pm
How about those SOX!!!!