The
Curse: When the Good Times Weren’t So Good
The Sultan of Swat, the King of
Swing, the Great Bambino, the Babe: all were nicknames given to the legendary
baseball player George Herman Ruth, Jr.
Although he first played in the Major Leagues for his hometown team, the
Baltimore Orioles, Babe Ruth became well-known across baseball when he began
pitching for the Boston Red Sox, who were the winners of the World Series in
three out of the five years that Ruth played with them, the last being in
1918. After the 1919 season, then owner
of the Boston Red Sox, Harry Frazee, sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for
$125,000. It is unknown as to the exact
reason why he did it, but the sale of Ruth would forever change baseball. “The Curse of the Bambino” would haunt the
Boston Red Sox for the next eighty-five years.
After the sale of Babe Ruth by the
Red Sox, the city of Boston began mocking team owner Harry Frazee. For sale signs were erected on public
landmarks to express discontent with the team for trading one of its best
players for money. Little did the city
of Boston or Frazee know, Ruth’s trade would begin decades of dominance by the
Yankees, and many losing seasons and heartbreaking loses for the Red Sox. All time greats played for both teams;
DiMaggio, Gehrig, Ford, Berra, Mantle, Maris, and Jackson for the Yankees; while
Foxx, Williams, Yastrzemski, Doerr, and Fisk for the Red Sox. Twenty-six championships were won by the
Yankees during the span between Ruth’s trade and the Red Sox victory in 2004. Ted Williams of the Red Sox was the last
player in the Major Leagues to hit .400 when he hit .406 in 1941 at the age of
23.[i] Until
Miguel Cabrera accomplished the feat in 2012, Carl Yastrzemski was the last
player to win the Triple Crown of hitting (most homeruns, RBIs, and highest
batting average) when he did so in 1967.
Roger Clemens had the most strikeouts in a game for the Red Sox when he
struck out 20 in 1986. With all the
individual accomplishments and records of the Red Sox players, one thing eluded
them, a World Series Championship.
The closest the Red Sox came to
winning a World Series following the trade of Ruth came in 1946. After a year in which the Red Sox finished
the season 12 games ahead of the Yankees for first place, they were up 3-2 over
the Cardinals in the World Series. What
looked like their first championship since 1918, the “Curse of the Bambino”
changed all that. Ted William’s
struggles at the plate continued as he went on to hit .200 in the series. After losing game 6, the Red Sox were tied
with the Cardinals in game 7 before St. Louis was able to score in the bottom
of the 8th to pull ahead for good.[ii] It was the last time Ted Williams would get
to play in the World Series. He broke
down and cried after the loss.[iii]
Once again, the Red Sox would
experience a period of losing, failing to reach the World Series until
Yastrzemski and the 1967 team captivated the city with their play. While finishing in ninth-place the year
before, the first-place Red Sox became known as “The Impossible Dream” team
after winning the pennant on the last day of the season.[iv] Although Yastrzemski continued his
magnificent hitting, Bob Gibson of the Cardinals pitched three complete game
victories, helping St. Louis win the World Series in seven games. The season was not a complete waste though,
as the team’s play helped spur the fans to flock back to Fenway Park and watch
baseball night in and night out.[v]
It seemed as though it was the Red
Sox were primed for a championship in 1975.
In game 6 of the World Series against the Reds that year, an unlikely
hero, Bernie Carbo, hit a three-run homerun to tie the game at 6-6. Still tied 6-6 in the bottom of the 12th
inning, hall-of-fame catcher, Carlton Fisk, hit a historic homerun over left
field’s Green Monster. The image of Fisk
waving the ball to stay fair while going up the first-base line is an
everlasting moment in baseball history.
Unfortunately for the Sox, game 7 was forgettable as they blew a 3-0
lead and went on to lose to Cincinnati.[vi]
Three
years later in 1978, a seemingly insurmountable lead that was as high as 14
games in the middle of the summer had dwindled down to 4 games when the Yankees
came to Fenway for a 4 game series September 7-10. The Yankees trounced the Red Sox so badly
that it was remembered as the “Boston Massacre.” To make matters worse, the two teams were
tied at the end of the season, forcing a one-game playoff. Down 2-0 with two men on base, Yankees’
light-hitting shortstop, Bucky Dent, hit just his 5th home run of
the season, giving them a 3-2 lead that they would not relinquish.[vii] The Yankees would go on and defeat the
Dodgers in the World Series. In Boston,
Bucky Dent would always be referred to as Bucky (Bleepin’) Dent because of his
heroics.
The
idea of a curse on the team didn’t exist until 1986 when the team was just one
strike away from winning their first World Series in 68 years.[viii] Just as Raymond Arsenault wrote in his review
of sports in Boston during 1986, “Near-misses in 1946, 1967, and 1975 sustained
the hope that somehow, someday it might happen.”[ix] Everything seemed different in 1986. Roger Clemens won the Cy Young and MVP awards
after posting a 24-4 record and Wade Boggs was already a three-time batting
champion.[x] After coming back from a 3-1 deficit against
the California Angels in the American League Championship Series, the Red Sox
advanced to the World Series to play the New York Mets.
The
Red Sox were leading the series 3-2 against the Mets and only needed one
victory in New York to end 68 years of frustration. In a thrilling game went into extra innings
tied 3-3, the Red Sox scored two runs in the top half of the 10th
inning to go ahead 5-3. In the bottom half
of the 10th, pitcher Calvin Schiraldi retired the first two hitters,
leaving the Red Sox one out away from a victory. Three straight singles by the Mets scored a
run and kept their hopes alive. New
pitcher Bob Stanley entered the game to get the final out. With the count two-two on Mets’ hitter Mookie
Wilson, the Red Sox were a strike away from the title. Two foul bowls kept the Mets’ hopes alive
before Stanley threw a wild-pitch past catcher Rich Gedman, allowing the tying
run to score. Stanley blew the save, but
the game still wasn’t over.[xi] The Red Sox clung to hope only needing one
more strike to get one more out. No
problem, right?
The
count was full to Mookie Wilson but the Mets still had a runner on third. Stanley’s next pitch was hit on the ground to
first baseman Bill Buckner. Bill Bucker,
the vital member of the Red Sox team that season posting solid batting numbers,
but more importantly in this scenario, the same man who had played good defense
all season long. The slow roller by Wilson
was one of the most routine grounders possible, yet the ball still managed to
get under the glove of Buckner and scoot into right field, allowing the winning
run to score from third. Thoughts of
previous disappointments were running through the minds of Red Sox fans
watching the game. Not just Red Sox
fans, but everyone watching couldn’t believe what they had just seen. The Red Sox also held a 3-0 lead into the 6th
inning of game 7, only to the game 8-5.
The unlikely circumstances surround the loss of the World Series by the
Red Sox made fans seem like their team really was cursed since they hadn’t won
a title since Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees.[xii]
Fuel was added to the fire of a
possible curse in 2003 when the Red Sox and Yankees fared off in the American
League Championship Series. The Red Sox
had come from a 0-2 deficit in the Divisional Series against the Oakland
Athletics to advance in dramatic fashion.
The Series with the Yankees was neck and neck, both teams winning three
of the first six games to force a game 7 at Yankee Stadium. Behind the strong pitching performance by
their ace Pedro Martinez, the Red Sox were leading 5-2 going into the 8th
inning. Having thrown over 100 pitches,
Martinez was tiring. He gave up hits to
Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, and Hedeki Matsui to allow another run. Still clinging to a 5-3 lead, Boston manager
Grady Little came out to the mound to check on his pitcher, but decided to
leave him in to face Jorge Posada.
Martinez proceeded to give up a blooper double to Posada, which allowed
two more runs to score and tied the game at 5-5.[xiii]
Little had no other choice but to
replace Martinez at that point. The game
would stay tied into extra innings.
Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield was dominant in the previous two games that
he pitched in the series. He would come
into the game in the bottom of the 11th inning in hopes of
continuing his dominance and force another inning of baseball. Aaron Boone, the Yankees third baseman who
had been struggling for most of the series stepped in to face Wakefield. Boone had lost his starting job at third to
Enrique Wilson, but when Wilson he was pinch-hit for earlier in the game, Yankee
manager Joe Torre inserted Boone into the game.
Wakefield’s first pitch was his signature knuckler. It floated towards home plate, dancing
through the air like always when Boone geared his bat back before unloading on
the pitch, hitting it into the left field stands for a walk-off homerun. Yankees fans would cheer “1918” as a reminder
to the Red Sox of their last World Series victory and the “Curse of the
Bambino” that haunted the team ever since.[xiv]
Just a year after the heartbreak the
Red Sox suffered against the Yankees, the two teams were playing each other
once again in the American League Championship Series. This time, the Red Sox seemed
overmatched. The Yankees beat the Red
Sox in Yankee Stadium to take the first two games of the series before winning
game 3 at Fenway Park by a score of 19-8.
No team had ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in baseball history, so
everyone assumed the series was over; everyone except the Red Sox. They knew that if they could just win game 4,
they had a shot at doing the impossible.
First baseman Kevin Millar said before game 4 “Don't let us win
tonight. This is a big game. They've got
to win because if we win we've got Pedro coming back [today] and then Schilling
will pitch Game 6 and then you can take that fraud stuff and put it to bed.
Don't let the Sox win this game."[xv] Down 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th
inning with the greatest closer in the history of baseball, Mariano Rivera
already in to close the game, Millar drew a walk. Dave Roberts was brought in to pinch-run for
Millar. After an unsuccessful pickoff
attempt by Rivera, Roberts was off with the next pitch, barely diving into
second base before Jeter could receive catcher Jorge Posada’s throw and apply
the tag. Red Sox third baseman Bill
Mueller would single up the middle past Rivera and Roberts would score from
second, tying the game at 4-4.[xvi]
David
Ortiz, anointed by the Red Sox ownership as the most clutch hitter in Red Sox
history, hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12th inning to
keep the team’s hopes alive. The next
night was just as eventful as the previous.
It finally seemed as if the ghost of Babe Ruth had quit haunting the
team that traded him. In the top of the
ninth, after the Red Sox had once again scored a run off Rivera in the previous
inning to tie the game 4-4, Yankees hitter Tony Clark doubled down the right
field line with a runner on first. The
ball took a funny bounce and landed in the Fenway Park stands, keeping the
runner on 3rd and the game tied before Ortiz came up to hit in the
bottom of the 14th inning.
With runners on 1st and 2nd, Ortiz muscled a
single into centerfield past the diving Derek Jeter to bring home the winning
run and force a game 6 in New York.[xvii]
Game
6 was another drama filled night, but it didn’t take extra innings like the
previous two games. Red Sox pitcher Curt
Schilling, who had a tear in one of the tendons of his right ankle, needed a
medical procedure done on his ankle just to pitch. He was traded for from the Arizona
Diamondbacks to pitch in these types of games for the Red Sox, so he gutted
through seven innings and only allowed one run.
The Red Sox went on to win the game 4-2, but it will forever be
remembered as “The Bloody Sock” game because of the blood that was seeping
through Schillings sock while he pitched.[xviii]
In
game 7, the score was never even close.
The Red Sox jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, beating
the Yankees 10-3 to advance to their first World Series since 1986’s
heartbreaking defeat. No team in the
history of baseball had ever overcome a 0-3 deficit to come back and win the
series. Boston was used to being on the
other end of those types of unbelievable comebacks, but for once, they were the
ones celebrating.[xix] The World Series was never dramatic, with the
Red Sox sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals to end their 86 year drought. More importantly, the “Curse of the Bambino”
that had plagued their team and fan base was a thing of the past. No longer could the Red Sox say they were
destined to fail.
When
the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919, nobody thought that it
would take long for them to win another championship. They had won just two years earlier and had
five total in their team’s brief history, so winning was commonplace. After generations of failure, where some fans
lived their whole life without seeing the Red Sox win the final game of the
season, Boston’s team was back on top. People
could forget the pain of losing games 6 and 7 of the 1946 World Series. 1967’s loss in game 7 against the Cardinals
was no longer a sore subject. Neither
was blowing a 3 run lead in game 7 of the 1975 World Series. Red Sox fans were over the loss from Bucky
Dent’s homerun in the one game playoff from 1978. Bill Buckner’s error, along with being one
strike away from defeating the Mets in 1986 was forgiven. Aaron Boone’s homerun to defeat the Red Sox
in 2003 was no longer worth losing sleep over.
All the devastation of the previous 86 years was quickly forgotten with
the victory in 2004 by the Red Sox. “The
Curse of the Bambino” was lifted. The
Red Sox were the lovable losers no more and the pessimism that fans showed because
of the previous failures turned into hope.
They only had to wait three more years to witness their next World
Series win. The baseball Gods had
finally forgiven Harry Frazee for selling arguably the best baseball player
that ever lived.
[i] Holtzman, Jerome, “Greatest
Hitter Ever? He’s Up There With Ruth,” Major League Baseball, http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/mlb/news/tributes/mlb_obit_ted_williams.jsp?content=holtzman
[ii] “The Curse of the Bambino,” Sports Illustrated, 2001. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/news/2000/03/22/the_curse_timeline/
[iii] Leuchtenburg, William E., “The
Boston Red Sox, 1901-1946,” Edited by Randy Roberts in The Rock, The Curse, and the Hub: A Random History of Boston Sports (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2005), 56.
[iv] “The Curse of the Bambino,” Sports Illustrated, 2001.
[v] Carroll, John M., “The Year of
the Yaz,” Edited by Randy Roberts in The
Rock, The Curse, and the Hub: A Random History of Boston Sports (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2005), 95.
[vi] “The Curse of the Bambino,” Sports Illustrated, 2001.
[viii] “The Curse of the Bambino,” Sports Illustrated, 2001.
[ix] Arsenault, Raymond, “Beantown,
1986,” Edited by Randy Roberts in The Rock, The Curse, and the Hub: A Random
History of Boston Sports(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 340.
[x] Ibid., 345.
[xi] Ibid., 347-348.
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] “History of ‘The Curse of the
Bambino’: From Babe to Bucky to Boone to Buckner, It Was Bad,” NBC Sports, Oct. 28, 2004. http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/6323070/.
[xiv] Weinberg, Rick, “39: Aaron Boone’s
Home Run Crushes Red Sox,” ESPN 100
Memorable Moments of the Past 25 Years. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/39.
[xv] Shaughnessy, Dan, “The Dream
Stays Alive: Sox Avert Sweet As Ortiz Homer Sinks N.Y. in 12th,” Boston Globe, Oct. 18, 2004.
[xvi] Ibid.
[xvii] Ryan, Bob, “Where to Start in
This Latest Endless Epic?” Boston Globe,
Oct. 19, 2004.
[xviii] Ryan, Bob, “Magnificent
Schilling Gabe Them a Strong Foothold,” Boston
Globe, Oct. 20, 2004.
[xix] Hohler, Bob, “Miracle Workers:
Resurgent Red Sox Storm Into World Series, Leaving Stunned Yankees Behind,” Boston Globe, Oct. 21, 2004.
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