What happened
Until 1918 the Boston Red Sox were one of baseball's best teams – they had won five of the first fifteen World Series, and their star was the young pitcher and slugger George Herman “Babe” Ruth, known as the Bambino. In January 1920 the club's owner, theatre producer Harry Frazee, sold him to the New York Yankees. The Yankees became a powerhouse and had won 26 titles by 2004, while the Red Sox went 86 years without one, losing several finals in dramatic fashion. Yankees fans taunted their rivals with chants of “1918!”, and in Boston someone altered a road sign near the Longfellow Bridge to read “Reverse the Curse.” The name “Curse of the Bambino” was fixed by journalist Dan Shaughnessy's 1990 book. The curse “broke” in 2004, when the Red Sox came back from 0–3 against the Yankees and went on to win the World Series.
Witnesses
Generations of fans in Boston and New York; the term was popularised by Boston Globe journalist Dan Shaughnessy.
Explanations and hypotheses
Most fans treated the curse tongue-in-cheek. Sports historians note that the story of Frazee using the Ruth money to finance the musical “No, No, Nanette” is oversimplified, and that the Red Sox's poor results came from the club's own roster and financial decisions. Folklorists see the curse as a typical way of coming to terms with defeat: it is easier to believe in fate than in years of bad management.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- Dan Shaughnessy, The Curse of the Bambino (Dutton, 1990)
- Dan Shaughnessy, YES!!! Red Sox complete sweep, win first Series since 1918 (The Boston Globe, 2004)
- Tyler Kepner, Red Sox Erase 86 Years of Futility in 4 Games (The New York Times, 2004)
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