Sox Can Attack the Curse Head-On
Adam J Locascio
Wednesday October 20, 2004
And there’s two ways to break a curse. Face it. Or FACE it.
I’ll start this off by saying this; I’m not a Yankees fan. I’m not a Red Sox fan. I’m actually a Mets fan, who lives in Tampa. I’m still waiting for Major League Baseball to come to Tampa Bay. But I’ve watched this American League Championship Series with great interest for one reason and one reason only: I’m a fan of history.
History dictates that the Red Sox are cursed; Cursed by that fat man known affectionately as “The Bambino,” or Babe Ruth. Sold to the Yankees in the off-season of 1918, the Yankees have gone on to win 26 World Championships to the Red Sox zero. Hence, “The Curse of the Bambino.”
And the Red Sox had their shots. In the past 86 years, the Red Sox made four World Series appearances and lost each time. But in the World Series, they never had to beat the Yankees, the creators of their awful curse.
Sure, Bill Buckner could have scooped up that grounder in 1986 and stepped on the bag ending the bottom of the 10th inning in a 5-5 tie. The game would have plodded on and the Sox may have won the Series. But does that really negate the Curse? Sure they win, but the Yanks were a sub-.500 club in the 1980s.
Big wow. That’s like playing one-on-one with a four-year old and then bragging when you dunk on him.
A curse such as this can be so psychologically damning, that there is no way to skate by it. This is all Boston fans talk about when their team is facing elimination. When does the Curse crawl out of the ground and bite the Sox on the ankle?
Boston fans have done all they can to “Reverse the Curse.” I once read that a mountain climber took a Red Sox hat to the top of Mt. Everest as an offering to the gods.
Um, how is a mountain in Nepal in anyway connected to the Bronx?
The answer is it doesn’t. You can’t dance around it. You have to take the bull by the horns and face the Curse head on. And the Red Sox have a chance to do it tonight.
The way I see it, the Red Sox have to do three things to officially put this Curse out to pasture.
First, and foremost, they have to win the World Series, and if they win Game 7, this is not a foregone conclusion. Waiting for them is either the Cardinals or the Astros and neither are pushovers.
Second, they have to embarrass the Yankees by winning Game 7 in New York. No excuses. No cries of “home-field advantage.” You win it on the road and then you celebrate on their field to rub it in a little deeper.
Third, you put the stigma BACK on the Yankees. They curse you? Fine. Curse ‘em right back. The Yankees get saddled with the moniker “the team with the highest payroll that blew a 3-0 lead in the playoffs.” Yeah. Take that, Yankees. Live with that label for 86 years. If the Yankees blow a 3-0 series lead, they are the only team in baseball to ever do that. And when you’re the first to do something, it sticks around a while. Just ask Neil Armstrong.
This is a lot to ask, but you know, this is a huge Curse, 86 years in the making. The planets have lined up for this, this one shot. On the road, in Yankee Stadium, a chance to send the Ghost of Babe Ruth into a death spiral to tight it could star next to Helen Hunt in Twister 2. I say, if the Sox win, they go dig up Ruth’s body and make it the centerpiece of the Mardi Gras parade.
Game 6 was already history. No team in baseball ever came back from 3-0 to force a Game 7. So again, what you will see in Game 7 is history. This has never happened. The Red Sox win tonight and Buckner’s off the hook. Mike Torres can leave his house. And Bucky Dent might be able to go to Cheers.
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.
