Curse of the Bambino

[Baker, John]

        Once again, the Wall Street Journal's research makes the New York Times look good by comparison.  From a page A1 story today:

        <<According to legend, the Sox have been cursed since then-owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth (nicknamed "The Bambino") to the Yankees for $100,000 and got no players in return.  Since the trade, the Red Sox haven't won a single one of the four World Series in which they played. . . .

        The possibility of a Red Sox curse related to the Ruth deal may have been first brought up by New York Times sportswriter George Vecsey in a 1986 column about a now-legendary Red Sox defeat.  In the sixth game of that year's World Series, a softly hit ball rolled through the legs of Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, giving the New York Mets an improbable come-from-behind win.>>


        So the Journal traces the legend of the Curse of the Bambino to the 1986 World Series (or shortly thereafter), although it hedges its research with "may have been."  The Curse was being spoken of at least a few months earlier, in this 7/14/1986 Time Magazine article:

        <<Many Bostonians will go to their graves muttering about Bucky Dent's pop-fly home run, Johnny Pesky's incompetent relay or the team's primal curse: the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees to raise money or damn-fool Broadway shows. Still, there is grudging ground for hope in 1986.>>


        There were additional references to the Curse in the days leading up to the infamous Game 6 (i.e., also antedating the Vecsey column), including this one from the Journal itself, on 10/17/1986; perhaps the Journal wanted to forget an article that redated the Red Sox's 1918 World Series win to 1916:

        <<The Red Sox's last pennant came in 1975, just yesterday by the standards of Cleveland and Chicago, but their last World Series win was in 1916, when a young fella named Babe Ruth pitched for them. Since their '75 flag, Boston had blown several late-season leads in the AL East. "Sox vs. Mauch: Whose Curse is Worse?" rhymed a headline in Tuesday's Boston Globe.>>


John Baker