Almanac of Story Tellers: The Curse of the Bambino

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of December 26th.

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     It is the 360th day of the year, leaving five days in 2021. It is also known as Boxing Day in the United Kingdom and some of its former colonies.

 

    On this date in 1919, Boston Red Sox pitcher/outfielder Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees, a deal that later came to be known as "The Curse of the Bambino." It was so named because while the Red Sox had won five of the first 15 World Series, the team then went 86 years before winning its sixth in 2004.

    Journalist and author Dan Shaughnessy is widely credited with inventing the phrase, which is the title of his 1990 book on the subject. It quickly entered the vernacular, and media throughout New England played up the term.

    Soon, every failing of the Red Sox was tied back to the sale, after which Ruth -- who led the Yankees to their dominance in the 1920s -- supposedly said the Red Sox would never win again without him: Johnny Pesky "holding the ball" instead of throwing out Enos Slaughter at home in Game 7 of the 1946 Series; Bob Gibson out-pitching Sox ace Jim Lonborg in Game 7 of the 1967 Series; Bucky Dent hitting a pop-fly home-run in the 1978 playoff game with the -- your guessed it -- New York Yankees; and Bill Buckner failing to catch Mookie Wilson's ground ball to first, giving the New York Mets a come-from-behind victory in Game 6 of the 1986 Series.

    It was all a great story until 2004, when the Red Sox "broke the curse" and won the World Series.    

    But between 1918 and 2004, the Yankees were easily the dominant team in baseball, winning  26 World Series, with the Sox did not win any. Ruth, of course, went on to set records in home runs and hitting, revolutionizing the game, which until his time centered around contact hitting and speed.

    In Boston and New England, fans embraced the curse as an explanation as to why their beloved team could always come close, but never won. Other sports teams and their fans invented their own curse myths -- the Chicago Cubs, for instance, had the "curse of the Billy Goat," attributing a championship drought that lasted from 1945-2016 on the vengeful owner of the nearby Billy Goat Tavern because his pet goat was excluded from a Series game in 1945.