Curse of the Bambino

The Curse of the Bambino (1918 – 2004) was an urban myth or scapegoat cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series for 86 years after they sold Babe Ruth, sometimes called The Bambino, to the New York Yankees. The flip side of the "curse" was New York's success—after the sale, the once-lackluster Yankees became one of the most successful franchises in North American professional sports. While some fans took the superstition of the Curse seriously, many others used the expression in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

Attempts to break the curse

Red Sox fans have attempted various methods over the years to exorcise their famous curse. These have included placing a Boston cap atop Mt. Everest and burning a Yankees cap at base camp, hiring professional exorcists to 'purify' Fenway Park, and finding a piano owned by Ruth that he had supposedly pushed into a pond near his Sudbury, Massachusetts, winter home. Some declared the curse broken when, in July 2004, a foul ball hit by Manny Ramirez flew into Section 9, Box 95, Row AA and struck a boy's face, knocking two of his teeth out. The boy (16 year-old Lee Gavin, a Boston fan whose favorite player was and remains Ramirez) lives in the Sudbury farm house once owned by Ruth. That same day, the Yankees suffered their worst loss in team history, a 22-0 clobbering at home against the Cleveland Indians. However, most agree that the curse was not truly broken until the 2004 postseason.

Related Topics:
Mt. Everest - Manny Ramirez - Lee Gavin - Cleveland Indians

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