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The Curse of the Bambino

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Oddity

The Resume

    (January 3, 1920-October 27, 2004)
    1903: Red Sox win the first World Series played
    1903-19: Red Sox win five World Series, Yankees win zero
    1914: Joseph Lannin purchases the Red Sox rights to Babe Ruth
    July 11, 1914: Babe Ruth becomes a Boston Red Sox
    1917: Joseph Lannin sells the Red Sox to Harry Frazee for $200,000
    1918: Babe Ruth as a pitcher wins half of the Red Sox World Series victories
    Babe Ruth hits record 29 home runs in 1919
    Pitcher Babe Ruth is 17-5 against the Yankees
    January 3, 1920: Harry Frazee, owner of the Boston Red Sox, sells Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees
    Yankees' Colonel Jacob Ruppert pays $125,000 and a $300,000 loan; Frazee uses the money to produce 'No, No, Nannette' on Broadway and collateral for Fenway Park
    1920-2003: Yankees win twenty six World Series, Red Sox win zero
    1920: Yankees are first team to draw over one million fans in a season
    October 15, 1923: Yankees win their first World Series
    1923-1932: Red Sox finish last in eight of those ten seasons
    Some believe the curse ended in 2004 when the Red Sox won a World Series

Why The Curse of the Bambino might be annoying:

    There is no such thing as a curse!
    The curse suggests that Babe Ruth wishes the Red Sox bad luck, even though he prospered and was happy as a New York Yankee.
    The curse is not fully defined. Is it that the Red Sox would not win a World Series for an undefined period of time, or is it the endless suffering of coming close and not winning it all?
    Frazee said: 'I think [the Yankees] are taking a gamble . . . The Boston club can now go into the market and buy other players and have a better team . . . [than] if Ruth had remained with us' (January 6, 1920).
    Fans use mathematical formulas to look for omens that may end the curse.
    They also use numbers to prove the curse including that the first four numbers the Red Sox retired in order were 9 (Ted Williams), 4 (Joe Cronin), 1 (Bobby Doerr) and 8 (Carl Yastrzemski), claiming the date 9/4/18 is the day the Red Sox won their last World Series. However the series actually started 9/5/18 and the Red Sox won on on 9/11/18 (9/11!).
    Ruth became unhappy with the Red Sox after hitting 29 home runs (more than any other combined team) and was offered only a $10,000 contract while other top players were making $15,000 (1919).
    To make matters worse, the four World Series they played in since 1918 (1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986) all went the full seven games with them losing the final game. In most of these seventh games, the Red Sox had as much as a three run lead.
    In 1986, they came within one strike of winning the World Series in six games, when Bill Buckner made the fatal error that caused the New York Mets to prevail. Shea Stadium's scoreboard even conceded 'Congratulations Boston Red Sox, 1986 World Champions.'
    For six straight seasons, 1998-2003, the Red Sox finished second to the N.Y. Yankees.
    In 1978, they blew a 14½ game lead on the Yankees. The season ended in a dead heat with a play off game at Fenway Park. The Red Sox lead 2-0 until Bucky Dent hit a 3 run homer. The Yanks eventually won the game 5-4 and eliminated the Red Sox.
    They unloaded some players who eventually came to the Yankees, such as Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Don Zimmer and Sparky Lyle, all who ultimately won the world series with New York.
    The Red Sox made another horrible trade dealing Red Ruffing to the Yankees who was 39-96 as a Red Sox but went 231-124 as a Yankee.
    The Red Sox made another horrible trade dealing Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling for Mike Boddicker (1988).
    The Red Sox made another horrible trade dealing Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen (1990).
    In 1993, in an effort to end the curse, the Red Sox created a victory emblem for their 1918 championship team.
    The legislature of Massachusetts tried to end the curse by officially recognizing the retirement of Babe Ruth.
    Some fans wanted Willis Pond in Sudbury, Massachusetts to be searched for Babe Ruth's piano, believing if they restore it, the curse would end. Supposedly a drunk Ruth pushed his piano into the pond in 1919.
    From 1999 to the end of the 2003 playoffs, Yankee pitchers have hit 24 Red Sox players, while Red Sox pitchers have hit 53 Yankee players.

Why The Curse of the Bambino might not be annoying:

    This is great for baseball.
    Red Sox fans enjoy their misery.
    It gives the Yankees a psychological edge.
    In 1925, in an act of compassion, the Yankees offered the Red Sox Lou Gehrig as compensation for the Ruth trade of five years earlier. The Red Sox decline the offer.
    In a strange twist of history, just prior to Bill Buckner's error in the 1986 World Series, the sportscasters named the World Series MVP as Bruce Hurst. Bruce Hurst is an anagram of 'B Ruth Curse.'
    Babe Ruth finished his playing career in Boston, but with the Braves (1935).
    Besides Babe Ruth, the Red Sox had some of the greatest pitchers including Cy Young, Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez.
    Besides Babe Ruth, the Red Sox had some of the greatest hitters, including Ted Williams and Wade Boggs.
    There are arguments that the sale of Babe Ruth did not directly finance 'No No Nannette' in that the sale was in 1920 and the play opened in 1925.

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 26.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 53 Votes: 50.94% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 24 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 20 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 21 Votes: 52.38% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 21 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 53 Votes: 66.04% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 35 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 52 Votes: 73.08% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 100 Votes: 63.00% Annoying
    In 2006, Out of 154 Votes: 69.48% Annoying
    In 2005, Out of 264 Votes: 65.53% Annoying
    In 2004, Out of 1984 Votes: 68.85% Annoying
    In 2003, Out of 596 Votes: 60.07% Annoying