The Curse of the Bambino

Rating:
Summary: Ignorance In Red Sox Nation
Review: The reviewer who bills himself as "Red Sox Nation" doesn't know what he is talking about. While he is quick to claim that the "curse" is over (due to the recent Red Sox's comeback from a 3 games to none series win over the New York Yankees), he fails to realize that the "curse of the Bambino" refers to the Red Sox failure TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES since 1918. THAT is the REAL curse. In defeating the Yankees, all the Red Sox have done is win the American League pennant--a feat that they have already accomplished 3 previous times since 1918. I'm sorry, my friend, but the "curse" still lives on and will continue to live on until the Red Sox win the brass ring.

Rating:
Summary: Nice annuity for Shaughnessy - but far from the real story
Review: When I was a kid growing up in Boston in the 60s and 70s, the was never a mention of any 'Curse of the Bambino.' It was simply a case of the Red Sox not measuring up to the Yankees on many benchmarks...managers (Grady Little trying to match wits against Joe Torre being only the latest example), ownership (Tom Yawkey's plantation mentality meant the Sox were the last team to integrate), team chemistry (the famous '25 cabs for 25 guys' line was written to describe the Yastrzemski-era Sox) and player personnel (the 70s teams, for example, featured bombers to take advantage of Fenway who could neither run, field, bunt nor sacrifice as well as their chief rivals).

So, Dan Shaughnessy comes along post-1986 collapse with the trite, kitschy 'Curse of the Bambino' and suddenly every talking head in America has a little piece of pop psychology they can gear their stories around - witness, as an example, any recent Fox broadcast with shot after shot of Ruth 'ghosts' parading through the stands at Yankee Stadium. Great visuals, cue it up between batters, between pitches...but why load these 25 current players with that extra-heavy burden? 'Curse' has been a healthy annuity for Shaughnessy, no doubt (and I give him some credit for the that), but from his Globe byline pulpit and his repeated intonations about The Curse, he has unwittingly become somewhat his home team's worst enemy (witness the venom on these pages as a confirmation of that opinion).

What's different about 2003 and beyond is that the Henry/Lucchino/Epstein regime doesn't buy into this garbage. They see baseball for what it is - a game of statistics, percentages and chances. Get your numbers to the point where they are better than the competition, and more times than not your team is going to win. They were smart enough to recognize that the Yankees were winning because they were demonstrably better. They made a commitment to continuous improvement of the club using the Yankees as their benchmark. Owner John Henry is one of the nation's most successful commodities and stock traders; President Larry Lucchino has a track record of improving franchises; GM Theo Epstein is a Moneyball/Bill James disciple and baseball talent-spotting prodigy. I'm sorry that's not as mystical and compelling as Harry Frazee needing to finance 'No No Nanette' and Babe Ruth pushing a piano into a lake, but that's the truth. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox - across the organization - are outworking and outthinking their competitors. That's what we ought to be celebrating right now, not whether the Curse has been broken.

Rating:
Summary: It's Outdated Now
Review: As of October 21, 2004 this book is officially outdated and no longer relevant. Whatever one thought of the concept of the "Curse" previously (and there was precious little substance or merit to it, anyway, as readers of "Red Sox Century" already know) it died when the Sox defeated the Yankees in Game Seven at Yankee Stadium. RIP....or something like that.

The Yankees now have the greatest collapse in history on their record. Not the Red Sox. The "Curse" doesn't live here anymore, if it ever did at all.

Maybe Dan can next write "The Curse of Tino Martinez" or "The Curse of Vince Doria" or something but this subject, at least in Red Sox Nation, is now officially dead.