The Curse of the Bambino

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: Pathetic
Review: When Sheffield goes 0 for 4 with 3 ks against Schilling
next year the CHB will still find fault with something.
Generally, there is a bias in hometown sports reporters,
that's to be expected. However, he has a NEGATIVE bias!
This just so his tired read can still be shilled.

Rating:
Summary: Lay off Dan
Review: Wow! Seems like a lot of people, judged by these reviews, really don't like Dan Shaughnessy. I've been a Red Sox fan since 1960 and talk of "The Curse" was around long before this book by Shaughnessy. He did not invent it to make a profit. Curse or not, the fate of the Yankees and Red Sox definitely changed after Frazee sold The Babe to New York, no matter what reason he had. This book is a light hearted, well written, look at the plight of the Sox in the many years after Ruth was sold. Shaughnessy was kind enough to invite me into the press box in Baltimore when I approached him to autograph my copy of his book. He spent several minutes with me discussing the chances that year of my beloved Red Sox. He seemed like a good guy with a genuine feeling for the BoSox. Give the book a chance, It's a good read.