Red Sox curse could be tied to New York Times, not Ruth
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- The Boston Red Sox take the field in Oakland on Wednesday in a quest to erase 85 years of jinxed history that's usually pinned to the immortal Babe Ruth.
But the Red Sox faithful may have reason to blame their postseason woes on another legendary New York institution. Call it the Curse of The New York Times.
On Sept. 12, 1918, the day after the Red Sox won their third World Series title in four years, the Times wrote: "Boston is the luckiest baseball spot on earth, for it has never lost a world's series."
In retrospect, that statement sounds a bit like Neville Chamberlain's 1938 proclamation of "peace in our time" or the Internet bubble-era book titled "Dow 36,000."
But baseball as we know it today was turned upside-down in 1918. The Red Sox had won five of 15 world championships and were easily the major leagues' most successful franchise. The Chicago Cubs had two titles, and the New York Yankees had yet to win a single pennant.
"That would not be a remarkable statement at the time. ... I mean, it was true," said Dan Shaughnessy, a Boston Globe sports columnist who wrote the 1990 book The Curse of the Bambino.
The famous curse's roots date to 1920, when Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth, a star pitcher who was becoming a slugger, to the Yankees. According to legend, he used the proceeds to finance the Broadway musical No, No, Nanette.
The Red Sox have not won a World Series since, though they've reached the postseason nine times and lost the Series' seventh game four times. Meanwhile, the Yankees have won 26 titles.
So the Curse of the Bambino has become a founding myth in New England on par with the Boston Tea Party. It's inspired several books, an HBO documentary, even another musical.
But what if the curse was cast in September 1918, more than a year before Ruth's sale to the Yankees? Will Anderson, a Bath author who dug up the Times quote, can't shake that idea.
Anderson was doing research for his most recent book, The Lost New England Nine: The Best of New England's Forgotten Ballplayers when he read the Times story on microfilm.
"I basically said, 'Holy cow!,"' Anderson recalls. "I can't think of a better way to put a jinx on a team."
Anderson says he believes the curse can be reversed simply by exposing it. But there are other signs of hope as the Red Sox open postseason play against the Oakland Athletics.
Boston hasn't made the playoffs since 1999. Three years later, the franchise was sold for $660 million to a group of investors that includes the New York Times Co.
As Shaughnessy notes, "They've never lost a playoff series under the ownership of the New York Times."
There's also a connection to The Boston Globe, whose publisher for 125 years, the Taylor family, owned the Red Sox in their early years and built Fenway Park. The New York Times has owned the Globe since 1993.
So with Boston's baseball team back under the stewardship of the city's daily broadsheet, perhaps its luck will change.
Edward Crossette, a Red Sox fan who runs the Web site www.bambinoscurse.com, said he had never heard of the Curse of the New York Times.
"There's always a new piece of the legend," he added. "Superstition is such a part of baseball lore."
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