Book Review - The Curse of the Bambino by Dan Shaughnessy

Hello... my name is Mike, and I am a Boston Red Sox fan. No, not one of those fair-weather "when-the-Sox-are-winning-let's-pull-out-our-blue-ballcaps-with-the-red-and-white-'B'-on-them" fans, but a real-life, long-suffering, "live-and-die-with-Red Sox-fortunes-at-all-costs" fan. I've been that way now for 48 of my 50-plus years of living.

Forty-eight years!! Forty-eight years in which my beloved Sox made just 5 World Series appearances and 13 intra-league playoff series appearances. And for 41 of those 48 years, every time they made it to the post-season, they did what they always seemed to do best... they brought us, their fans, to the very edge of ecstasy... and then, right at the last second, they lost.

All that came to a merciful end on Wednesday, October 27, 2004, in St. Louis, Missouri, when finally... FINALLY... my beloved Boston Red Sox won their first World Series championship since 1918. Three years later, they did it again... they won another World Series, this time against the Colorado Rockies.

It marked the end of one of the great curses in all of American sports: "The Curse of the Bambino."

Speaking of the "Curse of the Bambino..." last summer, I found this book languishing forlornly on a little coffee table at a yard sale I was attending. The Curse of the Bambino, by Dan Shaughnessy. Well, for 50 cents, why not?

Published in 1990, The Curse of the Bambino is irreverent, wry, witty, satirical, and a hoot to read. There's not much there to console Red Sox Nation, frustrated for 86 years by their team's failure to win a World Series, but I think every Red Sox fan who reads this book can find solace in the fact that yes, there were reasons for all those mis-cues, mis-takes, mis-deeds, and missed opportunities experienced by the Olde Towne Team from 1918 through 2003...

Shaughnessy finds the "Curse of the Bambino" as an integral part of the unhappy history of the Red Sox. The "Curse" is part mind-set, part horrible decision-making, and part "buzzard luck." As Shaughnessy points out, it's the "original sin" of the Red Sox, an iniquity for which we Sox fans paid for the better part of nine decades.

It began right after the 1919 season, when Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000 in cash plus $200,000 in loans... the loans to be secured by the mortgage on Fenway Park. Ever since then, it's all been downhill for the Red Sox...

While wearing a Red Sox uniform, Ruth had already established himself as the game's greatest player - both as a pitcher and as a hitter. He went on to baseball immortality in the House that Ruth Built. Meanwhile, the Red Sox journeyed into a Twilight Zone of complete baseball ineptitude, followed by decades of "silver medal finishes" in the American League...

According to Shaughnessy, here are the most egregious tragedies that befell the Red Sox after that fateful day in September 1919, when the Bambino departed the Crimson Hose in favor of the Yankees, leaving behind those blasted Bambino Curses:

Bambino Curse #1 - Years in the Wilderness: From 1919 through the "roaring twenties," the once-powerful Red Sox (they had won four World Series in seven years during the early- and mid-ninteen-teens) are the perennial doormats of the American League. It's almost like there's a turnstile for the best Red Sox players, leading directly from Fenway Park to Yankee Stadium, as a succession of Red Sox owners try to pay their debts to Yankees owner Jake Ruppert.

Bambino Curse #2 - Resurgence and Relapse: In 1933, the Sox begin a resurgence as a 29-year old multi-millionaire named Tom Yawkey buys the team and immediately begins using Yankee-esque tactics (open the wallet, buy a championship) to build a winning team. In a most un-Yankee-esque fashion, however, none of Yawkey's acquisitions achieve desired reults. The Bosox continue to finish each season as "also-rans," despite the presence of future Hall of Famers Bobby Doerr, Joe Cronin, Joe McCarthy, and the best of 'em all: Ted Williams.

Bambino Curse #3 - 1946 "Silver Medalists:" In 1946, the Red Sox march like a Juggernaut through the regular season; even the hated Yankees can't stop 'em. Going into the World Series, they are 10-7 favorites to beat the St. Louis Cardinals. And yet... they manage to lose in seven games. Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky's (alleged) hesitation in throwing the ball to an infielder allows Enos Slaughter to score the winning run in the seventh game of the Series. The Cards go home Champs. The Sox go home... period.

Bambino Curse #4 - Impossibly Dreamin' in Sixty-Seven! Throughout the late '50s and early '60s, about all that can be said for the Sox is that they never finish in last place. Absolutely no-one expects the Sox to go anywhere in 1967; oddsmakers give them a 100-1 shot to win the World Series. Yet '67 proves a turning point in Red Sox fortunes. New Sox skipper Dick Williams masterfully pilots the team as it scratches and claws its way to the top of the American League standings. It looks like "the Curse" might finally be broken. But, once again, the Babe has his say. The Sox and St. Louis Cardinals play a masterful seven-game World Series. Unfortunately, Cards ace Bob Gibson is just too much, even for the likes of Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski; and, Sox ace Jim Lonborg's arm is just too tired after only three days' rest...

Bambino Curse #5 - Comin' Alive in Seventy-Five! In 1975, the Red Sox are heavily favored to beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. After six memorable games - especially the sixth, in which Sox catcher Carlton Fisk bashes his historic "wave-it-fair" homer in the bottom of the 12th inning - the '75 Series remains as close as can be. Then... the Bambino blurts out another curse, and the Reds go on to victory. With the Sox leading 3-0 in the late innings, a fielding miscue by the Sox second baseman leaves a Reds runner on base. He promptly scores when Reds slugger Tony Perez lines a home run outta Fenway Park. After that... it's all over. The Reds go home Champs. The disheartened Sox go home empty-handed...

Bambino Curse #6 - Bucky-Bleeping-Dent Blast Beats Bosox In 1978, the Sox are in a one-game playoff with those damYankees at Fenway Park, Sox pitcher Mike Torrez hurls a slider to light-hitting Bucky Dent. Dent's pop-fly keeps going... and going... and going... right into the net atop the Green Monster. The Yanks go on to win the World Series. The Sox are finished for the season... again.

Bambino Curse #7 - Mets' Mookie Dribbles through Bosox Billy's Wickets: Game 6, 1986 World Series: with the Sox ahead in the bottom of the ninth, two outs, and nobody on, the New York Mets pull off the improbable, thanks largely to bad pitching and fielding... and the Bambino. Three straight hits by the Mets load the bases. Mookie Wilson hits a squibber down the first base line in the direction of Bill Buckner. And all Buckner has to do is field the @#$&* ball cleanly! Instead, the @#$&* ball goes through Buckner's legs and into right field. The Mets win Games 6 and 7, and go home Champs. The Sox... well, need I say more...?

Bambino Curse #8 - Aaron-Bleeping-Boone Blast Beats Bosox (not included in Shaughnessy's book) Game 7, 2003 American League Championship Series... bottom of the 11^th inning at Yankee Stadium... Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield tosses a fluttering "cookie" to light-hitting Yank pinch-hitter Aaron Boone. Boone's pop-fly keeps going... and going... and going... right into the left field stands near the foul pole. The Yanks go on to lose the World Series to the Florida Marlins; the Sox are finished for the season... again.

The Curse of the Bambino is a wonderfully entertaining book. Had anyone other than Dan Shaughnessy penned this work, it probably would have ended up a dry, scholarly tome, or a whining, sniveling set of excuses for why the Red Sox couldn't win a championship for 86 years. But Shaughnessy did write The Curse of the Bambino, and he was just the right man for the job. He never whines; instead, he states his case with authority and wit and a certain wry irreverence toward All Things Crimson Hose. It is indeed a very well told story, spiced with humor, wit, and lots of insight.

Was there really a "Curse of the Bambino?" Shaughnessy rightfully leaves that to you, the reader, to decide. He seemed to think so, and, quite frankly, so did I. All you had to do for all those years is watch the Sox in action. They would thrill their fans by going almost to the very pinnacle of success... and then "the Curse" would kick in, and defeat would be snatched from the jaws of Red Sox victory. It almost happened again in 2004 and 2007, as the Red Sox put themselves on the brink of disaster before staging two amazing comebacks and winning it all!

In this new post-"Curse of the Bambino" era that I live in, I am now able to hold my head high, with my Red Sox ballcap perched snugly in place. I am confident that the Red Sox can win it all in any given year. But, in the secret recesses of my heart and mind, I still feel that old sense of impending doom every time the Sox reach that point at the edge of ultimate triumph...