Strange Halloween Sports Moments and Stories

Baseball is full of strange but true stories throughout its venerable history. Every year, the World Series occurs right around the time of Halloween. So it is no coincidence that some of the strangest baseball stories happen during the haunted, ghoulish season.

A baseball story that really shakes the ground, if you know what I mean, is the Earthquake Series in 1989. The World Series that year pitted the Oakland A's against the San Francisco Giants, both from the Bay Area. Just days before Halloween, and just minutes before Game 3 at Candlestick Park (yes, that's right- Candlestick...I wonder if any Jack-'o-Lanterns were there), a major earthquake struck San Francisco. A national TV audience saw the the earthquake happen, and the Series was delayed 10 days until the Bay Area could recover. The quake was named the Loma Prieta Earthquake or the Quake of '89.

It was a strange and tragic day. The earthquake killed 63 people and left as many as 12,000 people homeless. Caused by a slip along the San Andreas Fault, the temblor was 6.9 on the Richter scale and lasted 10-15 seconds.

The A's were not afraid of the Giants or any other monsters that year though. Oakland went on to sweep (yes, that's right, sweep.....) the Giants in the Series. But the 1989 World Series will always be known for the major earthquake that disrupted it.

Halloween is a season of curses, jinxes, witches and chants. And strange curses definitely run through much of baseball history. The curses seem to be compounded in relation to World Series' jinxes- reaching its peak at the World Series right around Halloween every year. Teams, cities and fans have endured decades and decades of utter futility and frustration as a result of these curses. Perhaps Halloween and its dark, eerie traditions are part of it all.

The Chicago Cubs' curse is well known. They have not won a World Series since 1945, and their fans and followers call it the "Curse of the Billy Goat". Legend has it that during the World Series in Chicago that year, a fan was asked to leave the stadium because his pet goat's odor was bothering other fans. He declared, "Them Cubs, they aren't gonna win no more." And they haven't won a World Series since then.

The Chicago White Sox had a curse of their own. The "Curse of the Black Sox", also known as the "Curse of Shoeless Joe", was a superstition or scapegoat cited as one reason for the failure of the White Sox to win the World Series from 1917 until 2005. The legend is related to the Black Sox Scandal in 1919, when eight players were banned from baseball near the end of that season- very close to Halloween. The curse finally ended in 2005 when the White Sox won the Series.

The curse or jinx in Philadelphia does not go back as far as others but was real nonetheless. The "Curse of Billy Penn" was an alleged curse used to explain the failure of professional sports teams based in Philadelphia to win championships since the March 1987 construction of the One Liberty Place skyscraper, which exceeded the height of William Penn's statue atop Philadelphia City Hall.

The strange ending to that curse occured during- you guessed it- the Halloween season in 2008. The Philadephia Phillies won the World Series that year in October, ending The Curse of Billy Penn. But something even more eerie preceded that win. Legend has it that it was actually an event in 2007 that allowed the curse to come to an end. In June, 2007, a statuette of the William Penn figure atop City Hall was affixed to the final beam high on top of the new tallest building in Philadelphia, the Comcast Center, reversing the curse from 1987.

The curse had gained such prominence in Philadelphia that a documentary film entitled The Curse of William Penn was produced about it.

But the darkest, most vexing curse of them all is the "Curse of the Bambino". This superstition was cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 until 2004. The curse was said to have begun in 1920 when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth (aka The Bambino) to the Yankees, a lackluster team at that time which went on to become famously successful.

During those 86 years, the Red Sox came very close to winning pennants and even the World Series 11 separate times. But every time, the Curse spelled their doom.

Perhaps the strangest and most torturous story from those 11 was the 1986 World Series between the Red Sox and the New York Mets. In Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Boston (leading the series three games to two) took a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th inning. In the bottom half of the frame, Red Sox reliever Calvin Schiraldi quickly retired the first two batters, putting the team within one out of winning the World Series. However, the New York Mets scored three unanswered runs, tying the game on a wild pitch from Bob Stanley and winning it when Boston first baseman Bill Buckner allowed a ground ball hit by the Mets' Mookie Wilson to roll through his legs, scoring Ray Knight from second base. In the seventh game, the Red Sox took an early 3-0 lead, only to blow it and lose 8-5. The collapses in the last two games prompted Vecsey's articles. As it has turned out, this would be the most recent time that the Red Sox lost even a World Series game.