With the World Series Looming: Famous Urban Legends in Baseball

With the 2007 World Series drawing up closer than ever, it's time to take a look back on these Mythological Baseball Curses that have been placed supposedly on teams. How these came about is whenever a team makes a move that can cause a turning point in a franchise and prevent them from winning a World Series ring. At this present time, the Chicago Cubs currently have the longest drought of any team to not win a championship and next year will be the 100^th year Anniversary of them of winning a championship and haven't won one since. Boston had recently won a championship 3 years ago breaking an 86-year drought. The only way for the curses to be broken is by winning a championship. Time now to reflect on some curses and if they are broken starting with the most common and well-known one perhaps of all-time.

The Curse of the Bambino-Boston Red Sox

It all began after the 1918 World Series and the Red Sox had Babe Ruth on their team. The Red Sox owner had sold Ruth to the Yankees and during that time saw New York excel and win championships while Boston would go 86 years before winning the World Series. More or less, this would be considered a transition and a turning point in both the Yankees and Red Sox franchises respectively in terms of championships. Prior to Ruth's move to the Yankees, he was a pitcher and later was a hitter, which is what he is known best for when he at one point had the all-time Home Run Record of 714 games. Keep in mind however that baseball during that time there wasn't a 162 game schedule like today so it's going to be a what if Ruth had played the same amount of games as everyone is playing today and how many Home Runs would he hit now. Anyhow, the curse was lifted at the end of the 2004 World Series though some Red Sox considered it broken when they embarrassed New York in the 2004 ALCS. That's debatable but mostly it's considered once winning it, it was over.

The Curse of the Billy Goat-Chicago Cubs

The most active and biggest drought in baseball history belongs to the Chicago Cubs. This one is however much different than the Bambino Curse as this team hasn't made it to the World Series since 1945 and haven't won one since 1908. Chicago was so close to making it but completely choked in 2003 on making it. Would they have won the World Series is anyone's guess. Part of the legend that grows is during that game in the 8^th inning when a fan in the infamous "Bartman" game where he was trying to catch the foul ball and Alou, the Cubs Outfielder, was trying to get the ball and it interfered. Whether or not it is justified or not has been added on to the biggest urban legend out there in baseball today. The facts are that the Cubs haven't won since 1945 and if they expect to break it, next season would be it ending it on the 100-year anniversary. For Cubs fans, they should hope that should they do it next season, it will not be another 100 years before winning another one.

The Curse of the Black Sox-Chicago White Sox

The year was 1919 and they had won the championship in 1917, a year before the Boston Red Sox and it had been 88 years before doing so like the Red Sox. It was speculated that in that series, the White Sox threw the series and was known simply as the Black Sox Scandal, the more common name of the two. That curse got broken when they beat the Astros in the 2005 World Series and no longer exists to this day. The end result were players banned involved in the act and accepting gambling from a gang. With that happening,

The Curse of Rocky Colavito-Cleveland Indians

This one is pretty small and not quite as known except to maybe Cleveland fans. They haven't won a championship since 1948 and came close in 1997 but because of a game where Jose Mesa couldn't get the job done, they lost that game and would lose the series to the Marlins. Since that time however, they've won division crowns and now are competing in the ALCS for the 1^st time since 1998. If Cleveland wins this season and takes it all the way, it will be over and will never need to be mentioned again.

The Bay-Area Curse-San Francisco Giants

Not so much a major curse but something interesting that should be brought up. The Giants haven't won a championship since 1954, the year they were in New York and were called the New York Giants, not to be confused with the NFL team. Anyhow, there really isn't much of a back-story but when the moved to San Fran, supposedly a jinx has been placed and they haven't won a championship since.

The A-Rod Jinx-A-Rod

Whether it started in Seattle or Texas is debatable but here are the facts surrounding this ordeal. He left the Mariners and signed a 10-year $252 million dollar contract, which I believe is the record for highest paid player. In essence, it would be Texas and for until the 2004 season and would be with the New York Yankees. The reason for this jinx is due to the fact that A-Rod has never made it or even won the World Series ever since he signed that contract. Most recently since that debacle in the 2004 ALCS, he has not gotten it done in the post-season to get that ring. Yes he's won MVP awards but he's not the job done when he needs to for his team. While there's no doubt of his performance as a regular season player, his post-season however hasn't exactly been the greatest of times as he has struggled the last 3 seasons including that solo Home Run he connected with on the Yankees last game in the ALDS against the Indians.The last one however is just a made-up one from recent times based upon the contract signed and the heavy expectations going in with that type of deal. The other ones however have been known to those cities. Chicago now only has one urban legend that exists and Cleveland has theirs though it could end if they win the big one this season. Even though they are just urban legends, they are referenced in society today among baseball fans and maybe some non-baseball fans, most notably The Curse of the Bambino among the nation. The only major references to the Cubs would be the fan that caught the foul ball in the 2003 NLCS between the Cubs and Marlins. The other side of Chicago had references about a series being fixed in reference to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal.