Red Sox Win Third World Series in Ten Years. What Curse?
Instagram user: mattjacobsen
There were generations of Boston Red Sox fans who lived and breathed for the chance to see their beloved team win a World Series. Many of them died never having seen it. Ted Williams lived his entire life and never saw it. He was less than two months old when Babe Ruth pitched the Sox to the 1918 World Championship. He died in 2002, two years before the “Curse of the Bambino” ended. Maybe the “Greatest Hitter who Ever Lived” was the real jinx?
Something sure changed because the Sox have now won the series three times in 10 seasons following that 86-year drought. To put that into perspective, the hated New York Yankees who won 26 times in those 86 years have won only once in the last ten.
So revered in New England are former Red Sox greats such as Williams, Johnny Pesky, Carl Yastrzemski, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, (ok, maybe not Clemens), etc that you’d think the Sox had won several World Series titles. But no, they had not won any since 1918 until Big Papi came along. David Ortiz should be bigger than Williams and Yaz when he is done. He is “Mr. Red Sox” now. He was hitting over .730 coming into Game Six in a series when runs were harder to come by than health insurance. Critics say he must be cheating to be this good for this long. But, he never tests positive for anything illegal. He is never linked to shady pharmacists, ala Alex Rodriguez or Ryan Braun. All he does is keeps hitting ropes. They shift on him, he doesn’t care. After all, they can’t play in the right field seats.
The St. Louis Cardinals were supposed to have an advantage at home with Papi playing first base, something he rarely does (does Big Papi even own a glove?). But the Sox still won two of three games at Busch Stadium. So much for that.
Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia should also be Red Sox icons whenever they are done playing. Both were rookies in 2007 when the Sox won the World Series in four games over the Colorado Rockies. Together they have become two of the best table setters in baseball. Big Papi is almost always coming to bat with somebody on base. That makes it difficult to pitch around him.
It is good to be a Red Sox fan these days. You’re team wins a World Series about every three years. The Sox still occasionally give you heart burn such as the awful collapse in 2011 and the complete meltdown of 2012. But those are not too bad to deal with when you follow it up with a Word Championship in 2013. Hopefully, today’s Sox fans are remembering the generations who came before them that only lived through the heartbreak of 1946, 1967, 1975, 1978 and 1986 and never got to celebrate winning it all. If they ever take winning for granted, hopefully there will be a Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres or Cleveland Indians fan nearby to slap them hard. Fans of these teams have known post season heartbreak, but nobody knew it like Red Sox fans during Teddy Ballgame’s lifetime.
The Sox lost game Seven of the World Series four times. They lost a 14 game lead in 1978 in late July to lose the A.L. East in a 163rd game to the hated Yankees. And the cruelest of all was dropping game Six in 1986 to the New York Mets when they led by two runs with two outs and nobody on in the last inning. Sox fans really deserve this run. Because no other fan base paid their dues like Red Sox fans.
