Two Articles About the Red Sox Curse

[mabfan]

gnomi pointed me to this timeline of Red Sox events from 1920-2004:
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/109896450234930.xml

And another friend pointed me to this fascinating piece, showing that the Curse may have had (believe it or not) antiSemitic roots:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2004/news/story?page=Curse041005

Comments

[cheshyre]

Hadn't heard of the antisemitism angle; I have heard some attribute it to racism, rejecting Jackie Robinson, being one of the last teams to integrate, more.
And only recently with the change of ownership, has the team finally relinquished the last of its ties with the old racists in charge, thus enabling the win.

[ckd]

The anti-Semitism angle I hadn't heard until I first saw that ESPN article mabfan linked, but I can certainly imagine it. Alas.

I'm much more willing to buy the racism/stupid ownership angle, especially since it's a kind of self-inflicted curse. I've been far more impressed with the new ownership than I had expected.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I had never heard of the antiSemitism angle, either, which is why I found the article so fascinating. The writer apparently did a lot of real research for it.

[sdelmonte]

While a lot of what Mr. Stout says about the denigration of Harry Frazee is no doubt true, he overplays the "sinister" aspects of the Curse. Even he acknowledges that it was merely fans looking for explanations for why things always seem to go wrong. And it is safe to say that if Babe Ruth had not been traded to the Yankees, baseball history would have followed a very different path. Whatever anti-Semitim may have been aimed without any logic at Frazee, and whatever effect that may have had on the fortunes of the Red Sox, I don't think it's why fans bemoan the departure of the Babe and the rise of the hated Yankees.

Anyway, I'd rather celebrate the contributions of Theo Epstein and Gabe Kapler to the Sox' victory.