Even reading “Curse of the Bambino” didn’t work.
I’ve been on a bad streak lately with books on tape and TV shows on streaming networks.
I read a review of Lawrence Wright’s new novel called “The End of October.” It was about a global pandemic, and I thought I could learn something from it. Bad move.
Two chapters into the vividly written story, I knew I had made a mistake. When the virus Kongoli began ravaging the world, first from the middle east to the U.S., I wanted to stop listening, but I was hooked. When it ended, I could only pray that COVID-19 doesn’t do the same damage to our country.
What next? Well, I had never read Dan Shaugnessy’s “Curse of the Bambino” about the Boston Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919, but had always wanted to. So now was the right time. Wrong again.
I was well aware that the Sox went 86 years without winning a World Series, but did not know exactly why. Sure, there were Game 7 losses in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986, all gut-wrenchers.
But, despite selling Ruth to the Yankees because owner Harry Frazee needed money for his first love, Broadway, there turned out to be so many more stupid moves by a franchise, the Sox actually earned the eight-plus decade drought.
How about passing on Jackie Robinson when they had the first chance to sign the all-star who eventually broke the Major League color barrier. I didn’t know that.
In that 1946 World Series, they let Enos Slaughter score from first base on a single to very short left-center field for the winning run.
Keeping bad managers, firing good managers; trading Yankee-killer Sparky Lyle to the Yanks, for whom he became a Red Sox slayer. Losing a 14-game lead, and the playoff, to the Yankees in 1978. Trading away Jeff Bagwell and trading for Carl Crawford.
The bad moves and unlucky breaks went on and on. They deserved it. So do I.
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