Boston Red Sox

“That wasn’t a lunar eclipse we all saw last night,” the D.J. explained this afternoon. That was the ghost of Babe Ruth erasing the ‘Curse of the Bambino’.

We arrived into Boston territory when the fans were despondent. Boston needed to win four games in a row against New York for the right to play in the World Series. They were down 3-0.

This was when I heard of the curse. In the early 1900’s Boston was a baseball powerhouse. In fifteen years they had won the World Series five times. Then they traded Babe Ruth (still considered to be one of the games best hitters) to New York.

“He wasn’t traded,” Jim corrected me. “He was sold - and that was even worse - and to New York too. They hated each other.” Since that trade in 1918, the Red Sox have not won another world series – until now.

Boston did win the next four games against the Yankees. Then they swept St Louis in the World Series itself. The fans are happy again - “We’re making history.”

We couldn’t afford the $3000 per ticket for the actual games, but it’s still been fun to be in Boston during the playoffs. There’s lots of talk on the radio and in the papers. Everyone is wearing a Red Sox shirt or hat. The signs read, “Reverse the Curse” or “I believe”.

We were actually in downtown Boston the day they won the World Series. We had our map out on the bar and asked the waiter where all the fans would be for the game and afterwards.

“You don’t want to be there,” he shook his head at us.

“No, we want to avoid it,” we told him.

Boston fans – or hooligans – had been stirring up trouble. One girl died in the rioting that followed the Boston win against New York.

Only one guy was noisy at the bar where we were watching. His lone voice would call out “go sox go” and then he’d bang his glass on the table. He wove his way out of the bar and ended up on the same train carriage as us on our way home. Every so often we’d still hear his cry. After about half an hour of this, a young guy with a tight white t-shirt and an attitude marched down the train carriage and attempted to shut him up. The punk had a girlfriend who dragged him back to his seat.

The three of them got off the train at the same stop. As we pulled out of the station, we watched the girlfriend holding her boy by the arm as he strained to follow the Sox fan down the platform.

“I guess the kid wasn’t happy that the Sox won,” Jim said.