Bambino's Curse

15 Years

Yesterday was an anniversary of sorts. And today marks 15 years since we awoke to find that nothing regarding baseball would ever be the same:

You could feel New England subtly change. Have you ever seen a dog that's being trained on an electric fence? Put the collar on them and they skip happily around the backyard, right up to the point where they run past those little white flags and and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! After that supersonic jolt, they still skip happily around the backyard, but every time they see those white flags and feel the faint hint of a buzz on their electric collar, you can see their ears sag and their tails stuff between their legs. And that doesn't change until you remove the flags.

That described everyone in New England after Game 6. Each year we skip happily through the season, especially when the Red Sox are winning ... but as soon as there's a hint of trouble, you can feel everyone collectively brace. Here we go again. Oh God. If Game 6 was the electric jolt, maybe every postseason appearance feels like one more sight of those white flags. And maybe none of us would admit it, but it's true (Simmons, ESPN Page2)

If you can bear to read through it, Simmons' account is a sharp reminder of everything that went down.

I'm once again intrigued by notion of personal responsible Red Sox fans have for what occurred:

Blame me. I'm the kid who watched That Game at a friend's house and decided to call his mother after the Sox had taken a 5-3 lead, asking her to tape the last half of the 10th because, and I quote, "I want to have it on tape when we win the World Series" (Simmons).

I think nearly every Red Sox fan has a similar story of personal guilt. And I believe that [the personal guilt] is some sort of psychological way of dealing with tragedy and loss. Very interesting . . . I had really been thinking a lot about this right up until the event of September 11, 2001 when it all got torn away by events far more tragic. Yet now 6 weeks after Sept. 11th I'm once again realizing that Oct. 25, 1986 it is still a watershed event. I don't think it takes anything at all away from the gravity of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington to also admit that Game 6 has had and will continue to have a profound effect on your psyche.

the BOB?

So they refer to the park where the Diamondbacks play as the BOB? How cute.

An amusement park with a baseball theme, some call it, full of flashing message boards, enormous advertisements, a quarter-mile of concession stands and a retractable roof to shield fans from the scorching desert sun (The Boston Herald).

Geez, sounds great! (Not.)

@Bat gets it

Not much happening today it seems, so I'll shill a bit.

The Boston Globe's @Bat Insider subscription service has been named a finalist for a Massachusetts Interactive Media Council award in the Sports category.

And they deserve it.

Not only do they prove that folks are willing to pay for web content if the content is above and beyond what you can get from the basic newspaper, online or in print (if only more folks, hello RIAA!, would learn from this), but also the @Bat Insider delivers on the hype you hear about the web connecting writers with readers directly and in real time. These people at The Globe are even savvy enough to keep the service going throughout the off-season for the hot stove league. Well done.

Werner buys Red Sox?

This is yet to be verified by the major media, but Steve at The Boston Dirt Dogs has been suggesting since last Saturday that ''Tom Werner's group will be acquiring the Red Sox.'' I hesitate to mention hearsay, but the Boston Dirt Dogs site has scooped the big boys several times this season; most recently, they had everyone beat on the ''Mo wants to return to Boston'' story by several days.

Anything is possible

Ever since the events of September 11th it seems that what may have been formerly inconceivable is now reality. Even situations that have nothing to do with al Queda or terrorists seem to have gone topsy-turvy. Take Major League Baseball for instance:

Reports have been floated (or leaked) that the owners will eliminate two clubs, most likely the Montreal Expos and the Florida Marlins, before next season. Both clubs have a troubled financial picture and a sparse following and the owners reportedly would rather fold the franchises than hope to gain a significant victory from the players in the upcoming negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement (Silverman, The Boston Herald).

Can you imagine? Even if this is just some sort of ploy by the owners, just the thought of it has me scratching my chin and striking a pose of bewilderment.

Don't take away my citizenship, but . . .

At the risk of sacrilege toward Red Sox Nation, I have to admit I find considerable amusement in this:

The capacity crowd of 56,370 serenaded [the Mariners] with chants of ``OVERRATED!'' during the final two innings (Horrigan, The Boston Herald).

And this:

The last chant directed at the Mariners, with Suzuki at the plate? ''Sayonara,'' the crowd cheered (Edes, The Boston Globe).

Heh heh heh . . . Can't say that Seattle doesn't deserve it. Yeah, it's difficult to admit to any sort of affinity with New York, but it's the truth. What I dislike most about baseball cities like Seattle or Anaheim or Arlington or Minnesota etc. is that fans in those cities would never come up with chants like that, unless, of course there were a lot of transplanted Boston, New York, or Philly fans in attendance.

Remember some of the great chants we've heard in Fenway? "STE-ROIDS" when Canseco would come to bat for Oakland is still my personal favorite.

Here's to hoping that the fans in Phoenix can show that the southwest has some grit and that they do something besides just sit there on their hands. I can't root for a team that has namby-pamby fans.

No Atlanta, thankfully

I don't think I could have taken another Atlanta v. New York World Series. Talk about been there, done that ... of course, I am getting ahead myself a bit. The Yankees still have to win one more to put the Mariners away. But if you have any doubt of that, just read passages like this one below:

Alfonso Soriano. What other team has a future All-Star buried in the ninth spot in its lineup? That's what this kid is. He is a major force at the bottom of the batting order only because he is a Yankee. Otherwise, he would be a major force at the top of someone else's order (Ryan, The Boston Globe).

We knew in back in April at Fenway when Soriano got his first Major League homerun that the guy is yet another in a long line of Yankees' superstars.

At least, the Yankees were unable to get add Randy Johnson to their pitching staff.

''I'm 38 years old, I'm not getting any younger, and only two teams are going to make it, so I never knew,'' Johnson said, his long, stringy hair matted by beer and champagne. ''I've never been to the World Series at any level, not even Little League, so I feel very fortunate and very blessed that a lot of things went our way'' (Hohler, The Boston Globe).

Johnson has been amazing for so long now. He definitely deserves to be in the position he's in.

And I guess no news is good news regarding the Boston Red Sox. No mention of any team news, as far as I can tell, in any of the usual media sources.