The Curse of the Bambino or How the Sox Finally End It

By Liam

It has been said that the Red Sox are part of the patrimony of the New England; generation after generation has inherited a fidelity to the cause of the men of Fenway, known throughout New England as The Sox. The Red Sox are as much a part of that historic corner of the American nation as the mountains, lakes, and shoreline that so graphically characterize it.

The focal point of this devotion is Fenway Park, the small, old, oddly shaped home field of the Red Sox since April 20, 1912. Built for a game that feeds off its own history, that follows a seamless course through the years, Fenway is an ideal place to watch baseball, where one can sit comfortably with the shadows of George Herman Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and all other titans who have passed this way. Every Red Sox fan is a shareholder in that history, possesses an anchorage in that past, and holds a ticket in the future.

Through their long and unpredictable history the Red Sox have been many things: triumphant, exciting, and gallant, as well as frustrating and disappointing. Through all personnel changes that baseball teams must necessarily undergo, they have never failed to exude a certain charm that is rare in any athletic endeavor. These are the qualities of the Boston Red Sox, one of the ongoing enchantments of New England.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503545311

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Copyright © 2015 by LIAM.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015902660

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Rev. date: 02/19/2015

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Contents

Chapter 1 The Curse of the Bambino or How the Sox Finally End It

Chapter 2. The Yawkey Era Begins 1933-1939

Chapter 3 Baseball Goes to War 1939-1945

Chapter 4 The Cold War Years I 1946-1950

Chapter 5 Country Club Capers 1951-1967

Chapter 6 Impossible Dream 1967

Chapter 7 The End and A Beginning 1968-1975

Chapter 8 A Dynasty? Maybe 1975-1979

Chapter 9 The Fall and The Rise of the Red Sox 1980-1986

Chapter 10 The Crack in the Curse and Beyond 1986-2001

Chapter 11 A New Beginning 2002-2004

Chapter 12 The 2004 Season: The Beginning of the End of the Curse

Chapter 13 The Road to Redemption

Chapter 14 Commentary

CHAPTER ONE

The Curse of the Bambino or How the Sox Finally End It

The great French Historian Jacques Barzum has written, Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.1. A slight rewording of that widely quoted insight might read, Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of the baseball fan might do well to study the years and times of the Boston Red Sox.2 There are few teams that can break a man’s heart like the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs. Each one of these teams as of 2004 had not even won a World Series Championship in many years. Yet these fans loved and respected them like a member of the family. We all would wait with baited breath as the new season began. We were certain that this was going to be the year, the year that the curse would finally end only to find out that it was all a dream. Every single year we would say this our year, only to say and the end wait till next year. Here is a team that has both shaken the baseball heavens and the ridden the titles of glory, and languished in the depths, and inflicted upon their faithful followers the keenest of most disappointments. And through all of this, their fans, unwavering true believers, have stood with hope and optimism and upon occasion forgiveness.

It has been said that the Red Sox are part of the patrimony of the New England; generation after generation has inherited a fidelity to the cause of the men of Fenway, known throughout New England as The Sox. The Red Sox are as much a part of that historic corner of the American nation as the mountains, lakes, and shoreline that so graphically characterize it.

The focal point of this devotion is Fenway Park, the small, old, oddly shaped home field of the Red Sox since April 20, 1912. Built for a game that feeds off its own history, that follows a seamless course through the years, Fenway is an ideal place to watch baseball, where one can sit comfortably with the shadows of George Herman Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and all other titans who have passed this way. Every Red Sox fan is a shareholder in that history, possesses an anchorage in that past, and holds a ticket in the future.

Through their long and unpredictable history the Red Sox have been many things: triumphant, exciting, and gallant, as well as frustrating and disappointing. Through all personnel changes that baseball teams must necessarily undergo, they have never failed to exude a certain charm that is rare in any athletic endeavor. These are the qualities of the Boston Red Sox, one of the ongoing enchantments of New England.

In the sports world there have been many questions that have plagued certain teams for example in hockey its been when will the Chicago Blackhawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs ever win the Stanley Cup? In basketball the question has been asked when will the New York Knicks win a N.B.A. Championship? In Chicago the question asked by Cub fans is this the year? In Boston, the Red Sox fans ask themselves is this the year that the curse finally gets broken? Hope springs eternal in Boston as the most beloved team in all of baseball starts its long journey to the Fall Classic and eventual World Championship. One problem the Boston Red Sox never fulfill their dreams of winning the World Championship in baseball and giving their fans joy and happiness. Instead the fans of the Boston Red Sox are reminded every year that on January 6, 1920 George HermanBabe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and two pitchers who never made it in Boston. That is how the Curse of The Bambino began.

The Boston Red Sox who dominated the early part of the twentieth century by winning six pennants and six world championships (the 1904 World Series was cancelled when John McGraw’s New York Giants refused to play the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were declared World Champions by Major League Baseball in 1994 ninety years after the fact). The Red Sox had two great pitchers of their day Cy Young and Babe Ruth both of whom helped the Red Sox win their first World Series Championship in 1903 and their last in 1918. There have been many questions concerning the trade of Babe Ruth and one question was Why did Harry Frazee sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and receive two pitchers of poor quality from the New York Yankees? The answer was quite simple Harry Frazee was in debt and it was because of a Broadway Musical called No No Nanette. Since being in deep debt the Red Sox owner had to come up with the money or else. So with one stroke of a pen the Boston Red Sox went from World Series Champions in 1918 to a team that became cursed it seemed forever.

The year 1919 opened with the nation mooring the death of former President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was in office when the American League made its debut as a major circuit in 1901. The major leagues were looking forward to the first season in several years without impending or military involvement; the threat of a rival league; or a proposed player’s strike. The Boston Red Sox were experiencing changes in the off-season, including the location of their upcoming spring training camp. In mid-January, the owner Harry Frazee accepted a letter of invitation from the city of Tampa, Florida forsaking their longtime training site at Hot Springs.

Personnel changes were continuing at the same time as Frazee purchased third base specialist Oscar Vitt from the Detroit Tigers to round out the infield. In late December, he had sold Duffy Lewis, Ernie Shore, and Dutch Leonard to the New York Yankees in what would be the beginning of a long procession of players sent to New York in the coming years. Now the questions were starting to come. Why did Harry Frazee sell his two best pitchers to the New York Yankees with the knowledge that Ruth was also going as well? Did Frazee care about what was happening to the Boston Red Sox at this time? Was Frazee aware that if the sold Duffy Lewis, Ernie Shore and Dutch Leonard to the New York Yankees that the trade would help the Yankees do better than in the previous year? Did he also know that if Ruth joined the Yankees that a dynasty would begin and it would cost the Red Sox dearly? Was Frazee really trying to ruin the Red Sox forever or was it just a ploy to tease Red Sox fans into coming into the ballpark and seeing them win once again? To answer these questions one must know why these things were happing in the first place.

Several Red Sox players had yet to sign contracts for the 1919 season as of late January. It was widely anticipated that there would be a downward trend in salaries throughout the major leagues for the upcoming year. Team owners had voted to play a 140-game schedule for the 1919 and a roster limit of twenty-one players was instituted as a cost cutting measure. Boston sportswriters speculated, however that not only might Babe Ruth be spared a cut, but would likely be one of the very few granted a slight increase. Ruth engaged in his first discussion on the matter with Frazee when the later traveled to Boston from his New York office on January 21, 1919. Paul Shannon reported on the meeting: "Warned by the press that the Boston club owner was in town, Big Babe Ruth came up from his camp in Sudbury yesterday afternoon, had a long talk with his boss and then went back to the country. But Babe did not talk terms, and there is plenty of time between now and the start south to get down to business, neither man was very much concerned over the result.3

Ruth clearly believed by this point that he was the team’s top star, and a desired salary commensurate with that of lofty status. Evidence of Ruth’s perceived superstar billing within the organization was apparent in connection with a relatively unimportant item that appeared in a Paul Shannon column in the Boston Post on January 19, 1919. In reporting that the Red Sox did not currently have an office downtown, he wrote: …Babe Ruth and everyone else connected with the club will have to call at Fenway Park to do business. 4 It is interesting to observe that the Red Sox organization at this time seemed to be divided into two basic categories: 1.) Babe Ruth, and 2.) everyone else.

The Post featured a large article about Ruth on its sports page, singing the praises of both his outstanding pitching as well as his phenomenal slugging ability. During the past two years…his fame as a hitter began to prove a bigger drawing card than his skill on the rubber. Fans who seldom cared to witness a pitchers battle usually planned to take in the afternoon contest for the sake of seeing Babe pole of his long drives to the fences.5

Both articles featured virtually identical accompanying charts detailing his pitching and batting records. They were hailing Ruth’s accomplishments in the opposite aspects of the game, just as Jack Barry had done in a Boston Post interview two weeks earlier. He was quoted as saying, If Babe had not shown such versatility (playing left-field, first base, and pitching in ’18) the Sox probably would not have won.6

Ruth’s ability to be so versatile was beginning to wear on him, however. Three published items from early 1919 indicate his desire to discontinue the habit of spreading himself around. On January 19, Arthur Duffey stated, Ruth refuses to be the Jack of all trades on the diamond.7, and on February 11, 1919 an article written by another Boston Post writer stated that Ruth was going to just pitch for the Red Sox this season.

Ruth was likely leaning toward playing an everyday position as the notion of coming to the plate four times a day everyday to swing his mighty bat was no doubt appealing to him. Babe and Ed Barrow were seemingly on a collision course on this issue as an article in the Boston Post stated the Boston manager’s intentions: "Manager Ed Barrow of the Red Sox has definitely decided to use Babe Ruth