Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse Read online

  Barrow went over and yanked the covers off the bed. Ruth was still completely dressed. He even had his shoes on!

  The manager turned and walked away. He told Ruth to come see him at the ballpark later that day.

  Babe Ruth was embarrassed that he had been caught breaking the rules. Still, he thought he should be able to do what he wanted. When he showed up for practice, he was ready for a fight.

  In the locker room, Barrow was going over the rules. He was telling the players what time they needed to get to bed each night.

  Babe Ruth exploded. They couldn’t tell him what to do! If Barrow ever came into his hotel room again, he would punch him in the nose!

  Everyone was silent. Nobody could believe that Ruth had yelled at the manager.

  Barrow stared at Ruth. He told the players to get dressed and go out on the field. Everyone except Ruth. If Ruth wanted to fight, they would have it out now.

  The players quickly left the clubhouse. The manager stayed. What would Ruth do?

  Nobody knew.

  Then suddenly, Ruth snuck out the door! He slipped away to the outfield and practiced catching balls with the rest of the team. He acted like nothing had happened.

  Later on, the team came back into the clubhouse to get ready for the game. Ruth quietly walked over to the manager. He timidly asked if he was playing.

  “No!” Barrow told Ruth to take off his uniform. Ruth was suspended!

  Even without Ruth, the Red Sox won that day. That night, they took a train home to Boston. The team was happy, but Babe Ruth felt bad. He knew he had broken the rules. He was mad at himself for messing up. He decided to see if he could fix it.

  He walked through the train and knocked on Ed Barrow’s door. The manager invited Ruth inside.

  Right away, Ruth said he was sorry. He told Barrow about his tough childhood and how much the Red Sox meant to him. He wanted to play again. He had an idea.

  Ruth promised that if he went out at night, he would leave a note for Barrow. The note would tell Barrow what time Ruth got in.

  Barrow wasn’t sure it would work. He asked Ruth if he’d be honest about it. Ruth said yes. They shook hands on the deal. From then on, Ruth left notes for Barrow, telling him what time he got back. Barrow took him at his word and they never had another fight about it.

  But that didn’t mean that everything was fine. As the 1919 season went on, it was clear that most Red Sox fans were coming to see Babe Ruth. Ruth hit an astonishing twenty-nine home runs in 1919. It was a new record!

  Since he was so popular, Ruth asked the owner of the Red Sox to double his salary. Ruth wanted $20,000 a year. But Frazee thought that was too much money. Ruth was a lot of trouble.

  So Frazee found a solution. He sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The Yankees paid the Red Sox $100,000. That was more than any team had ever paid for a player. The Boston Red Sox owner was happy to see Ruth go.

  “I think they are taking a gamble,” Frazee said of the Yankees’ decision to hire Babe Ruth.

  At the time, many baseball experts felt it was a nice deal for Boston. Frazee had paid the Baltimore Orioles about $25,000 for Babe Ruth. He sold him for $100,000. It was a good business decision.

  But it was a bad baseball decision. Sure, Babe Ruth was trouble. But without Babe Ruth, the Boston Red Sox were in trouble. After selling Babe Ruth, the Red Sox did poorly. They didn’t play in another World Series for twenty-seven years. They started to have bad luck all the time.

  By selling Babe Ruth, the Boston Red Sox lost the heart and soul of their team. The Red Sox soon dropped to last place. And with Ruth, the Yankees soon made it to first place.

  It was almost as if the Red Sox were cursed.

  The Yankees’ Hero

  For years, the New York Yankees were one of the worst teams in the league. They lost game after game. They didn’t come close to winning a World Series.

  But Babe Ruth turned their luck around. After he became a New York Yankee, things would never be the same.

  Within a few years of buying Babe Ruth, the Yankees won the first of dozens of World Series. On the Yankees, Ruth hit even more home runs. In 1920, Ruth was one of the most famous people in America. He hit an amazing fifty-four home runs that year. That’s twenty-five more than he had hit the year before. Fifty-four home runs was more than most teams had!

  In 1920, the Yankees also became the first team to have more than a million people come to their home games. They soon built a large, new baseball stadium to hold all those fans. Yankee Stadium is known as “The House That Ruth Built” because so many people wanted to see Babe Ruth play.

  Babe Ruth hit the ball hard. And he hit the ball far. Some of his home runs went 400 or 500 feet. Anyone hitting a baseball a long way was said to be “Babe Ruthing” it.

  As a Yankee, Ruth broke lots of records. In 1927, he hit sixty home runs in a single season. That record wouldn’t be broken for thirty-four years. By the time he retired from baseball in 1935, he had hit 714 home runs. It was a record that stood until 1974, when it was broken by Hank Aaron.

  Of course, Babe Ruth still got into trouble on the Yankees. He still liked to stay out late. But he played well. Fans adored him. He was warm and charming, and he did funny things for the cameras. Children loved him, too. His favorite fans were children, and he often visited sick kids in the hospital.

  But Babe Ruth was wild. He ate and drank too much and wore silly hats. He spent too much money. His midnight meals were larger than most people’s dinners. Ruth thought nothing of eating six hot dogs and drinking six sodas for a snack.

  He also had a terrible memory. He couldn’t remember names—even of his friends! He called teammates and other men “Doc” or “Kid.” Older men were called “Pop.” Older women were “Mom.”

  But none of that mattered when he was on the baseball diamond.

  Babe Ruth led the Yankees to four World Series championships. They won seven American League pennants.

  Babe Ruth played for the Yankees until 1934. In 1935, he played for the Boston Braves for a short time and then retired. In 1936, he was one of the first players elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ruth died in 1948 but remains one of the most popular baseball players of all time.

  Even after Ruth retired from baseball, the Yankees were the strongest team in the American League for many years. Since Babe Ruth joined them in 1920, they’ve played in over thirty-five World Series. And they’ve won the World Series over twenty-five times!

  But the Red Sox are a different story. After trading Babe Ruth, the Red Sox played so poorly that they made it to the World Series only four times in eighty years. And they lost every time!

  The Red Sox didn’t just lose. They lost in the most painful ways possible.

  Boston would come very close to winning, but somehow they’d blow it. They lost each of those four World Series in the seventh (and final) games. With a few more runs or one more catch, they could have won.

  There had to be a reason that the Red Sox were so unlucky.

  So Many Close Calls

  Even though Babe Ruth never put a curse on the Red Sox, the Red Sox seemed cursed after he left for the Yankees.

  The team played poorly and traded many of its best players. The Red Sox were no longer a great baseball team. The Yankees enjoyed World Series victory after victory, but the Red Sox seemed fated to lose.

  Finally in 1946, after many years, the Red Sox made it back to the World Series. It was the first time since 1918. They were playing the St. Louis Cardinals. Each team had won three games. The seventh game would decide the winner. With half an inning left to play, the score was tied, 3-3.

  Then the Cardinals batter hit a double. Their man on first ran around the bases toward home plate. Boston’s shortstop fired a relay throw home to get him out. It should have been an easy play. But the throw was a second too late. The Cardinals scored a run and went on to win the game! If the ball had been thrown just a little faster, Boston might have been able to win.

&n
bsp; Twenty years passed before they would get close again. In 1967, the Red Sox made it to the World Series. Again, they played the St. Louis Cardinals. It was a chance to make good on what they had lost in 1946, but for the second time, the Red Sox lost the World Series in seven games.

  In 1975, the Red Sox had another chance at the World Series. This time they weren’t playing the Cardinals. They played the Cincinnati Reds. After five games, the Reds were ahead by one game. Boston had to win the final two games to win the World Series.

  Game six was so close it went into extra innings, with the score tied at 6-6. If the Reds won, it was over. If Boston won, they would play one more game.

  Finally, in the bottom of the twelfth inning, Boston’s catcher, Carlton Fisk, came up to bat. Fans loved him. He was a thrilling hitter to watch.

  He let the first pitch go by. But not the second. The ball was low and difficult to hit. Fisk swung his hips and shoulders around fast. He hit the ball as hard as he could.

  Pow!

  The ball took off toward the left field corner of Boston’s Fenway Park. Everyone watched it fly higher and higher. It would easily be a home run if it stayed straight. If the ball drifted to the left, it would go foul.

  Boston fans held their breath.

  As the ball flew toward left field, Fisk should have been running toward first. But he wasn’t. Instead, he stared at the ball. He couldn’t take his eyes off it.

  Fisk started waving his arms to the right. It was as if he was trying to tell the ball where to go. If it stayed to the right of the foul pole, it would be a home run. He waved his arms some more.

  Would it work? Could Carlton Fisk really control the baseball flying away from him?

  Then something wonderful happened. High above the outfield, the ball bounced off the foul pole and over the left field wall.

  It was a home run!

  Fisk leapt for joy. A huge smile spread across his face.

  The Red Sox had won the game! The series was tied! Fans thought it was the most exciting baseball game they had ever seen.

  Maybe their luck was changing. Maybe they would win the seventh game—and the World Series—the next night.

  But it didn’t work out that way. The Cincinnati Reds won that game and the 1975 World Series. It was all over for Boston again.

  Some fans started to think that the Boston Red Sox were cursed. Other teams, especially Boston’s rivals, the New York Yankees, went to the World Series and won. Why couldn’t Boston?

  A few years later, in 1978, the Red Sox had another chance to break the curse. At the end of the season, they were tied for first place with the Yankees. To break the tie, there would have to be a one-game playoff at Fenway Park. The winner would go to the 1978 American League Championship Series.

  From early on, it looked like the Red Sox would win. In the seventh inning, the Red Sox were ahead, 2-0. The Yankees were batting. Two Yankees had gotten on base in the seventh inning, though. That meant trouble for Boston.

  Yankee shortstop Bucky Dent came to the plate. He was not a great hitter. In fact, he had hit only four home runs all season. Red Sox fans figured their pitcher would strike him out easily.

  On the second pitch, Dent swung his bat hard. The ball bounced off his foot. Foul ball! Dent hopped around in pain. A doctor rushed out to check on Dent’s foot. The minutes ticked by. The Red Sox pitcher stood on the mound, watching. He should have been making practice throws. But he just stood and watched.

  Finally Bucky Dent was ready.

  The batboy brought him a new bat. Dent stepped into the batter’s box and waited for the pitch. The ball came sailing toward home plate. Dent saw that it was a good pitch.

  He swung hard. Pop! He knocked the ball high into the air.

  The ball blasted over the left field wall. Bucky Dent had hit a home run!

  The two runners on base scored. Bucky Dent scored! The Yankees were ahead, 3-2. Boston was never able to catch up, and the Yankees won, 5-4.

  It was a horrible loss. If the Red Sox had scored just two more runs, they would have gone to the American League Championship Series.

  But the pain of the 1978 loss would be nothing compared to what happened eight years later. The Red Sox would go to the World Series again in 1986. But their bad luck would follow them.

  In 1986, the Red Sox faced the New York Mets in the World Series.

  That year, the Mets were a powerful team. They won 108 games, which is very good. Many people thought the Mets would win the World Series, too.

  But after five games, the Red Sox were ahead three wins to the Mets’ two. Boston needed just one more win to capture the World Series.

  The sixth game was close. With the score tied, the game went into extra innings. Finally, in the tenth inning, Boston scored two runs. They were ahead!

  The Mets had one last chance to bat. The Red Sox quickly got two outs. They were one out away from being the World Series champs! That would put their bad luck behind them forever.

  The Mets needed three runs to take the lead. It seemed impossible for the Red Sox to lose.

  It wasn’t.

  Bang! The Mets hit a single to left field.

  Bang! The Mets hit a single to center field.

  The Red Sox pitcher was nervous. He had to get that last out.

  Crack! The next batter broke his bat but hit a single. One runner scored and the other moved to third base. Now the game was 5-4. The Mets were only behind by one run.

  The Red Sox manager was nervous now. He put in a new pitcher, Bob Stanley.

  The Mets batter, Mookie Wilson, soon had two strikes. One more strike and the Red Sox would win the World Series.

  Stanley threw again. Something was wrong with the pitch!

  Wilson jumped back. The pitch almost hit him!

  The ball bounced off the catcher’s glove and rolled away. It was a wild pitch! When a pitch misses the catcher’s glove, runners are allowed to move up a base … if they can.

  The Mets runner on third base saw his chance. He raced home while the Boston catcher was chasing the ball. The man on first ran to second. The Mets had tied the game, 5-5!

  Mookie Wilson was still batting. He fouled off ball after ball. Finally Wilson saw a good pitch. He swung low and hard.

  The ball skipped toward first base. The Red Sox first baseman, Bill Buckner, planted his feet wide apart and put his glove down to catch the ball. Buckner was normally a good fielder. It was an easy play.

  Then the unbelievable happened.

  The ball jumped. It rolled right under Bill Buckner’s glove!

  The Red Sox players in the dugout stood up and watched the ball roll into the outfield. It couldn’t be true!

  The Mets kept running. Wilson was safe at first. The runner on second base ran all the way home. He scored the winning run! The game was over. The Red Sox had lost the game.

  Although the series wasn’t over, it might as well have been. The Red Sox were not able to come back from their terrible loss and win the final game of the series. Once again, the Red Sox had lost the World Series.

  Was the ghost of Babe Ruth playing tricks on the Red Sox? Did he give the ball a little nudge under Bill Buckner’s glove? Or was it just bad luck?

  Spilled Blood

  It took the Red Sox and their fans a long time to recover from the 1986 World Series loss to the Mets. They had come so close. And still they had blown it.

  That’s why the Red Sox playoff loss in 2003 against the Yankees was so painful. They had even been ahead! But then Pedro Martinez gave up those three runs and the Yankees tied the game. With a few more outs in October 2003, the Red Sox would have beaten the Yankees. They would have made it to the World Series.

  When the Yankees won in the eleventh inning with a walk-off home run, it wasn’t surprising. But it still hurt. Boston fans were so tired of being let down. They weren’t looking forward to 2004.

  But as the 2004 baseball season started, the Red Sox players felt good, even if their fans didn’t. They
came back from their winter break with a tough, scrappy attitude.

  The 2004 Red Sox didn’t look like other teams. In fact, many times they didn’t even look like a team. Some players wore their Red Sox uniforms with their long red socks pulled up, while others wore regular white baseball pants. Some players had shiny new batting helmets, while others had ones scuffed and stained with black tar.

  The manager didn’t care about his players’ hair, either. Long hair, short hair—it didn’t matter. Catcher Jason Varitek had a stubby crew cut. Star outfielder Johnny Damon started the season with a full beard and brown hair down to his shoulders. Trot Nixon even sported a Mohawk for a short time.

  For the Red Sox, the 2004 season wasn’t going to be about clean uniforms or looking good. It was going to be about having fun and winning baseball games. It was going to be hard to come back from last year’s heartbreaking loss to the Yankees. But the Red Sox were ready. They were gritty. They were hungry to win.

  The Red Sox started out strong in 2004. But by the end of July, they weren’t playing well enough to have a shot at the World Series. They were making mistakes fielding balls. They fell eight games behind the Yankees. The Red Sox wouldn’t make the playoffs unless something big happened.

  In late July, they played the Yankees at Fenway. They lost the first game in the series and it looked like they were going to lose the second game. It seemed like the team just didn’t have any spark. By the third inning, the Red Sox were behind, 3-0.

  The Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, nicknamed A-Rod, came up to bat. The night before, A-Rod had driven in the winning run. So when the first pitch hit him on the elbow, A-Rod was mad. He thought that the pitcher had hit him on purpose.

  A-Rod started saying angry things to the pitcher. Boston’s catcher, Jason Varitek, quickly tried to calm A-Rod down. But A-Rod was trying to pick a fight. “Come on,” he taunted Varitek.

  Varitek had had enough. Out of nowhere, he took his big leather catcher’s mitt and stuffed it in A-Rod’s face.