The Curse of the Bambino

by Dan Shaughnessy

Describes how the fateful selling of Babe Ruth to the hated New York Yankees in 1920 marked the beginning of a seventy-year streak of bad luck for the Red Sox

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction, Picture Books, History, Biography, Audiobook

210 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Dan Shaughnessy is an award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe and the author of several sports books, including The Curse of the Bambino, a best-selling classic. Seven times Shaughnessy has been voted one of America’s top ten sports columnists by Associated Press Sports Editors and named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year. He has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Early Show, CNN, Nightline, NPR, Imus in the Morning, ESPN, HBO, and many others. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shaughnessy is a Hall of Fame baseball writer. He is also a curmudgeon with a pen. The coiner of the "Olde Towne Team" phrase has made a healthy living off of schadenfreude.

Since its initial publication in 1990, the Red Sox have broken "The Curse," and then some. A lot of people don't know about the big loan after the sale of The Babe to keep Fenway Park operating, however. If you believe in magic, David Ortiz has been Babe Ruth reincarnated. New England sports fans have been spoiled with bountiful championship parades.

Reflecting now, there is not nearly as much historical awe in professional baseball as there once was. Theo Epstein is a living God and breaker of two curses (plus we both had the same French teacher at BHS), but big money has taken over. Shaughnessy writes about the Red Sox failing to bounce back after winning a pennant. They almost pulled off the impossible in Saint Pete in 2008, but mark my words, "The Curse of David Price" will become the newest lore, unless I can do something to change it.

I am grateful to have lived and breathed an entire bearded 2013 World Series run (8 home playoff games) side by side with a die-hard who had his heart broken at Fenway in 1967. If that isn't enough to get me in the pearly gates, I surrender.

The two times I have crossed paths with Shaughnessy IRL have been at a bank in Newton (his hometown) and watching him trip on a crack in the curb at Gate D and eat shit sheer moments after I suggested the staff put a cone there so nobody gets hurt.

Both times I smiled.

[Josiah Cedeño · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was extremely hesitant as I undertook the task of reading a book about the Red Sox. I’ve always hated the Red Sox. I get nauseous thinking about 2004. I close my eyes when Red Sox World Series highlights come on TV. I was sleeping each of the 4 times they won the Series in my life, knowing that having nightmares would have been better than staying awake. What can I say, I grew up a Yankee fan hating Boston.

But this book was incredible. This book was beautifully written and the allusions to history throughout were perfect.

I agree with a previous reviewer who said it should be updated in light of what happened in 2004 for the Red Sox. One of the last pages has this quote “But there will always be that stigma: the ball got through Buckner’s legs; Bucky dents home run in ‘78. Everything goes against the Red Sox. They’re star-crossed lovers in a sense. The wrong thing always happens to the Red Sox”.

A franchise and entire part of the country spent almost an entire century looking up to their rival, only to achieve the greatest postseason comeback in the history of the sport against that same team in ‘04. Baseball really is poetic justice.

[Bobby Smieszny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This honestly was a fun, quick read. Growing up in Boston, and having read about the Sox history, this was all review, as it probably will be for most readers. But what makes it fun is that we’re in the future. Dan is overly dramatic in this book, and says as much a couple times. But sitting here four World Series titles later, it’s much easier to gasp and laugh at the drama and misfortune of the first four World Series games sevens Boston lost. Overall, I’d recommend for any Sox fan looking to rehash some old memories (nightmares?), either they watched themselves, or heard their parents and grandparents talk about!

[Don LaFountaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book, though outdated, about the history of the Boston Red Sox.

The Sox have a history of not being able to finish what they started, (at least up until 2004), and this book explores their failures. Blaming the issues on the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919 by Harry Frazee, (though there is no record of Ruth actually cursing the Sox), the book explores in detail the following painful experiences of Red Sox fans that have been attributed to the Curse of the Bambino:

- 1946: Johnny Pesky “hesitates” and gets thrown out, causing the Sox to lose the 1946 World Series in 7 games.
- 1949: Leading by 1 game, the Sox goes into Yankee Stadium for essentially a playoff series and losing both games and the ’49 Pennant.
- 1967: The dream team, with the only negative point being that they did not win the World Series.
- 1975: After Fisk’s game 6 walk-off home run, the Sox were unable to win game 7, and lost the series to the Reds.
- 1986: 1 strike away from winning the World Series in game 6, the sox lost the game, and even with a 3 – 0 lead in game 7 lost the series. Red Sox fans blamed Billy Buckner until 2004 for this as the ball did go through his legs. Yet none of these “knowledgeable” fans seemed to remember it was not Buckner that allowed the 2 out hits, (Schirladi) or that Buckner did not throw the wild pitch to allow the tying run to score, (Stanley).
- 1999: The Sox were not able to get past the Yankees in the ALCS.
- 2003: Aaron Boone off Tim Wakefield.

The book stops with Spring Training of 2004, and so does not explore the breaking of the curse. I do think that it would be a good addition for the author to write a chapter on 2004 as it would be a perfect closure to the story, especially how dramatically the Sox came back in the ALCS to beat the Yankees and eventually to win the World Series for the first time since 1918.

This was a good book for any baseball fan to read. Though I am a Yankee fan, I appreciate the history behind such a great franchise as our arch rivals. Again, I think the author should write an additional chapter to cover 2001 through 2018 as they would be a great finish to the story. I would recommend this book to all baseball fans, and especially Red Sox fans.

[Matt Rowland · Rating 2 out of 5]

60 - 70% of this book is literally just play by play of games lost and bad deals throughout the years. The first three chapters were entertaining. After than it just gets incredibly repetitive. Seems like it would have been better as a few column article in the Boston Globe rather than a book.

[David Gurwitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for even the most pedestrian of sports fan. Even though Shaughnesy's views are no obsolete and irrelevant, as the Sox have inexplicably managed to, and most surreptitiously so, win 3 series since this book was written, COTB details the dumb luck/self-sabotaging history of the Red Sox

[Santosh Vangala · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about how and why baseball was the most watched sport before NFL took over. A great read for anyone wanting to understand the rivalry between Red Sox and the Yankees and of course what the curse is all about

[Dean Fioresi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ironically read this right as the Red Sox were in the midst of breaking the Curse. What timing it was! Loved this full-detailed explanation of Babe Ruth and his legacy from the eyes of Boston fans.

[Daniel Suhajda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading about the Sox history of epic failures. I’ve lived in Boston for 10yrs now and knew the basics but not all the gory details. Fun read.

[Ian Headon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super stuff

[Jon Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

wierd, when i read it, i was in hs and obsessed with reading shaughnessy and ryan and gammons anything written in the globe. i studied the sunday section and anything they wrote i ate up. i still remember the book details that through some convuluted way the sox should/could have had mays. not sure how realistic but book makes it seem like it was a "done-deal". now after reading sports guy for like 5 years, he has clouded my opinion on all things shaughnessy and "curse of bambino". if you asked me in hs to grade, id say 5 stars and if i had to grade now i'd say 3 stars so 4 seems about right. if for nothing else, the book did coin an amazingly popular phrase.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was written after the Boston Red Socks won the World Series in 2004. It's a cute set up of a father telling his daughter the history of the "curse" and the "evidence" for it. Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees and the Red Socks hadn't won a world series until 2004, when it was "broken." The author lists several spots events when the Red Socks were just kept out of the World Series or just lost it.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now a historical curiosity, this book accurately captures what it was like for Red Sox fans to almost win but not quite for 86 years and to anticipate what ways their beloved Sox would find to snatch defeat from the Jaws of victory. In the first 106 years of the World Series only 1 team got to within a strike of winning the world series and failed to win it, the 1986 Red Sox.

[Kellee Moye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked how Dan Shaughnessy turned the Curse of the Bambino into a legend. Turning Babe Ruth into a character like Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed. It was also great how he included snippets of newspaper articles to add to the story.

[Debs · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a must read for every Red Sox fan, and also for anyone who loves a Red Sox fan. It explains why eventhough we're in the playoffs, we're still not excited about it.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a first edition, signed by the author. This book has become dated by the events of 2004 and 2007, but it works as a time capsule for the pre-04 hard luck Red Sox.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The now out of date book explaining the 86 year World Series drought for the Bosox.

Of course, now we know there was no curse. Boston just sucked for 86 years.

[Rob Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would that it was possible to give no stars.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good history of the Red Sox.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garbage

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a Sox fan or remotely interested in why most people from New England are inherently pessimistic, you should read this.

[Hapzydeco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for those who are mesmerized by baseball myths. While illustrated for children this book will capture the imagination of all baseball fans.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty interesting and I like the way Dan Shaughnessy puts in his own personal perspective on the events. Baseball is a world of it's own!

[Gary Geiger]

I read this a while back. I don't hate Shaughnessy as much as some people do, but The Red Sox Years is better.

[George Hamblen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fan read. I read it before 2004, so it really packed a punch. A must for any Red Sox fan.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great picture book version of the Babe's curse on the poor Red Sox. Great history in simplified form. Loved the illustrations.