I do not believe in ghosts. I do not believe that the spirits of people are present here on earth after we die. (I'll leave the afterlife debate for another time). However, I can't help but wonder if Babe Ruth really does have some effect on the world of baseball.
We all remember the Curse of the Bambino. The Red Sox did not win a world series for 86 years (1918-2004) after they sold Babe Ruth to the rival Yankees in 1920. And they were knocked out of the playoffs many times in weird ways. A routine groundball to first goes through the first baseban's legs (Buckner), and the Met's win a game they were about to lose. Go on to win Game 7. Bucky Dent hits a huge home run, at Fenway Park, crushing the hopes of the Sox once again. And Aaron Boone did likewise in the 12th inning of a 2003 game 7 in New York, winning for the Yankees a game they had been losing most of. If that's not a cursed team, I don't know what is.
Of course, you can't keep a team down forever. And in 2004, The Boston Red Sox won a world series for the first time since selling The Babe. But they had to work to do it...becoming the only team in baseball history to come back and win a playoff series after losing the first three games.
Now, it seems the Babe is at it again. Barry Bonds is one home run shy of tying Ruth's carer mark of 714 home runs...a mark that is as well known as anything in baseball. Only one person has hit more career home runs than Ruth, Hank Aaron, who has 755. Hank Aaron was a class act. Barry Bonds is a steroid user and a jackass. If the Babe really is as crafty as he seemed to be to the Red Sox all those years, I wouldn't be surprised to see him holding Bonds back in his own supernatural way.
Barry Bonds has had four games to try and tye and pass Babe Ruth on the home run list...and he has gone hitless in all four games. Maybe its the pressure of approaching the mark. Maybe its his bum knee and the fact he's playing every day. Or maybe, just maybe, the Bambino doesn't want Bonds to break his mark...in the same way he didn't want the Red Sox to win the World Series after selling him. Bonds may (and will probably) break Ruth's mark...but if the Red Sox are any indication of the Babe's wrath, he's going to have to work to get it.
4 comments:
When I talk about myself and issues I'm having or crazy shit flying thorugh my head, I get tons of comments back. But when I do something fun like this...crickets. So sad.
aww pat.... well perhaps we all figured that this was just that... fun.
I know i had fun reading it, although since you wrote it the bambino has been met by Bonds.
Sarah
He has yet to pass teh Babe yet. Kinda eerie if you think about it though, he was on a hot streak when he got 713, and then, BAM, nothing...makes one think.
And the coment above was pretty much made in jest. Take it the same way you would sarcasm...
that is all
hehe ya :) i know :)but he has past the bambino.
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