1986 Boston-Out to Break The Curse
I wrote a lot about the 1986 Mets in the past few weeks. The other team in that World Series game was the Boston Red Sox. Since the characters in Mix Tapes and Stolen Tests were from the greater New York metropolitan area, there were more Mets fans. They would’ve talked about the Mets more than the Red Sox.
In fairness, at the time, Boston had a dominant team and it looked certain that they would win the World Series.
The last time The Boston Red Sox were in the World Series was 1918. They were the most dominant team of that decade. They were so good that they could trade a pitcher named Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The Yankees moved that player to another position and became the most dominant team through the 1920s. The Red Sox 1919 team didn't make the playoffs. They wouldn't see a world series until 1986. This change of fortunes was called "The Curse of the Bambino." Bambino being Italian for Babe.
Things changed because the 1986 Red Sox dominated the American League. All things looked like the Curse of the Bambino had ended. They had Roger Clemens Wes Gardner, Mike Trujillo, Al Nipper and Tom Seaver for pitchers. There was batting champ Wade Boggs, Tony Armas, Dwight Evans, and Don Baylor.
Let’s look at some figures.
ON April 29th, Roger Clemens struck out 20 Seattle Mariner batters. Boston won 95 games that year, 51 were at Fenway Park.
Under manager Joe McNamara, Boston scored 794 runs that year.
They had an all-star pitcher and batting. The famous curse looked to be over. If you read the next few weeks, things won’t work out that way.
