Curse Finally Broken

For generations, the Boston Red Sox had become accustomed to heartbreak.

After winning the World Series in 1918, the storied franchise endured one of the longest championship droughts in American sports history.
Game 7 losses in 1946, 1967, 1975, and 1986 made it seem as though the Red Sox might never get over the hump and capture another championship.
By 2004, the drought had stretched to a staggering 86 years, strengthening the belief that Boston was somehow cursed. The idea had become deeply woven into baseball folklore.
Then the Red Sox fell behind 3-0 to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Once again, it appeared history was about to repeat itself.
But for a franchise that had spent decades enduring disappointment, enough was finally enough.

The Curse of the Bambino

The roots of Boston’s misery stretched all the way back to 1919, when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth, a star pitcher and slugger who would go on to become arguably the greatest player in baseball history, to the Yankees.
New York went on to become baseball’s most dominant franchise, winning 27 World Series titles, while the Red Sox remained without a championship for the rest of the 20th century.
That history gave rise to the “Curse of the Bambino,” the belief that Boston’s decision to part ways with Ruth was responsible for the team’s decades of World Series heartbreak.
As Devin Gordon, a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, explains, the curse became a way of describing why the Red Sox not only went so long without winning a World Series, but also seemed to lose in the most devastating and unlikely ways.
The pain reached another level in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. With Boston leading the New York Mets 3-2 in the series and 5-3 in the 10th inning with two outs, Bill Buckner committed an infamous error that helped keep the Mets alive.

For many Red Sox fans, it felt like another chapter in a story that always ended in heartbreak.
As CNN contributor Bob Costas says in the series, “The story of the Red Sox is heartache… so close, yet so far.”
Boston’s painful loss to the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS only reinforced the feeling that the so-called Curse of the Bambino had followed the team into the new millennium.
So when Boston and New York met again in the ALCS a year later, another heartbreaking ending seemed almost inevitable. As Joe Posnanski, author of Why We Love Baseball, points out, “hopelessness was probably at a high.”

One Play Changed Everything

Game 4 appeared destined to become another painful chapter in Red Sox history.
Boston entered the ninth inning trailing 4-3, just three outs away from elimination. Then the Red Sox sent Dave Roberts to first base as a pinch runner.
Standing on the mound was Mariano Rivera, widely regarded as one of the greatest closers in baseball history.
Everyone in Yankee Stadium, including Rivera, knew Roberts was going to try to steal. Yet Roberts made his move and somehow slid safely into second base.
Looking back, that stolen base became the moment when the Yankees’ seemingly unstoppable grip on the series began to loosen.
As Posnanski later observed, “It’s not like Dave Roberts’ steal changed anything that was obvious, but looking back on it, you realized it changed everything.”
Bill Mueller followed with a game-tying single, bringing Roberts home. Then came David Ortiz.
In the 12th inning, Ortiz delivered a walk-off home run that sent Boston into a frenzy and kept the season alive.
The Red Sox won Game 5 in extra innings, traveled to Yankee Stadium and won Game 6, then returned home for Game 7.
Boston completed the greatest comeback in MLB postseason history.
“It’s pandemonium in Boston like you’ve never seen,” Gordon says in the series.
The Red Sox had climbed back from the brink of elimination and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, finally ending their 86-year championship drought.
For a fan base that had spent generations carrying the weight of disappointment, the ending could hardly have been more fitting.
As Posnanski explains, the Red Sox had built “all of this scar tissue around their hearts,” but the 2004 team gave them the ultimate reward. Once Boston reached the World Series, the team simply won, leaving no room for another heartbreaking collapse.

After 86 years, the curse had finally been broken.
A franchise once defined by disappointment had transformed its story, becoming one of baseball’s great modern success stories.
Boston lifted the Commissioner’s Trophy again in 2007, 2013, and 2018. The Red Sox’s four World Series championships in the 21st century are the most of any MLB franchise during that period.
It was one of the most remarkable turnarounds in American sports history.
And it all began with one game, one daring stolen base, and one moment that finally changed everything.