[Groop] More OT Baseball

[Grossmann, Gary]

We shouldn't make fun of other cultures, but folks in the US have a tendency
to do that.  We especially shouldn't do that in the context of baseball
because baseball players have more superstitions than any other group I've
ever heard of.  Players won't walk on lines or clean a hat or eat different
food and all sorts of other stuff.  

But I don't think anybody actually believes in "The Curse."  It's just
something the media plays up to fill time and space and it's a concise and
entertaining way for fans to refer a long string of bad luck or fate or
whatever you want to call it.  Cleveland & the Chicago White Sox have gone
almost as long as the Cubs & Red Sox without winning a World Series and
Houston has never won one in 40 plus years.  

But the Red Sox saga is just bizarre and would be considered bad fiction if
it wasn't true:

During the era when pitchers dominated the game, the Red Sox won 3 World
Series in large part because of a big lefthanded pitcher named Babe Ruth,
who could also hit a little.  The Red Sox owner sold the Babe to the Yankees
so he could fund a Broadway show. The Yankees converted Ruth to a full time
hitter, he revolutionized the game with his power hitting, became the
greatest player in the history of the game, an iconic figure of mythic
proportions, and began a Yankee dynasty that lasted about 40 years and
periodically surged over the next 40 years after that. 

Meanwhile despite having some great players and great teams, the Red Sox
never won another World Series. Yankees 27 Championships-Red Sox 0.  And
it's not just the losing.  It's the way they have lost. Guys on the opposing
team who shouldn't hit home runs hitting home runs, guys muffing simple
fielding plays. It's the kind of stuff that would leave a fan shaking his
head and saying "We must be cursed."     

So this combination of Boston selling off the greatest player in history,
the team he's sold to becoming the most successful sports franchise in
history, Boston never winning again while coming tantilizingly close only to
lose in heartbreaking ways lead to the idea of "The Curse of The Babe."   

But you know now that I think about it, Groo is probably responsible in some
way or another.  

-Gary G. 







-----Original Message-----
From: groop-bounces at groo.com [mailto:groop-bounces at groo.com] On Behalf Of
Jorge Filevich
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 9:09 AM
Cc: Groop
Subject: Re: [Groop] Misc.


I was surprised to see a sports show on TV where they were discussing 
The Curse. And they were doing it seriously, not as a Joke, not making 
fun of anything, just plain seriously. Being from another country and 
knowing nothing about The Curse, that show seemed really odd. Specially 
when the "same" reporters laugh when a soccer (fútbol) team from Brazil 
hires an Umbanda witch to curse the other team for the Finals of the 
Libertadores Cup (South American Championship, like the Champions League 
in Europe), I actually saw a couple of  article a few years ago in a 
local and nationals newspapers mocking this news.

Jorge F.

Larry Steller wrote:

>"You realize don't you that neither of us really believes in curses, 
>yet we're arguing as if we do, just because it's a fun, silly thing to 
>tease each other about! The sad part is that there are folks who really 
>DO take such this seriously! I choose to believe that most of those 
>arguing about the Curse of the Bambino are deep down just having fun 
>and are simply roleplaying it out."
>
>
>
>  
>
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