Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Interests > Tilted Sports


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 10-20-2004, 08:38 AM   #1 (permalink)
Junkie
 
cameroncrazy822's Avatar
 
Location: MD
"Curse of the Bambino"... a historical look

In 1914 the Boston Red Sox bought Babe Ruth from the Baltimore club, who
were a minor league team during this era, and immediately signed him for
$3,500 a year, three times the amount he was being paid. During the next
3-years Ruth was the best left-hander in baseball. He chalked up 18 wins in
1915, 23 in 1916 and 24 in 1917. In all 3 of those years opponents batted
under .220 against him. In 1916 he led the league with a 1.75 ERA and spun a
league leading nine shutouts. In 1917, Ruth was 24-13, completing 35 of the
38 games he started. He allowed only 244 hitters in 326 innings. The
'Bambino' as Ruth was called, intimidated batters with his imposing size,
6'2" 220lbs.

In the 1916 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Ruth and Sherry Smith
opposed each other in one of the greatest pitching duels in history. The
Dodgers scored in the 1st inning, the Red Sox in the 3rd and the game was
still tied 1-1 until the last of the 14th when the Red Sox scored and won.
Both Ruth and Sherry Smith pitched the entire game, which is still the
longest World Series game ever played.

In the 1918 World Series vs the Chicago Cubs, Babe Ruth hurled a 6-hit
shutout in Game 1. In Game 4, the Cubs scored their first run in the 8th
inning to break Ruth's record string of 29 1/3 scoreless innings. Ruth's
mark stood until 1961 when Whitey Ford broke it.

The following year 1919, he played 111 games in the outfield when he wasn't
pitching and slugged 29 home runs, the most in major league history, and for
good measure, 'the bambino' hit a homer in every American League park. He
led the league in runs (103), in RBIs (114), in on-base-pct and slugging
pct.

The Boston Red Sox won four World Series in the eight years Babe Ruth played
on the team. They sold Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and a
$300,000 loan because Boston's owner Harry Frazee needed the cash to invest
in a new play on Broadway. As noted since the cash transaction, Boston's
inability to win a single World Series Title has been attributed to "The
Curse of the Bambino."

Babe Ruth pitching career: 94 Wins 46 Losses, .671 pct. 2.28 ERA, started
148 games and completed 107, opponents batting ave .221.
Baseballhistorian.com
cameroncrazy822 is offline  
Old 10-20-2004, 08:45 AM   #2 (permalink)
The Death Card
 
Ace_O_Spades's Avatar
 
Location: EH!?!?
Intriguing.... I didn't know the full story.

Thanks!
__________________
Feh.
Ace_O_Spades is offline  
Old 10-20-2004, 08:46 AM   #3 (permalink)
Upright
 
the only problem with a historical look at the curse of the bambino is that it doesnt start in 1919, it starts in 1986.

the term "curse of the bambino" was not actually used in print before buckners error in the 86 series, and since then the idea of a curse has snowballed, primarily due to dan shaughnessy (who wrote the book "The curse of the bambino"), espn and fox.

as a sox fan it really gets old watching any pregame show, or listening to mccarver blather on during the games about the curse. most sox fans, at least the ones who pay attention and are knowledgable, laugh at the idea of a curse. they recognize that bad managerial decisions, good opponents, and some bad luck have contributed to the 86-year drought, and not some ridiculous curse.
eddo31 is offline  
Old 10-20-2004, 09:36 AM   #4 (permalink)
Registered User
 
I agree. The talk of the curse gets quite old. It's just something that the media uses to add hype and get more money. Baseball is baseball. You never know what's going to happen. A bad hop here a bad hop there. A bad manager here a bad manager there.. and all of a sudden it's a curse.
Glory's Sun is offline  
Old 10-20-2004, 03:31 PM   #5 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
I thought for a curse to be a curse -- someone had to actually do the cursing on you -- as in the case of the Cursed Cubbies... Who actually did the cursing?
The definition of curse is:
An appeal or prayer for evil or misfortune to befall someone or something.
The evil or misfortune that comes in or as if in response to such an appeal

So it's really not a curse, the selling of the Bambino was more the impetus for a lot of bad luck....

I find it pretty amusing that 6'2 220 lbs was considered imposing, Tony Clark, of the Yanks is 6'8" -- I thought Ruth was a lot bigger than that...
__________________
Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
maleficent is offline  
Old 10-20-2004, 03:34 PM   #6 (permalink)
Registered User
 
maybe houston will pull out the series and the sox also then we can see pedro vs clemens again?!!
Glory's Sun is offline  
 

Tags
bambino, curse, historical


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:16 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360