Reversing The Curse?

You know, I never really give the Red Sox much of a chance to win the World Series... Most times, when the Tigers aren't in the playoffs and Series (and that is most times!) and the Sox are, I generally root for them to make it to the Series just so that they can lose again. So what if it adds a bit of futility to an already futile franchise... the Tigers haven't made it above .500 winning percentage since I don't know when! Why should I care about Boston? Fuh!

I guess I don't mind the idea of the Sox winning it all... it's just fun knowing that it's quickly coming up on a hundred years since they did win the series.

Hope indeed springs eternal!

Flip a penny, reverse the Curse

Sox vendors say 1918 coin is talisman
By Paysha Stockton, Globe Correspondent
September 6, 2004

Could the Curse finally be broken?

Joseph Coen, a 28-year-old beer seller at Fenway Park, believes it is.

Coen and John Redding, a fellow brewmeister, received what they interpret as an irrefutable sign yesterday, just before the Red Sox took on the Texas Rangers: a 1918 penny stuck to the counter of their Heineken and Miller beer stand.

They don't know who planted the coin, alongside a few others, in a patch of sticky beer on the counter of the right field concourse stand.

But its meaning is undeniable, they say: Every fan knows 1918 was the last year the Sox won the World Series, the year before George Herman ''Babe" Ruth was sold to the evil Yankees, reputedly unleashing the legendary Curse of the Bambino.

''Everyone gets it," said Coen of the penny's significance.

The good-luck penny is now taped to the stand's beer fridge, where the men plan to display it for the rest of the season. ''If you're a Red Sox fan and you've been around for this long, you get it."

In fact, the penny is the latest in a series of encouraging signs, said Coen, of Milton. ''It goes around with the other crazy stuff that was going on this year."

The Sox have won 81 games this season and lost 54. With 27 left to play, they're leading the wild-card race, and winning it would take them to the American League playoffs. Yesterday they beat the Texas Rangers, 6-5.

Rumors, superstition, and unbridled hope abound amongst vendors and fans at the park, Coen said. And signals that the team's sixth World Series win could be imminent just keep coming.

For example, Gabe Kapler and Johnny Damon sometimes stand together in the outfield, Coen said. Their numbers: 19 and 18.

more >>