The Curse of the great Bambino? It all started in 1919, the year that Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees for $100,000 plus a loan of 300,000. After that the Red Sox have never been the same because of that one incident, right? WRONG! Ruth being sold to New York is just one of many stupid mistakes Boston has made. Two years after Ruth was sold to the Yankees, the Sox sent the Yankees another Hall of Fame baseball player, Waite Hoyt, along with catcher Wally Schang, infielder Mike McNally, and pitcher Harry Harper: four players who helped the Yankees advance to three consecutive World Series and one World Series title. In 1922 and 1923 the Red Sox helped to add to the Yankees success by trading them star third baseman Joe Dugan and outfielder Elmer Smith for Yankees outfielder Elmer Miller, shortstop Chuck Fewster, and Johnny Mitchell. The following year, in 1923, the Red Sox gave the Yanks another Hall Of Fame player, Herb Pennock, for three guys who ended up doing nothing for Boston: one of them was a career hitter of .196 (Camp Skinner). This move was followed by a few more stupid moves that really cost the Sox. 1930 came around and the Bo Sox traded Hall of Fame player Red Ruffing to NY's evil empire for Cedric Durst, a mediocre outfielder. The moves listed above are just a few - there is still the 1972 trade between Boston and New York that sent another Hall of Fame player and two time CY Young award winner Sparky Lyle to the Bronx. Not to mention the Yankees signing free agent third baseman Wade Boggs and acquiring former Red Sox ace Roger Clemens. So is this whole curse just a bunch of mistakes by former Red Sox General Managers or is there a curse of the great Babe Ruth? Well curse yes, but the curse of Babe Ruth, baseball's greatest hitter, I don't think so. It's been 85 years since the Red Sox won the whole enchilada in 1918 and for some reason baseball fans tend to believe that it is a curse that has kept the team from bringing the World Series Championship back to Boston. Did you ever stop and think that maybe what goes on in the Red Sox Executive Offices is what is really holding the team back? Now the question is: does 29 year old Theo Epstein, the youngest General Manager in Major League Baseball history, have what it takes to end this front office curse, or will he make mistakes just like the others? Only time will tell.
