The Curse of the Bambino » (Reprint)

Dan Shaughnessy is a sports columnist for the Boston Globe. He is the author of numerous books on Boston's rich sports history, including Ever Green: The Story of the Boston Celtics and One Strike Away.

The Boston Red Sox's loss to the New York Yankees in the final game of last year's playoffs has been called “the game of the century,” evidence that the rivalry between the Red Sox and the Yankees is hotter than ever. In the wake of that defeat, author and Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy has updated his bewitching story of the curse that has lain over the Red Sox since they sold Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees in 1920. Here he sheds light on classic Sox debacles—from Johnny Pesky's so- called hesitation throw, to the horrifying dribbler that slithered between Bill Buckner's legs, to last year's stunning extra-inning home run that kept the Sox without a World Championship for yet another year. Lively and filled with anecdotes, this is baseball folklore at its best.

Publishers Weekly

Boston Globe sportswriter Shaughnessy contends that the cash sale in 1920 of star Babe Ruth by his team, the Boston Red Sox, to the New York Yankees put a curse on the Beantown franchise that has prevailed for 70 years. In support of that argument, he reviews the history of the team--but with a difference. Most books about the Sox during this era may indulge in necessary masochism; Shaughnessy's is a super-deluxe masochism. He concentrates almost exclusively on end-season and post-season play, discussing in agonizing detail the team's four defeats in the World Series, its lack of success in the only two playoff games in league history, the collapse in the 1988 American League Championship Series--and all those times when the Bosox failed to lead their league or division by a single game or two. In story after story of near-triumph, the book should delight the team's most fanatically loyal followers, who will find it the verbal equivalent of a hair shirt. (June)