The Curse of the Bambino [Paperback]

Dan Shaughnessy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2000

Any Red Sox fan or baseball buff will tell you: The Sox haven't won a World Series since 1918. Certainly they've come close more times than they wish to remember. Did the unorthodox sale of the greatest baseball player who ever lived cause the Red Sox to be cursed forever?

With a wry sense of humor, Dan Shaughnessy traces the frustrating history of the Red Sox since Babe Ruth went to the Yankees. Here, he sheds light on some classic baseball conundrums -- from Johnny Pesky's so-called hesitation throw in the 1946 World Series, to the horrifying dribbler that slithered between Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 series against the Mets, and the expulsion of Roger Clemens in the final game of the 1990 League Championship Series against the Oakland A's. Lively and filled with anecdotes, this is baseball folklore at its best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Four World Series defeats and two playoff losses are among the numerous misfortunes that have befallen the Boston Red Sox in the 70 years since their sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. "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," said PW .
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A wonderful book that performs magnificently on every level-as history, as drama, and as pure entertainment. -- Doris Kearns Goodwin

The best history of the snake--bitten Boston Red Sox ever penned. -- Larry King, USA Today

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Edition edition (October 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140296336
• ISBN-13: 978-0140296334
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,762,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice annuity for Shaughnessy - but far from the real story, October 23, 2004

By 

Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Curse of the Bambino (Paperback)

When I was a kid growing up in Boston in the 60s and 70s, the was never a mention of any 'Curse of the Bambino.' It was simply a case of the Red Sox not measuring up to the Yankees on many benchmarks...managers (Grady Little trying to match wits against Joe Torre being only the latest example), ownership (Tom Yawkey's plantation mentality meant the Sox were the last team to integrate), team chemistry (the famous '25 cabs for 25 guys' line was written to describe the Yastrzemski-era Sox) and player personnel (the 70s teams, for example, featured bombers to take advantage of Fenway who could neither run, field, bunt nor sacrifice as well as their chief rivals).

So, Dan Shaughnessy comes along post-1986 collapse with the trite, kitschy 'Curse of the Bambino' and suddenly every talking head in America has a little piece of pop psychology they can gear their stories around - witness, as an example, any recent Fox broadcast with shot after shot of Ruth 'ghosts' parading through the stands at Yankee Stadium. Great visuals, cue it up between batters, between pitches...but why load these 25 current players with that extra-heavy burden? 'Curse' has been a healthy annuity for Shaughnessy, no doubt (and I give him some credit for the that), but from his Globe byline pulpit and his repeated intonations about The Curse, he has unwittingly become somewhat his home team's worst enemy (witness the venom on these pages as a confirmation of that opinion).

What's different about 2003 and beyond is that the Henry/Lucchino/Epstein regime doesn't buy into this garbage. They see baseball for what it is - a game of statistics, percentages and chances. Get your numbers to the point where they are better than the competition, and more times than not your team is going to win. They were smart enough to recognize that the Yankees were winning because they were demonstrably better. They made a commitment to continuous improvement of the club using the Yankees as their benchmark. Owner John Henry is one of the nation's most successful commodities and stock traders; President Larry Lucchino has a track record of improving franchises; GM Theo Epstein is a Moneyball/Bill James disciple and baseball talent-spotting prodigy. I'm sorry that's not as mystical and compelling as Harry Frazee needing to finance 'No No Nanette' and Babe Ruth pushing a piano into a lake, but that's the truth. For the first time in 86 years, the Red Sox - across the organization - are outworking and outthinking their competitors. That's what we ought to be celebrating right now, not whether the Curse has been broken.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time, June 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Curse of the Bambino (Paperback)

If you want a good history of the Red Sox, please see Red Sox Century. It is a well written account of the entire history of the Red Sox. In the Curse of the Bambino, you will find a poorly written book that is neither humorous nor entertaining. The book perpetuates the myth of curse through mistruths and distortions of fact. If you truly are interested in the occult, I'm sure there are better selections to choose from than this book.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nonsense. A complete waste of time., October 24, 2003

By 

P. Forget (Beverly, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Curse of the Bambino (Paperback)

It's not only the lack of factual research that makes this book a wasted read...

The book is based on a fairy tale, that the author has presented as a reason for the Red Sox' misfortunes of the past 80+ years. It is completely illegitimate.

Red Sox fans have Dan Shaughnessy to thank for getting the "Bambino" curse into the national media spotlight. He has (unwittingly?) become the number one enemy & annoyance to the Red Sox and their fans. Until The Sox win the series, they will be taunted by moronic tv announcers that treat this as an noteworthy story, and nit wit opposing team fans that hold up pictures of Babe Ruth, to try and taunt the Red Sox.

There was a recent documentary on HBO on this subject, with the author trying to sell this book. After hearing him speak on the subject, I cannot even consider him a journalist.

Thanks Dan, looking forward to your biography on the Easter Bunny.