Baseball, more than any other sport, is known for its superstitions and myths. This week, as the Boston Red Sox try to exorcize their demons personified in the New York Yankees, baseball's most enduring and perhaps most bizarre myth has been thrust into the spotlight once again.
A UB professor says curses and jinxes like Boston's "Curse of the Bambino" are just words, but believers give those words strength through their passion, making them almost real in a psychological sense.
"People all over the world believe in jinxes and curses," said Philip Stevens, Jr., associate professor of anthropology. "The spoken and written words can contain power in their own meaning."
According to Stevens, the "Curse of the Bambino" is not really a curse. Stevens said a curse is caused when a specific person who wishes harm to someone or something, and the Red Sox's problem is more of a jinx, which is not attributable to one particular person.
"The 'Curse' is not a curse in the proper sense of the word," said Stevens. "When the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1918 it is said to have upset some kind of cosmic balance which determines the fate of the Red Sox."
If the "Curse" is to be believed, it has prevented the Red Sox from winning a championship for almost 86 years, the longest championship drought except for another star-crossed franchise, the Chicago Cubs.
Stevens said the Cubs actually did have a curse cast on them back in 1945, the last time they were in the World Series.
According to legend, the Cubs were leading the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. A Chicago tavern owner, Sam Sianis, had two tickets to the game, and chose to use his second ticket to bring a Billy goat he had tethered on a leash. After somehow getting the goat inside, Sianis was ejected in the seventh inning when fans complained of the goat's stench.
"When he was ejected, Sianis said the Cubs would never again win the World Series, in fact that Wrigley Field would never host a Series again," said Stevens. "The Cubs haven't played in a World Series since, and fans have been laboring under that belief ever since."
Stevens said that it doesn't matter which supernatural force is dragging a team down because both have the same powerful psychological effects on players and fans.
"Curses and jinxes are popular things, they are a part of popular culture," said Stevens.
"People believe they can do little rituals to break or dissolve the curse or jinx they are under," he added
Stevens said stunts like last year's "exorcism" of Wrigley Field and the destruction of the infamous "Bartman Ball" serve to try and break whatever curse is holding back the fans' team indirectly.
But the Red Sox, it seems, are trying to conquer their demons head-on, by taking on the Yankees in the American League Championship Series for the second year in a row.
"Some people have suggested that the Yankees are directly tied into the fate of the Red Sox. After all, it is the 'The House that Ruth Built,'" Stevens said.
Stevens did say that a Red Sox win over the Yankees might be good for the mindset of fans, but it might be bad for the business side of the Red Sox.
"The 'Curse' is part of their folklore, part of their being. People capitalize on that, it makes them unique," he said.
Junior management major Andrew Neal said the "Curse" was part of the Red Sox appeal.
"The thing with the Red Sox is, however close you get to breaking the curse, there is always next year," he said.
And if the Red Sox win, ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons recently wrote, there might be another team familiar to Buffalo residents ready claim the BoSox infamous position.
"On the bright side, if the Red Sox win the World Series this month, the Bills officially become the star-crossed franchise in sports," Simmons wrote.
