By John Garces/sports editor
Hexes are as much a part of sports as the athletes who play them.
But, are these hexes real, or are they the product of some star-crossed franchise’s imagination?
Take, for example, the Boston Red Sox.
Currently, of course, Boston is one of the most feared franchises in baseball.
For the better part of a century, though, they were at the mercy of an alleged “Curse of the Bambino,” named for Babe Ruth.
Ruth, of course, was famously traded away to the Yankees for cash, merely so the Red Sox management could produce a play.
The Curse lived on for 86 years, beginning in 1918 when the Red Sox won a championship in the pre-Ruth days, until 2004, when many believe it was broken by the Sox winning four straight from the Yankees after falling behind 3-0 in the ALCS.
The most replayed moment attributed to the Curse was the Bill Buckner ground ball in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, leading to the Mets defeating the Red Sox in Game 7.
The Chicago Cubs own the record for the most cursed team in history.
Now 99 years removed from a title, the Cubs always appear on the wrong side of curses.
First, there’s the Billy Goat Curse, so named because a bar-hopping patron supposedly was refused entrance to one of the bars around Wrigley Field because he wanted his pet goat to go in as well.
Upon being denied entrance, he allegedly cursed the team, saying they would never again win a title.
In the 1984 National League Championship Series, the Cubs owned a 2-games-to-1 lead when a black cat prowled across the Cubs’ on-deck circle, leading to another Cubbie collapse.
Add in the Bartman incident, and Cubs fans live in a permanent spooked state.
In football, we have the New Orleans Saints.
It’s been said there is some sort of tribal curse on the franchise as the Louisiana Superdome is built on ground believed to have once been an Indian burial ground.
Adding to the hex is the 2000 wild card playoff game against their division rivals, the St. Louis Rams. Saints owner Tom Benson brought in an Indian chief to do a tribal dance, supposedly “eversing the curse.
The Saints won that game, the first playoff win in their history. But they have still never been to a Super Bowl, falling one game short in losing the NFC championship to the Bears last season.
Local fans may be old enough to remember a time when an alleged “blue jersey curse” reigned supreme on the Cowboys.
Not known for wearing the blue jerseys, traditionally designated as road jerseys, there was a time when the unfamiliar look was thought to bestow bad luck on America’s Team.
These supernatural occurrences comfort fans when their team falls short on the field.
