The story started in 1918 when the Red Sox won their fifth World Series title;
the team was led to victory by their greatest pitcher, Babe Ruth,
also known as “the Bambino” (“babe” in Italian).
A couple of years later,
because the Red Sox boss needed money to invest in the Broadway show business,
he decided to sell the Bambino to the New York Yankees,
who at that time had never won a championship.
This kind of trade occurs frequently in baseball,
but after trading Babe Ruth the Red Sox were not able to win the championship again until 2004;
however, the Yankees have won an amazing twenty-six World Series titles since getting the Bambino in 1918.
Before 2004, the Red Sox had played in four World Series but lost each of them in the seventh and final game.
The Yankees on the other hand became one of the most successful teams in American sports history.
It has been said that the Red Sox failed because some sort of “curse” was at work.
After eighty-six years, in late October of 2004, the curse was finally broken in a surprising turn of events.
The Red Sox were behind the Yankees three games to zero, but they came back to win the seven-game series with four straight victories!
Some Red Sox fans said that Babe Ruth’s ghost had winked at them in the ballpark
because the Red Sox had had enough suffering through those long years of repeated disappointment.
And then they won the World Series again in 2007.