10 leggendarie maledizioni del baseball

Ci sono maledizioni in ogni cultura. Gli antichi sacerdoti egizi calpestavano e scioglievano le effigi di cera del serpente del caos Apophis per maledire il suo nome. La figura biblica Noè maledisse suo figlio, Cam, dopo che il giovane scoprì inconsapevolmente suo padre nudo in uno stato di stupore ubriaco. Quando volevano portare il male sui loro nemici, i pagani irlandesi mormoravano maledizioni mentre accarezzavano e giravano pietre bullaun. I negromanti voodoo hanno infilato spille nelle bambole di stoffa per far soffrire i loro avversari. Nel XVI secolo, le streghe furono bruciate sul rogo per aver presumibilmente maledetto i loro avversari. Anche sulla televisione americana , la commedia per adolescenti "The Brady Bunch" presentava un episodio in cui i ragazzi Brady scoprono un maledetto amuleto di Tiki e vengono colpiti da un'ondata di sfortuna.

Non sorprende, quindi, che il baseball abbia una sua ricca storia di maledizioni. Per ogni storia stimolante del trionfo di un perdente, c'è anche la storia di un personaggio sinistro che ha lanciato il suo malocchio sullo sport e maledetto un giocatore o addirittura un'intera squadra.

In questo articolo, faremo il conto alla rovescia delle 10 maledizioni più leggendarie del baseball. La nostra prima maledizione riguarda un set di figurine bobblehead e un franchise sportivo che non vince una World Series da più di 25 anni.

1. La maledizione dei Mets Bobblehead
2. La maledizione di A-Rod
3. La maledizione di Donnie Baseball
4. La maledizione del colonnello
5. La maledizione di Billy Penn
6. La maledizione del capitano Eddie
7. La maledizione del bambino
8. La maledizione dei Black Sox
9. La maledizione di Rocky Colavito
10. La maledizione del caprone

Voci di una maledizione hanno afflitto i Mets per decenni. Non è stato fino al 2002, quando Gold's Horseradish ha iniziato a produrre bambole commemorative dei Mets, tuttavia, i fan hanno avuto un capro espiatorio su cui accumulare i loro numerosi guai.

Come spiega Ken Belson del New York Times, quasi tutti i Met che siano mai stati commemorati con una bambola bobblehead hanno finito per svanire la stagione successiva. Mike Piazza è stato il primo Met di New York ad avere la sua immagine blasonata su un bobblehead. L'anno successivo, ha segnato 11 fuoricampo, in calo rispetto ai 33 della stagione precedente. Il vincitore del 2003 John Franco è caduto per un infortunio. Kazuo "Kaz" Matsui (2004), Pedro Martinez (2005), Paul Lo Duca (2007) e Jason Bray (2010) non sono stati all'altezza del loro clamore dopo essere stati racchiusi in una statuetta. Francisco Rodriguez del 2009 si è ferito alla mano quando ha preso a pugni suo suocero, e Ike Davis del 2011 era già nella lista dei disabili quando Gold ha annunciato che lo stavano commemorando con un bobblehead [fonte: Belson ].

I bobbleheads potrebbero essere l'ultima delle preoccupazioni dei Mets, tuttavia. Alcuni tifosi giurano che la squadra soffre di una maledizione ancora più pervasiva. Cos'altro potrebbe spiegare perché una squadra così promettente ha trascorso così tante stagioni in fondo alla classifica?

Molti credono che la maledizione dei Mets stia scomparendo, tuttavia. Nel giugno 2012, il lanciatore Johan Santana (premiato bobblehead del 2012) ha lanciato un no-hitter per la prima volta nella storia della franchigia dei Mets. Mentre alcuni dicono che la maledizione dei Mets resiste (e lo farà fino a quando non vincono un'altra World Series), la nostra prossima maledizione è stata recentemente revocata.

Nel 2003, la terza base dei Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez, era diventato uno dei giocatori più preziosi del baseball . Le sue medie di battuta erano tra le migliori del gioco. Era stato votato come il giocatore più prezioso (MVP) dell'American League e la sua stella era in ascesa.

Quindi, con una mossa senza precedenti (nessun MVP attualmente in carica era mai stato ceduto prima), i Rangers firmarono un lucroso accordo per scambiare A-Rod con i Red Sox . Poiché lo scambio includeva una riduzione volontaria dello stipendio da parte di Rodriguez, la Major League Baseball ha messo il kibosh nell'accordo. In quello che alcuni fan in seguito ipotizzarono fosse una ripetizione del maledetto scambio di Babe Ruth del 1918, gli Yankees intervennero e afferrarono la stella nascente.

Al momento dello scambio, nonostante fosse, a detta di tutti, uno dei giocatori più forti del gioco, Alex Rodriguez non aveva mai vinto una World Series. Dopo che gli Yankees hanno acquisito la stella, i fan erano sicuri che tutto ciò stesse per cambiare. Quando il 2004 è passato senza una vittoria nelle World Series, tuttavia, i fan hanno iniziato a mettere a dura prova la carriera di Rodriguez. "Guarda come le squadre promettenti hanno fallito dopo aver firmato A-Rod", hanno sussurrato, "Forse è maledetto!" Nel 2005, i media sportivi hanno iniziato a tracciare parallelismi tra i mestieri A-Rod e Babe Ruth e ipotizzare che forse la maledizione del Bambino di Babe Ruth, spezzata nel 2004, si fosse trasformata nella maledizione di A-Rod. Con il passare degli anni senza una vittoria nelle World Series, la maledizione di A-Rod è diventata leggendaria.

Then, in 2009, the Yankees won the World Series. Today, some claim the curse of A-Rod never existed at all. Others blame the Yankee's losing streak on a coach.

Long before Alex Rodriguez batted his first ball, baseball superstar Don Mattingly ruled the game. He was so beloved, in fact, that fans christened him with two nicknames: "Donnie Baseball" and "The Hit Man." By the time Mattingly retired in 1996, most fans were already taking bets on when he'd be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame .

Year after year, however, Mattingly is passed up for the honor. New York Post writer Robert A. George says it's because he's cursed. Despite all of Mattingly's success as a Yankee, George argues, the team never won a World Series while Mattingly manned first base. Following his retirement, however, the Yankees celebrated World Series victory four times. Then, in 2004 after Mattingly returned to the team as a hitting coach, the Yankees promptly bombed the last four games of the Series, losing 4-3 to the Red Sox. Further fueling curse speculation is the fact that when Mattingly left the Yankees in 2007 the team went on to cinch the 2009 World Series victory: Coincidence or curse? "In a game where superstition accounts for quite a lot, Don Mattingly is the black cat, the broken mirror and the crack in the sidewalk all rolled into one," concludes Robert George [source: Suellentrop].

Players and coaches aren't the only ones to blame for baseball's most legendary curses, however. Our next cursed team, Japan's Hanshin Tigers, blames its fans. Find out why next.

Most of the curses on our list are the result of greed, disrespect or questionable decision-making on the part of baseball 's players, coaches or team owners. Blame for the curse of the Colonel, however, lies squarely with the fans.

Almost 30 years ago, a team called the Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Series in an upset victory over the Seibu Lions. Exuberant fans took to the streets to celebrate. The party ended up on a bridge overlooking a local canal, where supporters plunged into the river one by one, each man shouting each player's name as he leapt from the bridge. It so happened that the number of players surpassed the number of willing jumpers. As luck would have it, there was a life-size statue of Colonel Sanders standing in front of a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. The crowd seized it and tossed it into the river in honor of MVP Randy Bass. Thus began a losing streak that continues to this day.

In 2009, a body was spotted in the canal, and divers were sent in to recover it. Instead of retrieving a corpse, however, it turned out that they had rescued the torso of the desecrated Colonel Sanders statue. Fans were hopeful that recovering the statue would break the curse. No such luck. The Tigers' losing streak continues -- for now.

Fans may be to blame for the curse of the Colonel. In our next segment, however, it's a memorial statue that held the grudge.

When it was erected in 1901, Philadelphia City Hall, topped with a statue of town founder William Penn, was the tallest building in the world . Sports fans never connected the statue with the success of its sports teams until one fateful day in March 1987. On that day, a new skyscraper , One Liberty Place, was erected, dwarfing the statue of Billy Penn by almost 400 feet. Immediately, Philadelphia sports teams were plunged into a decades-long losing streak.

The curse of Billy Penn not only affected hometown baseball heroes, the Phillies. It also affected Philadelphia's other sports franchises. In the years that One Liberty Place overshadowed the statue of William Penn, The Flyers lost the Stanley Cup finals, the Eagles crashed and burned in the NFC Championships and the 76ers blew the NBA finals. There was even a Pennsylvania racehorse that bombed at Belmont.

Some scoff at the idea that a statue could curse the sports dreams of an entire city. Those scoffers were silenced, however, when the Phillies rallied to win the 2008 World Series. It turned out that a couple of enterprising ironworkers had snuck a statuette of William Penn onto the top of The Comcast Center, which in 2007 had surpassed One Liberty Place as Philly's tallest building.

The curse of Billy Penn isn't the only famous baseball curse to have been levied by an inanimate object. The curse of Captain Eddie is coming up next!

In 1918, New York Giants player "Captain Eddie" Grant became the first major league ball player to die in World War I . The team honored him with a commemorative plaque at center field in New York's Polo Grounds in New York. Overseen by Captain Eddie, the Giants went on to win the World Series in 1921 and then again in '22, '33 and '54.

Then, in 1957, unhappy with the diminishing physical condition of the Polo Grounds, the Giants relocated to San Francisco. Captain Eddie's plaque disappeared. Fans stormed the field after the team's last game at the Polo Grounds, and some say the plaque was looted. Others claim it was simply lost in the move. In any case, the Giants seemed to lose their mojo after they made the move to San Francisco. As decades passed with no further World Series wins, a legend sprung up that Captain Eddie had cursed the Giants.

Finally, team owner Peter Magowan ordered a replacement plaque. It was installed in AT&T Stadium in 2006, and in 2010, the Giants won the World Series. Reinstalling the plaque may have reversed the curse of Captain Eddie, but for close to a century, it looked like nothing would save the Red Sox from their curse. Curious? Read on.

The curse of the Bambino is probably the most legendary curse in all of baseball . The story goes like this: Once upon a time, there was a wildly successful baseball team called the Red Sox. They won the first-ever World Series in 1903, and in the decade that followed, they stockpiled a mind-boggling five more wins. They owed much of their success to their star player Babe Ruth, also known as "the Bambino." Then, in 1919, the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to their archrival , the Yankees. 86 long and frustrating years passed before the Red Sox finally won the 2004 World Series, breaking the curse of the Bambino.

There were countless attempts to break the curse its 86-year history. Beginning in the early 1990's fans regularly altered a "Reverse Curve" sign to read "Reverse the Curse." In 1992, a Boston radio station held an exorcism in front of Fenway Park. In 2001, uber-fan Paul Giorgio climbed Mount Everest and left a Red Sox ball cap on an altar at the summit. In the lead-up to the 2004 overthrow of the curse, Ford Motor Company even aired a television commercial featuring a hitchhiker who was on his way to Boston to because he had "a curse to break."

Though legendary, most would agree that the Red Sox probably didn't deserve to suffer for 86 years. The team that suffered from our next curse, however, deserved everything they got.

In 1919, bitter over salary disputes , eight White Sox players put their heads together and figured out a way to get the money they felt was their due. The scheme they concocted resulted in one of the biggest scandals in baseball history .

As ringleader Arnold "Chick" Gandil confessed in a 1959 Sports Illustrated article, he was approached by two men, "Sport" Sullivan and Arnold Rothstein, who proposed a conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series. Soon, another gambler, Bill Burns, got wind of the deal and said he'd top their offer. Rather than choose between the two deals, eight greedy White Sox conspirators decided to cash in from both parties. Earnest money was exchanged, and the deal was sealed.

Before they could throw the series, however, reporters started sniffing around. Conspiracy rumors ran rampant and several players got cold feet. In his article, Chick admitted to the scheme, as well as to the fact that the players accepted $10,000 in earnest money, but he maintained that the Sox didn't actually throw the game. Ultimately, the eight players were put on trial and found to be innocent. However, they were banned from baseball for life, and for the next 86 years, the team known as the White Sox suffered the curse of the Black Sox. The curse was finally laid to rest in 2005 when the White Sox won the World Series.

Unlike the curse of the Black Sox, our top two most legendary baseball curses of all time remain unbroken.

The White Sox weren't the only team to be cursed because of greed. The curse of Rocky Colavito, some say, can also be traced directly back to the tight-fisted financial practices of the Cleveland Indians general manager, Frank Lane.

Right fielder Rocky Colavito was a star player, a real homerun hitter . In the two seasons that preceded his trade in 1960, Colavito had more home runs than any other player in the American League . He thought that entitled him to a raise, but Frank Lane disagreed and traded him to the Detroit Tigers. Maybe it was the cold-hearted way team manager Joe Gordon broke the news to him, coming up to Colavito on the field and telling him "That's the last time you'll ever bat for the Indians," but Colavito is still bitter about the trade. He's quoted in a 2010 Cleveland Plain Dealer article as saying, "I loved Cleveland and the Indians. I never wanted to leave" [source: Pluto].

The Indians bought Colavito back in 1965, but the move didn't reverse the curse. This, Colavito maintains, is because he didn't curse the Indians; Frank Lane did. Whatever the reason, the curse remains. The Cleveland Indians haven't won a World Series title since 1948. That could change in 2016, however. Our next curse has been in effect even longer. Find out which team has the longest-running curse in baseball history next.

In the early days of baseball , the Chicago Cubs were prizewinners. They took home the World Series title in both 1907 and 1908. In 1916, wealthy industrialist William Wrigley bought the team and hired upstart sports writer William Veeck to help him run it. Under the guidance of the "double Bills," the Cubs won the National League pennant four times.

The team had a few fallow years following their 1938 pennant win, but nothing that elicited whispers about a curse. Then, in 1945, William "Billy Goat" Sianis tried to bring his pet goat, Murphy, into Wrigley Field for game four of the World Series. Sianis and Murphy enjoyed the game until owner P.K. Wrigley, who had inherited the Cubs from his father William, ejected them from the stadium claiming that the goat smelled. Incensed, Billy Goat Sianis left the field muttering a curse on the team. Since then, it's been downhill for the Cubs.

In 1969, the Cubs had all but cinched the pennant and a shot at the World Series when, in a crucial moment, a black cat streaked across the field. Not only did the Cubs lose that race, they also choked in 1984, 1989 and 2003. In fact, the Cubs are currently suffering from the longest championship drought in all of American sports history. It doesn't get much more cursed than that! But that could finally change this year when the Cubs face the Indians.

Fans can be pretty rabid about their sports teams. The next time you're tempted to place a curse on your favorite team, remember the curse of the Billy Goat and think twice about where you aim your evil eye!

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