The Red Sox did it, at long last. They became the World Champs after 86 years of waiting to taste such victory again. The decades and lifetimes of frustration are already well chronicled, so I'm not going to waste any more time on that.
But I found a few less noticed things interesting about the World Series and long-standing frustration. The Red Sox franchise has now won six championships. The 1918 season gave them their fifth, which meant that of the first 15 World Series (remember, there wasn't one in 1904), the Red Sox won fully one-third of them. Not too shabby, though admitedly not close to (the hated) Yankees accomplishments after they acquired Babe Ruth. The 2004 World Series was also the 100th of all time (again, no series in 1904 and none in 1994), so it seems fitting that the first "century" of World Series play has bookend Boston victories. Others can argue that point.
But I disagree with the characterization that occurred during the final moments of game 4; the Red Sox are not third overall in championships -- at least not when you look at franchises. The A's have won nine championships. The first five came in Philadelphia and the last four in Oakland (sorry Kansas City). Furthermore, the Dodgers' championship in Brooklyn shouldn't be forgotten, though they certainly have been far more successful in Los Angeles, where they've been champs five times.
I hadn't realized how relatively unsuccessful the Giants franchise has been. The team at the heart of the 1904 World Series void (where I think their opponent would have been the defending champion Red Sox, though I could be mistaken), may be suffering from some other form of curse. I'll call it the Wertz Curse, reflective of the great catch Willie Mays made in the Polo Grounds off Cleveland Indians slugger Vic Wertz in the 1954 series -- the Giants franchise's last championship. Only the Yankees (13) have more World Series losses than the Giants. Like their fellow Boys of Summer -- the Dodgers -- the Giants have also lost 12 times.
The Cardinals are at least as impressive as the A's franchise, with nine championships in 16 World Series. I was surprised to see that the Red Birds didn't appear in their first World Series until 1926. Even the Washington Senators had been champs before that. Since then, however, they played in 20 percent of the World Series.
Perhaps no former champion is as sad as the Chicago Cubs, however. They're 2-8 in World Series play and have yet to appear in a fall classic since 1945. Heck, expansion clubs such as the Mets, Blue Jays, and Marlins have been champs as frequently as the boys from the Friendly Confines. The Cubs' two championships came in what was arguably their hey day. They won in 1907 and 1908, after having fallen to their South Side rivals, the White Sox -- also known as the Hitless Wonders -- in 1906.
The White Sox haven't won now in 87 years. Their victory in 1917 was the lone blemish for a string of strong Red Sox teams that won three out of four titles from 1915-1918. Of course, the White Sox should have won in 1919, but they discolored their sox and the game that year. It's been a long time since the Windy City could boast about its baseball teams. Personally, after the Mets, I'm rooting for the Cubs next year. I think it's more than time for them to win.
Let the Curse of the Goat be smote!
(originally written on 10/29/04, but unable to post for technical reasons until 11/1/04)
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