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So, we're subjected to another World Series with the Yankees. Oh,
well. At least with the Red Sox out, we don't have to hear Fox
broadcasters blather on about "The Curse of the Bambino" anymore. Tim
McCarver, Joe Buck and Bob Brenly talked about that subject so
relentlessly I thought they must be hyping a new Fox series starring
Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Good Lord. We're a couple months from the 21st century and
supposedly intelligent people were acting as if they actually believed
Babe Ruth cast a curse upon the Red Sox. I think the lowest
moment came when Fox interviewed Ruth's daughter and asked whether she
thought the Babe had cursed his former team. Her surprising answer: No.
|  | | Babe Ruth liked to curse, not place curses. |
When Fox wasn't blaming Boston's defeat on a fat guy who's been
dead for 51 years, it was trying to lay the blame on umpires Tim Tschida
and Rick Reed. Unable to make one point without making it a hundred
times, McCarver reviewed the replays of Tschida's blown call more often
and more zealously than Oliver Stone studying the Zapruder film. All
right, already. We got the point. Tschida made a bad call. It happens.
The only thing worse than listening to McCarver dissecting it again and
again was having to hear the windbag mispronounce the umpire's name each
time.
If Red Sox fans want to blame someone for Boston's playoff loss
to the Yankees, they need to point the finger in the mirror. That is, if
their hands aren't too full of garbage to throw onto the field.
The Red Sox aren't going to the World Series because they made
10 errors in five games, treating the baseball as if it were coated with
anthrax. You don't get to the World Series too often when your best
player makes four errors in five games, as Nomar Garciaparra did. The Sox
fielded so poorly they made Chuck Knoblauch look like Bill Mazeroski. If
Bill Buckner was still playing, he would have been inserted as a
late-inning defensive replacement.
The Red Sox aren't going to the World Series because they
couldn't buy a hit with men in scoring position. The Red Sox aren't going
to the World Series because there are only two Martinez brothers in their
rotation. The Red Sox aren't going to the World Series because -- Pedro
Martinez and Garciaparra aside -- they were man-for-man an inferior team to the Yankees.
Forget the Curse of the Bambino. It was the Presence of Rod Beck
that did in Boston this autumn.
This was a typical Red Sox performance, cruelly teasing their loyal
fans before tripping on the foul line again.
After rallying from a 2-0 deficit against Cleveland, the Red Sox
showed signs of another comeback when Pedro whipped ex-Boston icon Roger
Clemens in Game 3. The Sox kept things close in Game 4, then fell apart
in the ninth inning while pouting over bad calls. Yes, Tschida's call was
a tough blow, but the Red Sox can't blame the umpires for making two
errors and giving up six runs the next inning.
In Game 5 they got their fans worked up one last time, loading
the bases in the eighth inning only to score no runs -- and then gave
up two more runs in the ninth.
When the game was on the line, the Red Sox collapsed. The Yankees
outscored Boston 15-5 after the sixth inning and 10-1 after the seventh.
As Gary Gaetti once said, it's hard to play when you have both hands
around your neck.
Selling Ruth to the Yankees 79 years ago doesn't have a thing to
do with Boston's downfall this autumn. The Red Sox aren't going to the
World Series because they don't belong there.
And now that they're out of it this fall, I just hope we don't
see Scully and Mulder probe "The Curse of the Bambino" further in a
very special episode of "The X-Files."
Jim Caple's Off Base column usually appears each Wednesday on ESPN.com.
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ALSO SEE
El Duque closes out Red Sox in 6-1 victory
Yankees vs. Red Sox series page
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