Who's Cursed Worse?

[sahyder1]

For those of you who don't know ESPN will be running the 3rd edition of their courtroom on Friday night following the Yankees/Red Sox game. For those who didn't see it the first two were to see whether Pete Rose was guilty of betting on baseball and whether the Yankees were good for baseball.

The Answer to this one is pretty simple for me. If there is a curse (and I'm not necessarily saying I'm a believer in curses) the one the Red Sox have on them is definitely worse. Not only have they not won, the Yankees have done nothing but win since then. I know the Cubs obviously have a longer drought but the Cards winning 9 World Series doesn't victimize them as much as what Boston's been through.

[Guest Bluesman]

Red Sox. If for no other reason than they have to deal with Yankee fans...

[wCwCreator]

Red Sox.

Example: Boone's home run last year. It JUST had to happen.

Edited September 17, 2004 by wCwCreator

[GhostMachine]

Neither team is cursed. `The Curse' is just an excuse. Nothing more.

The only curse that the Red Sox have is that they are in the same division as the Yankees.

The only curse the Cubs have is that they can't seem to get the proper balance of pitching, offense and managing to get to the World Series. Much less the playoffs.

What I am about to say can only be argued against by a Yankees fan, or someone who is insane. And if someone does try, let me say before you even start: You're full of shit.

The Yankees are NOT great. If you've got a team who can easily afford to spend more money than even two or three teams combined on quality players that other teams can't afford, of course you're going to win championships.

Baseball is the most unbalanced of all professional team sports. There needs to be a salary cap that keeps all teams competitive, instead of that lame ass penalty tax or whatever they call it that they throw on teams who spend over a certain amount, which large market teams like the Yankees can easily afford to pay.

If there was a salary cap in place, and it kept large market teams in check, then I guarantee that the Yankees wouldn't even have half the championships they have, and the Red Sox would likely have plenty, as well.

The fact is, you have high salary teams like the Yankees and Braves dominate their divisions and get in the playoffs just about every year. While at the same time, you have the small market teams, like the Reds, Pirates and Expos can't afford to sign those kinds of players (or at least not hold onto them for very long) and don't even threaten to make the playoffs.

You do have smaller teams make the playoffs occasionally, but NOT on a consistent basis.

(I do believe the Reds would have been competitive if they had spent the money they wasted on Griffey on pitching instead. And I'm a Reds fan, so you know that pisses me off.)

Major League Baseball needs to do one of two things:

1. Impose a salary cap that allows all teams to be competitive, which would fix the major imbalances.

2. Re-align the leagues so teams are divided by markets and\or payrolls, and not by geographic location. With a small market team in the World Series having to win less games than the large market team they face.

You'll never get either one, though, because the large market owners, and possibly the players' union (DEFINITELY the players' union in option #1) wouldn't go for it.

My ideal baseball season would have:

1. The Yankees and Braves not making the playoffs. Even better: Both teams finishing below .500.

2. Either the Reds winning the World Series (doesn't matter which AL team they play....except the Yankees, obviously), or a Cubs-Red Sox World Series.

3. Ken Griffey Jr either staying healthy for the entire season, getting traded to the Yankees then suffering a career-ending injury in Spring Training, or deciding to retire rather than rink suffering one before Spring Training even starts.

4. The MLB Home Run leader hitting under 60 HRs, and NOT being named Barry Bonds.

And for the record, I hope that if the Expos end up in Washington, they DON'T make them the Washington Senators III.

Edited September 17, 2004 by GhostMachine

[oldskool]

Based on the curses themselves, the Cubs have the worse curse.

Red Sox have been to the World Series since the curse began, the Cubs curse is that there will "never be another World Series game played in Wrigley Field" and so far there hasn't been.

At least the Red Sox have a chance to win a championship.

[Reflecto Is My Favorite Poster]

Based on the curses themselves, the Cubs have the worse curse.

Red Sox have been to the World Series since the curse began, the Cubs curse is that there will "never be another World Series game played in Wrigley Field" and so far there hasn't been.

At least the Red Sox have a chance to win a championship.

[thuganomic]

What I am about to say can only be argued against by a Yankees fan, or someone who is insane. And if someone does try, let me say before you even start: You're full of shit.

[GhostMachine]

The reason I want the Braves to fail is simple: Where I'm located at, Cincinnati and Atlanta are both roughly the same distance away. Yet, we're considered a Braves market area, so all you ever hear about is the frickin' Braves, even though there are probably just as many, if not more, Reds fans here. (I see a lot more people sporting Reds hats and shirts than Braves hats and shirts around here - in fact, I rarely see anyone with a Braves shirt on) You go into a store to buy MLB merchandise around here, you'd better be a Braves fan if you want anything other than a cap or want to go to a sports store, because all the mainstream places only stock Braves items. In fact, if its not actually Baseball season, Braves stuff is all you'll find here.

Ergo, if the Braves fail, we might hear about them less. FUCK THE BRAVES!

I get the Braves, Cubs and White Sox on cable here. I wish I got the Reds, but I don't. So I watch the Cubs.

As for baseball alignment and a sub-.500 team in the playoffs, I don't know if you remember this or not, but the first year they went to 3 divisions in each league, the AL West leader WAS below .500.

As for my opinion on salary caps.....they don't really work in general, but they do give other teams a better chance. All the money in the world doesn't mean jack, if you sign a bad coach\manager or have a bad owner or general manager, and sign bad players.

Look at the Redskins, for instance. Dan Snyder owned the Redskins for a few years and made various bad decisions, including signing Steve Spurrier. (You can't really blame Snyder - hindsight is 20/20 - but a flag should've been raised when Spurrier signed several former Gators, including Danny `should be playing Arena football or bagging groceries somewhere' Wurffel) Bringing back Joe Gibbs is the first thing he's done right!

And the Jets.....The New York Jets were a mediocre team that didn't really start doing well until their previous owner died and someone who knew what they were doing took over.

I'm not even going to discuss the NBA, because quite frankly, I'm sick of it. The NBA has become nothing but a place for over-paid, mostly no-talent players and has become more of a style over substance sport, where it seems like its better to look good than to play good. The way the U.S. Basketball team played in the Olympics this year should prove that.

[oldskool]

Based on the curses themselves, the Cubs have the worse curse.

Red Sox have been to the World Series since the curse began, the Cubs curse is that there will "never be another World Series game played in Wrigley Field" and so far there hasn't been.

At least the Red Sox have a chance to win a championship.

Actually, that's the main reason I'd say the Red Sox have the worse curse: The Cubs have had a longer curse (no wins since '08, no World Series since '45), but at the same time the Cubs had another reason for it- they rarely had decent teams that could have done it (for the most part, they only seriously contended 5 times since 1945 ['69, '84, '89, '98, last year.] The Red Sox, on the other hand, have been a contending team for a larger portion of their existence and make the World Series a number of times, yet manage to come up short in more heartbreaking forms (usually in Game 7 losses). This, IMO, is more of a curse than the Cubs- it just hurts more when you get that close to the prize and fail than if it's farther away.

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[Guest kijlhumt]

There's no curse. There's people looking for an excuse as to why putting out a subpar team for a majority of the last 90 years doesn't win them a World Series.

Curses are bullshit.

[ChuBalso]

What I am about to say can only be argued against by a Yankees fan, or someone who is insane. And if someone does try, let me say before you even start: You're full of shit.

The Yankees are NOT great. If you've got a team who can easily afford to spend more money than even two or three teams combined on quality players that other teams can't afford, of course you're going to win championships

[Guest kijlhumt]

Bill Buckner isn't a curse. Buckner is a guy that was so hobbled by injuries, he couldn't bend over to tie his own shoelaces. He knocked in 102 runs with 39 doubles, and 18 homers as a 36 year old first baseman.

Bucky Dent just...happened. No rhyme or reason.

Bret Boone sat in the announcers booth while his brother, Aaron, hit a homerun to win the ALCS. How did he curse them?

And Babe Ruth being traded to the Yankees was the best thing that happened to him in his baseball career, so why would he curse the Red Sox?

Use your head, man.

[Big Tuna]

Bill Buckner isn't a curse. Buckner is a guy that was so hobbled by injuries, he couldn't bend over to tie his own shoelaces. He knocked in 102 runs with 39 doubles, and 18 homers as a 36 year old first baseman.

Bucky Dent just...happened. No rhyme or reason.

Bret Boone sat in the announcers booth while his brother, Aaron, hit a homerun to win the ALCS. How did he curse them?

And Babe Ruth being traded to the Yankees was the best thing that happened to him in his baseball career, so why would he curse the Red Sox?

Use your head, man.

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[Lowerdeck]

Cubs miss playoffs. Any chance of a dream World Series is shattered.