Everyone knows the "curses" that the Cubs have and Red Sox had, but there were two other t

Estil

Okay, everyone here knows about the Curse of the Bambino (Red Sox) and the Curse of the Billy Goat (Cubs) right? Well I submit to you two other teams that I think (cursed or not) actually had it even WORSE than the Cubs and Red Sox yet didn't get nearly as much attention for their championship droughts.

EVERYONE KNOWS THIS TEAM:
Let's start first with the Red Sox. Everyone knows that until 2004, they were allegedly hit with the curse of the Bambino that caused them to wait 86 years until their next championship (1918, 2004). But in the intern they actually did pretty well for themselves:

1946 American League Champions
1967 American League Champions
1975 American League Champions
1986 American League Champions
1988 AL East Champions
1990 AL East Champions
1995 AL East Champions
1999 AL Runner-Up
2003 AL Runner-Up

So we have four League Championships (lost all four World Series in seven games), three division titles, and two League Runner-Up finishes (in 2003 they lost in seven). And several times they at least came very close to winning a championship. However...


...AND YET THIS TEAM HAD IT EVEN WORSE:
If you think having to wait 86 years is rough, try being a fan of the "Good Guys" (White Sox) and having to wait 88 years (1917, 2005) because of a curse brought about by team disgrace (Black Sox Scandal) instead of financial hardship (selling Babe Ruth for cash/loan to make up for Broadway play losses). And how did they Pale Hose do in the intern? Well...

1959 American League Champions
1983 AL West Champions
1993 AL West Champions
2000 AL Central Champions

So while the Red Sox had FOUR league pennants, the White Sox only managed ONE trip to the fall classic. And the Good Guys didn't even make half the postseason appearances that the BoSox did. And while the Red Sox went the distance five times (four World Series, one ALCS), the White Sox never once took any postseason round the distance and in fact did not even win ANY round of postseason play between 1917 and 2005. Yet you never ever heard one little peep about the White Sox' curse compared to the Red Sox' curse.


Want yet another example?

EVERYONE KNOWS THIS TEAM:
Everyone knows how the Chicago Cubs have went over 100 years (since 1908) since winning a World Series and over 65 years since appearing in one (1945). So how does their post-season resume look since 1908? Let's take a look:

1910 National League Champions
1918 National League Champions
1929 National League Champions
1932 National League Champions
1935 National League Champions
1938 National League Champions
1945 National League Champions
1984 NL East Division Champions
1989 NL East Division Champions
1998 NL Wild Card
2003 National League Runner-Up
2007 NL Central Division Champions
2008 NL Central Division Champions

So the Cubs have been to seven Fall Classics (almost twice as many as the Red Sox) and six additional postseason appearances. They came closest to getting to the World Series in 1984 and 2003. But it's still pretty rough not having a world title to show for it after over 100 years right?


...AND YET THIS TEAM HAD IT EVEN WORSE:
But if you think waiting 100 years for your next World Series crown is tough, how about waiting almost that long to win ANY World Series championship? That's what it was like if you rooted for the Philadelphia Phillies. They were founded in 1883 and had to wait 97 years until 1980 to even have their first ever World Series title. And how did they do in the intern?

1915 National League Champions
1950 National League Champions
1976 NL East Division Champions
1977 NL East Division Champions
1978 NL East Division Champions

So while the Chicago Cubs (you know those lovable losers) managed to capture sixteen NL flags (12 if you count only the ones since the Phillies were founded) and two World Series crowns, the Phillies managed only two pennants and ZERO World Championships for their first 97 years. And since the Cubs' last World title, they went to the postseason 13 times (six times since their last pennant). But the poor Phillies only managed to make the postseason five times (and never won more than one game in any postseason round) until they finally got to hoist their first ever big gold trophy in 1980 (and with their 2008 one they're at least even with the Cubbies). And it was the Phillies, not the Cubs, who were the first to lose 10,000 games.


So while the championship droughts that the Red Sox and Cubs had were plenty bad enough, imagine what it was like for White Sox and Phillies fans during their runs of bad luck. And their "curses" didn't get nearly as much media attention.

WTCG

The White Sox won it all in 2005 as did the Phillies in 1980 and 2008. The Cubs haven't even won a pennant since 1945. World Series victories forgive everything.

Estil

<< <i>The White Sox won it all in 2005 as did the Phillies in 1980 and 2008. The Cubs haven't even won a pennant since 1945. World Series victories forgive everything. >>



True but I'm talking about what it was like BEFORE those times.

RonBurgundy

Uh, have you taken a look at the Indians?

Brick

I'd be willing to bet the Indians win a World Series in my lifetime. Cubs fans may not want to make that bet.

benderbroeth

the trailblazers..we just resigned ODEN and boom he has a new setback....then roy has to retire

PowderedH2O

The Trailblazers isn't even at 35 years yet. Heck, the Cubs haven't won a World Series since almost 40 years before the NBA was started.

Estil

<< <i>The Trailblazers isn't even at 35 years yet. Heck, the Cubs haven't won a World Series since almost 40 years before the NBA was started. >>



Indeed, you do at least have a big gold trophy (1977) and you captured two pennants in 1990 and 1992. Plus you were conference runner-up in 1991, 1999, and 2000.

coinkat

The old Washington Senators

benderbroeth

yeah i was kinda being sarcastic..but yeah..man it sucks

Estil

<< <i>The old Washington Senators >>



Well if I'm not mistaken, the current Senators, eh I mean Nationals are the only MLB team to have never gone to the World Series and only made the playoffs once in 1981*.

Estil

I am mistaken, the Mariners never made the Fall Classic either though they did finish league runner-up in 1995 (where they did put up a good fight but everyone knew it was the Indians' time to break their drought) and most disappointingly, 2001 (when they wasted a 116 win season; though they were beat by the Yankees who won four titles out of five years at the time).

coinkat

I was referring to the Washington Senators that moved to Minnesota

The played in the 1924, 25 and 1933 World Series-

MCMLVTopps

Just so that everybody really knows about the Cubs and Red Sox "curses"... though I am familiar with both, Wikipedia takes credit for what is posted below my comments.

Dan Shaughnessy, a Boston sports writer can directly be credited with his then "tongue in cheek" writing of the curse of the Bambino after the Red Sox lost the 1986 WS to the Mets. It is still a dismal memory to me as I can still see that ball roll through Buckner's legs. A long-suffering Red Sox fan of more than 50 years, it was brutal to witness. The 2004 WS win and INCREDIBLE comeback against the Yankees was about as sweet as baseball can get.

The curse of the Billy Goat was supposedly placed on the Chicago Cubs in 1945 when Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis was asked to leave a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at the Cubs' home ground of Wrigley Field because his pet goat's odor was bothering other fans.[1] He was outraged and declared, "Them Cubs, they aren't gonna win no more," which has been interpreted to mean that there would never be another World Series game won at Wrigley Field.[2] The exact nature of the curse differs in various accounts of the incident. Some state that Sianis declared that no World Series games would ever again be played at Wrigley Field, while others believe that his ban was on the Cubs appearing in the World Series, making no mention of a specific venue. Sianis’ family claims that he dispatched a telegram to team owner Philip K. Wrigley which read, “You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to win another World Series again. You are never going to win a World Series again because you insulted my goat.”[3] Whatever the truth, the Cubs were up two games to one in the ’45 series but ended up losing Game 4 and the best-of-seven series, four games to three. The curse was immortalized in newspaper columns over the years, particularly by syndicated columnist Mike Royko, and gained widespread attention during the 2003 postseason when Fox television commentators played it up during the Cubs-Marlins match-up in the National League Championship Series.[4]

The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as an excuse for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004. While some fans took the curse seriously, most used the expression in a tongue-in-cheek manner.[1]

The curse was said to have begun after the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth, sometimes called The Bambino, to the New York Yankees in the off-season of 1919-1920.[2] Before that point, the Red Sox had been one of the most successful professional baseball franchises, winning the first World Series and amassing five World Series titles.[3] After the sale they went without a title for decades, as the previously lackluster Yankees became one of the most successful franchises in North American professional sports.[4]

Talk of the curse as an ongoing phenomenon ended in 2004, when the Red Sox came back from a 0-3 best-of-seven deficit to beat the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series and then went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series (under a lunar eclipse).[5] The Red Sox' historic collapse at the end of the 2011 season resurrected some mention of the curse.[6]

The curse had been such a part of Boston culture that when a road sign on the city's busy Storrow Drive was vandalized from "Reverse Curve" to "Reverse The Curse,"[7] officials left it in place until after the Red Sox won the 2004 Series.[7]