HBO: Curse of the Bambino

[b-ball-lunachick]

I really hope they show the shot of them digging out the piano or better yet, Pedro mouthing off on the bench about the Babe! Should be interesting to hear the "diehards" whining about the curse...including Bennifer who is obviously going to stop the lapdances for a second to do the narration!

http://www.hbo.com/bambino/?ntrack_para1=latest5_image

After winning five of Major League Baseball's first 15 World Series, Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold a young pitcher and hitting sensation named George Herman Ruth to the New York Yankees in the winter prior to the 1920 season. Since then, Red Sox fans have endured nearly a century's worth of misery and misfortune, leaving Boston fans to lament the "Curse of the Bambino.".

Told with humor in the face of heartache, THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO will combine archival footage with contemporary interviews. The special focuses not on the players who come and go, but on the diehard fans who live their whole lives with this anguished, passionate tale.

It airs for the first time on HBO on Tuesday, 9/16, 9pm EST. Will you be watching?

[Pedro's cuff]

I'll be watching for the belly laughs. With Bennifer narrating how can the unintentional comedy not be through the roof.

[Mr. Maddux]

I'm looking forward to it! I think Denis Leary is supposed to be on it. I remember a comedy special where he did a bit on the 1978 one-game playoff, and then Bucky Dent came out a gave him an autographed picture of the home run!

[ACPS]

Sox fans will probably watch it, too. It's the same way with Game 6. They're actually drawn to watch it and can't look away, like a terrible car accident.

[Luvtino]

I'll watch it.

[ring403]

Thanks for the heads-up. Can't wait to see it!

[Pedro's cuff]

Anything that prominently features Dan Shaughnessy should be avoided at all costs. To think that his whoremongering is going to result in selling more of those fairy tale books turns my stomach.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Pedro's cuff
Anything that prominently features Dan Shaughnessy should be avoided at all costs. To think that his whoremongering is going to result in selling more of those fairy tale books turns my stomach.

I have to agree with the Shaughnessy thing... he's an ass. He's like Lupica/Sherman rolled into one.

[northern]

Originally posted by b-ball-lunachick
I really hope they show the shot of them digging out the piano or better yet, Pedro mouthing off on the bench about the Babe! Should be interesting to hear the "diehards" whining about the curse...including Bennifer who is obviously going to stop the lapdances for a second to do the narration!

http://www.hbo.com/bambino/?ntrack_para1=latest5_image



It airs for the first time on HBO on Tuesday, 9/16, 9pm EST. Will you be watching?

So Lunachick, us sox were the" team" during the early years of last century. What happened?!!

[Alex]

Hey Northern - damn your Red Sox!! Wiping the floor with our Yanks - Get 'ya tomorrow!

[mr.roy]

This is going to be great.
Now if I can talk my friend into recording it.
Shouldn't be hard she's a Yankee fan.

Curb Your Enthusiasim she already does.

[Carissa]

Documentary has fun with Red Sox 'Curse'
Steve Kroner Friday, September 12, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...PGJI1M9VR1.DTL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Supernatural" is simply the title of a CD by Santana.

There are no supernatural explanations for what happens in sports. There's nothing cosmic, no hexes, no jinxes, no curses.

Those of us who are ardently anti-metaphysical - at least when it comes to the world of sports - probably will have two distinct reactions while watching HBO's documentary on the history of the Boston Red Sox, "The Curse of the Bambino," which premieres at 10 p.m. Tuesday.

One reaction will be laughter, because producer George Roy and writer Steve Stern tell the story, for the most part, with a deft, lighthearted touch.

The other reaction, to borrow a phrase from McEnroe-ian philosophy, will be, "You cannot be serious."

A quick history lesson: The Red Sox won five of the first 15 World Series,

from 1903 through 1918. However, since selling their star pitcher and home- run hitter, Babe Ruth, to the Yankees prior to the 1920 season, the Red Sox have not won another world championship and the Yankees have collected 26. Over the years, the notion that somehow George Herman Ruth has cursed the Boston franchise has taken hold with some New Englanders.

"It's just a fun way to explain the unexplainable, which is the Red Sox, '' sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy says in the film.

Roy and Stern give the unexplainable an ample push, from the narration by noted Red Sox fan Ben Affleck, to the frequent use of "Twilight Zone"-like background music, to interspersing throughout the film some stylized shots of a man portraying the young Babe at Fenway Park.

Affleck isn't the only celebrity who's a part of "The Curse.'' Actors Michael Chiklis, Denis Leary and Mike O'Malley and comedian Steven Wright are some of the interviewees who discuss their emotional attachments to the Red Sox. Several New England media members and Average Joe and Jane fans talk about the Sox.

About the only people who don't talk about the Red Sox are the Red Sox. No current or former Boston players or front-office people are among the interviewees.

HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg, who had the idea to do "The Curse of the Bambino," said in a phone interview Wednesday that he, Roy and Stern decided they wanted to tell the story from a fan's perspective, so they chose not to interview any players.

You can understand the logic - players come and go, but fans of the team usually remain fans for life.

Nevertheless, there are segments of the documentary that really could use a quote from, say, Carl Yastrzemski or Jim Rice or Fred Lynn or Mike Torrez or Bill Buckner.

Game 6 of the 1986 World Series between the Red Sox and Mets is forever remembered for Buckner's error on Mookie Wilson's grounder that capped New York's game-winning, two-out, three-run rally in the bottom of the 10th. Greenburg said his favorite part of "The Curse" is how Roy and Stern set up that defining moment.

Roy and Stern went back to Dave Henderson's ninth-inning homer in Game 5 of the '86 ALCS against the Angels and then intercut fans' recollections of how happy they were going to be when Boston finally won it all to how crushed they were when New York wound up celebrating.

New York also celebrated at Boston's expense after a one-game playoff for the AL East title in 1978. Bucky Dent's unlikely three-run homer off Torrez keyed the Yankees' 5-4 victory.

Dent, the only player interviewed in the documentary, has a quick bite about how the Boston fans have given his name a new middle initial, F.

Not all of "The Curse" has that bemused tone. Roy and Stern delve, for example, into how Fenway has hurt the franchise because the Red Sox often built teams around one-dimensional right-handed power hitters who could pull balls over the Green Monster in left but who became liabilities when the Red Sox went on the road.

The film also addresses the franchise's dismal record in race relations.

The Red Sox were the last team in the majors to have a black player (Oakland's Pumpsie Green in 1959) and after the onset of free agency in the mid-'70s, Boston went nearly two decades before it signed a black free agent.

The documentary also, thankfully, has some "Curse" debunkers.

"You give me the best team,'' the late sportswriter Will McDonough says, "you can have 'The Curse' on your side. We'll see who wins.''

[Carissa]

Fans Are Best to Tell of the Psychic Pain of Generations
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/14/sp...4sandomir.html

These things keep happening to the Boston Red Sox. There's the Babe Ruth sale, the Johnny Pesky throw, the Bill Buckner grounder through the legs. And no World Series titles in 85 years. Now, a new indignity: as the narrator of its tragic-comic documentary "The Curse of the Bambino," HBO chose Ben Affleck, co-star of "Gigli," a movie with worse reviews than Bob Stanley's in the 1986 World Series.

Using Affleck, a Red Sox fan who grew up in Cambridge, Mass., was one of those awful events that have befallen the team since 1918. A mediocre actor, he taped his voiceover the weekend after the release of his dopey new film with Jennifer Lopez.

"Curse" (Tuesday, 10 p.m. Eastern) is unlike any previous documentary from HBO Sports, although it was made by the producers behind some of its best efforts, George Roy and Steve Stern.

It's as if Christopher Guest or the staff writers of "The Simpsons" had infected Roy and Stern, enabling them to tickle those capable of being amused by a team that inspires New England's hopeful fervor but rewards the region with perennial disappointment.

"Here's what I want on my tombstone," one fan says in "Curse." " 'He never lived long enough to see the Red Sox win it all.' " (How many others will desire the same thing?)

In the documentary, a Boston College ballplayer dresses as young Babe Ruth in pre-1920 Red Sox threads and appears, in silence, walking about like Cosmo Topper. (And he looks a lot better than John Goodman or William Bendix.) Fans - moms and dads, children and grandparents - pose inside and outside Fenway Park; they stare into space, seeking deliverance. Some smile, but is it joy or catatonia?

Brian Keane's musical score seems to have been inspired by Vincent Price, Rod Serling, Federico Fellini and Eubie Blake (in 33 r.p.m., not 45). Archival films and photographs are shrouded behind a cloudy red mist. The perils of a Bosox autumn are symbolized by a fallen dead leaf floating aimlessly in a pond.

HBO's special effects team would have surprised no one had it superimposed a Freddy Krueger mask over the visage of Harry Frazee, the demonized Broadway producer who, as the owner of the Red Sox, sold Ruth to the Yankees in early 1920. At HBO's screening of the documentary in Boston, the first sighting of Frazee was greeted with boos, as if he were the serpent in the Garden of Fenway.

The legend that Frazee sold Ruth to raise money to produce "No, No, Nanette" is debunked here (it was not staged until 1925), but the fact is usually buried beneath the debate over whether there is a curse that can be exorcised or whether the team was cursed by mismanagement and racism (for not signing a black player until 1959). How more convenient it is for most to accept bad karma as the culprit.

"Not only do I hate that musical," the comedian Denis Leary says, "but I hate all musicals. I remember as a kid, I hated Nanette Fabray. Whenever I heard her name, I would go, 'I hate her.' "

Leary's wicked edge would have served the documentary better than Affleck's thin voice, which lacks the tartness needed to capture the story. There is no lack of vocal tang in Leary, who at one point says, "If you had said to my dad that one day we would watch Wade Boggs riding a horse around Yankee Stadium to celebrate his championship with the Yankees, his head would have blown up."

The choice of fans - a few historians are interviewed - to guide the saga of the "Curse" is a smart one. They are experts in psychic pain, so why not let them vent? They are the right ones to discuss the cruel joke of the past 85 years and the Sisyphean struggle of their misbegotten Pilgrims. Let them compare the plight of their team to Dorothy's being torn to death by flying monkeys at the end of "The Wizard of Oz."

One fan, believing the Red Sox would win the 1986 World Series in Game 6, roused his sleeping son, who watched the horror of the Mets' comeback. "My son just collapsed," he said. "I picked him up and he was just sobbing. I felt I had done the worst thing to him a human being could do."

Could Yaz, Dom DiMaggio or Jim Rice express the lament of four generations any better?

[Carissa]

Curses! HBO program offers sad tale of Sox' frustration
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, September 16, 2003
BY JOHN MOLORI
Special to the Journal
http://www.projo.com/redsox/content/...rse.c4b5f.html

If you want fine wine, head to California. If a good steak is your desire, try the Midwest.

But if an amazing sports documentary is your quest, simply walk to your living room and flip to HBO.

HBO's latest chef-d'oeuvre is The Curse of the Bambino, a dark, eerie and almost macabre history of the trials and tragedies of the Boston Red Sox.

The program, which debuts today at 10 p.m., fittingly opens with a shot of a New England graveyard. Long-time Boston radio personality Eddie Andelman states, "Here's what I want on my tombstone: He never lived long enough to see the Red Sox win it all."

Andelman's quote is one of many by Boston media, entertainment figures and fans. From WEEI's Glenn Ordway to comedians Steven Wright and Denis Leary to actor Michael Chiklis, it is clear that personal success is no cure for Red Sox angst.

The outstanding documentary is narrated by Boston native (and Oscar-winning actor) Ben Affleck, who accurately states, "The history of the Red Sox is woven into the fabric of each of the six New England states." The program traces Red Sox pitfalls from Harry Frazee selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees before the 1920 season, to World Series failures in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986.

Ample time is also given to the Red Sox collapse of 1978, culminating in the one-game playoff against the Yankees. Bucky Dent's seventh-inning home run sealed Boston's fate.

With chilling photography and haunting music by Brian Keane, HBO traces the demise of the Red Sox to Frazee.

"(Frazee) took the money and produced a musical called No, No Nanette,"' said Leary. "Not only do I hate that musical, I hate all musicals. I remember as a kid, I hated (actress) Nanette Fabray just based on the first name."

Local historian and author Glenn Stout tries to bring logic to lunacy, pointing out stating that No, No Nanette didn't run on Broadway until five years after the Ruth sale.

The strength of The Curse of the Bambino is its basic realism. Yes, we hear the thoughts of famous writers and other notables, but we also hear from heretofore-unknown Red Sox fans. Fathers, sons, mothers and daughters all express where they were and what they thought as each Red Sox collapse unfolded. It makes for riveting television.

This documentary goes beyond the familiar highlights. Many of us saw Dent's home run, but how many saw Yastrzemski's knees buckle and body cringe as the ball nestled into the left-field screen? Many of us saw the first two outs in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, but how many saw the cautious joy of Jim Rice as he gloved Wally Backman's can of corn, or the anticipatory smile of Dave Henderson as Keith Hernandez's pop-up fell into his glove?

When the Red Sox were one strike away from winning it all versus the Mets, glee gripped Boston. The program shows video of local bar patrons in happy disbelief. We hear the story of a father who awakened his sleeping son so that the boy could witness history. Many of us know what we were doing that night, but it was comforting, yet chilling, to see what others were doing. Chiklis said he stood on top of a local bar and screamed, "I've waited my whole life for this!"

The program builds a foundation of impending joy, then dissolves to the image of an old-time ballplayer, undeniably Ruth, standing alone at Fenway Park. The sad end of Game 6 then unfolds, culminating with the ball rolling through Bill Buckner's legs.

After the Red Sox lost the game, comedian Lenny Clarke, also in a bar, shouted, "Give me everything on the top shelf and put it in a big glass."

The documentary focuses on the supposed curse, including the many attempts to exorcise the demons of Ruth. In Sudbury, there was an effort to pull a piano once owned by Ruth from the bottom of a pond. In a truly Red Sox twist, the man who led the effort shares his name with a former Red Sox manager Kevin Kennedy.

Red Sox racism, specifically mirrored in the face of late owner Tom Yawkey, is discussed, as is the fact that Boston had a chance to sign Jackie Robinson in 1945 and Willie Mays in 1949.

"My uncle used to tell me, 'Why would I go to Fenway just to get beat up?' " said Boston Herald writer Howard Bryant, who is black. "If you really look at the history of the Red Sox, it's not a lot of fun."

Ordway says that the concept of a curse is "the dumbest thing I've ever heard of." WEEI's Ted Sarandis blames Fenway Park for the team's failures. The late Will McDonough points to inferior pitching. On the other hand, Dan Shaughnessy, a consultant on the documentary and the person credited with coining the phrase "Curse Of The Bambino" for his 1991 book of the same name, and Andelman still say they believe in a supernatural force. Regardless, no one can argue that the fortunes of the Yankees and Red Sox turned after Ruth was sold. Before the deal, Boston had won 5 of the first 15 World Series. Since the deal, the Yankees have won 26 titles to Boston's zero.

Leary delivers another great line referring to the 1996 Yankees title: "If you had said to my dad that one day, we would watch (ex-Red Sox third baseman) Wade Boggs riding a horse around Yankee Stadium, celebrating a championship with the Yankees, his head would've blown up."

HBO's gift to Red Sox fans ultimately delves into what would happen if the team actually won the World Series. "It would make the Patriots' Super Bowl party look as if it were a couple of people coming over for coffee," says Mike Barnicle.

In the end, The Curse of the Bambino is a tale of sacred sadness, cherished chagrin and devoted depression. As one Red Sox fans states: "I don't love being a loser, but I love this story."

John Molori's Media Blitz column appears twice monthly in the Journal. He can be reached via E-mail at JOMOL3@aol.com

~^*^~~^*^~~^*^~~^*^~~^*^~~^*^~~^*^~~^*^~

HBO connects solidly on Red Sox' big curse
By Ron Reid
Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/6781054.htm

For long-suffering fans whose hearts have been broken again and again by the failures of the Phillies, one suspects an HBO Sports documentary, The Curse of the Bambino, will have special meaning.

The one-hour program, which will be shown on the cable network tonight at 10, presents the phenomenon that has haunted Boston Red Sox fans for almost a century, and tells the story with plaintive voice-overs, historic footage, and fan interviews that are poignant, funny and clever.

The only drawback is narrator Ben Affleck, the reedy-voiced, wimpy actor whose delivery doesn't cut it.

In the Paleolithic era of major-league baseball, the Red Sox may have been the most elite team in the game, winning five of the first 15 World Series.

But before the start of the 1920 season, in the most-remembered deal in baseball history, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold one George Herman Ruth, a young pitcher and extraordinary hitter, to the Yankees for $400,000.

Ruth hit 54 home runs in his first season as a Yankee - more than any other team in the league - and took the New Yorkers to seven pennants and four World Series championships.

Frazee's decision made him Public Enemy No. 1 forever after in the hearts of Red Sox fans. But The Curse of the Bambino debunks the myth that he sold the Babe to finance the Broadway play No, No, Nanette.

Glenn Stout, a historian who has written a book on the subject, points out that the play was not produced until five years after Ruth was sold.

Stout also says that Ruth was a bad influence in the Red Sox' clubhouse, that he frequented brothels and often was found sleeping or drunk in the streets.

The Curse of the Bambino also presents the occasions on which the Red Sox have snatched defeat from the jaws of success, including Bucky Dent's implausible home run in the one-game playoff of 1978 and the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, which the Bosox lost after leading, 5-3, with two outs in the 10th inning.

"I blame the curse," a still-disgruntled Red Sox fan says. "There was a better chance that a boat was going to fall out of the sky than Bucky Dent was going to hit that homer."

Dent, indeed, was a .243 hitter who had four home runs for the season before the improbable moment when he powered the ball over Fenway Park's Green Monster.

Another fan, reflecting on the 1986 Series' dismal result for the Red Sox - remember Bill Buckner's ankles? - says, "I turned to the bartender and said, 'Just give me everything on the top shelf - in a big glass.' "

"When you come this close this many times," says Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, "you just start toward the larger forces that are what the curse is about. Superstition over science. It's just a fun way to explain the unexplainable, which is the Red Sox."

But the show offers two better explanations why the Red Sox haven't won a World Series since 1918.

One is the smallish size of Fenway Park and its high demand for great pitching.

The other is the Red Sox' shameful record in race relations.

Under the plantation mentality of former owner Tom Yawkey, the Red Sox were the last franchise in the majors to integrate, and that happened only after the team had turned down both Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays.

[Danmel]

Originally posted by Mr. Maddux
I'm looking forward to it! I think Denis Leary is supposed to be on it. I remember a comedy special where he did a bit on the 1978 one-game playoff, and then Bucky Dent came out a gave him an autographed picture of the home run!

That's Bucky ................ing Dent to you!

Not sure I'll be able to watch it- should I tape it or is that bad luck?

[#1PaFan]

This is GREAT!!!

[wexy]

It was a great production. Very well done. It was great the way they made it a memoir piece using all the different Red Sox fans.

The shot of the bar in Boston in 86 was priceless.

For a moment I felt sorry for the Red Sox fans and then
it quickly faded

It was interesting that the Red Sox fans themselves said they didn't know what they would do if they actually ever won.

Heres to hoping they don't find out for another 85 years .

[yankeegeek]

Good comedy!!! I loved it!! One of the greatest things from HBO EVER!!


I love their pain and misery. Boo-hoo cry me a friggin river!

[Alex]

I felt sorry for them, I really do. But not sorry enough... I still want to crush them.

The thing that gets under my skin is the way some Red Sox fans think they're better human beings just because they root for a losing team.

[NDBoston]

Originally posted by Alex
I felt sorry for them, I really do. But not sorry enough... I still want to crush them.

The thing that gets under my skin is the way some Red Sox fans think they're better human beings just because they root for a losing team.

I don't think Red Sox fans believe they are better human beings, just better baseball fans than most.

Not many people would take the beatings we have, and come back for more.



I

[Big_E]

Originally posted by NDBoston


I don't think Red Sox fans believe they are better human beings, just better baseball fans than most.

Not many people would take the beatings we have, and come back for more.



I

Does that mean Sado-Mascochists make better lovers?

[19laura]

Originally posted by Alex
I felt sorry for them, I really do. But not sorry enough... I still want to crush them.

The thing that gets under my skin is the way some Red Sox fans think they're better human beings just because they root for a losing team.

I agree in that I too actually felt some sympathy for them, especially after the 86' WS when they showed dozens of people wandering the streets aimlessly in disbelief.

Some of their fan statements were funny, in particular the comments on not knowing what they would do if indeed their team actually did win it all!

Overall though I found it very well done and watching the scenes of the 86' debacle was like watching it for the first time... all over again


Laura

[yecul]

Not sure I know any Red Sox fan who doesn't want the team to succeed, so I have no idea where that stuff came from.

Oh, aside from Shaughnessy (CHB). He created the curse, so he probably wants to have his pockets be filled some more.

No one talked about a curse before his book (late 1980s/early 90s I think), but they didn't bother to mention that.

[25Giambi25]

I only saw the last half hour or so but I though it was a riot. I'm going to bring it into work so we can watch it at lunchtime (most people in my office are Yankee fans!)

[ring403]

I just saw it. What a great special! I was particularly fond of the 1986 WS segment. It was the one time in my life where I rooted for the Mets alongside my Mets friends and family. I remember the emotional swing from disgust when Boston got the second out and got a strike away from winning, to a feeling of building exhilaration with each base hit, and the unbounded joy of seeing that slow roller get by Buckner.
I got goosebumps watching them re-create that whole drama!

[jnewmark]

Most of my family are Red sox fans( I was raised in the Boston area).What kills me is how much hatred there is for the Yankees by Boston fans.It was'nt the Yankees that sold the Babe,it was'nt the Yankees that blew it when it counted,it was the Red Sox.That scene during the Patriots celebration when the crowd chanted." Yankees Suck!" was so out of line,it did not even make sense.People like myself across the country love the Yankees,but it's not a matter of life and death,but it seems to be in Boston when it comes to the Red Sox.

[KC]

Ugh, I've watched 8 minutes of this drivel. I didn't think it was possible for me to hate Ben Affleck anymore than I did after I wasted $10 on Pearl Harbor.