Are the Red Sox truly cursed?

When Fox showed the World Series logo being painted at Fenway, I just thought to myself: it's hubris. This is not good. It was like putting the plastic sheets on the lockers in 1986 - it just seemed to be tempting fate, as it were.

No question as to the curse being real. Apparently "The Babe" is using Grady Liddle as his intermediary.

Cowboy down.

Ready for Game 8

By JOHN KENNEY

Published: October 18, 2003

[]his is it. Winner takes all. Unless the Yankees win and force a Game 9. In which case the winner of that game goes to the World Series. Unless the Red Sox lose that game, too, thereby forcing a Game 10. Should the Yankees win, they'd move on to Game 11, giving Boston yet another chance.
On the mound for the Red Sox in Game 8, working on just one day's rest, will be Pedro Martínez, accompanied by John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves, Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the singer Norah Jones. Grady Little, the Boston manager, said, "It's an unusual rotation, as well as being technically illegal, but these are top-rate pitchers as well as a truly gifted singer, and well, it's Game 8 and that's what you do in these situations."
Game time is 4:15 p.m., though the Yankees are under the impression that the game begins at 8 p.m. The Red Sox, in association with Major League Baseball, feel that this will give them the opportunity to establish an early lead. "The four-hour jump is really going to help the ball club," said Theo Epstein, the Red Sox general manager.
Boston has not won a World Series since the American Civil War. During that time the team has carried with it the burden of an alleged curse — caused, some say, by the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Nomar Garciaparra, the Red Sox shortstop, spoke to reporters about the curse. "I was talking with Jason Varitek after the game," he said. "We both just read the new biography of Sylvia Plath and I was saying that, in many ways, our experience as a ball club is much like Ms. Plath's — passionate, yes. Creative, yes. And yet in many ways deeply troubled. Of course, if you think about it, the Yankees, overbearing, dominant, are very much like Ted Hughes. I guess the only difference is that we've never committed suicide. Although we've certainly thought about it."
"There's no curse," said Epstein, as he accompanied a Jamaican high priestess, Yocasta LaPierre, while she sprinkled chicken blood around home plate.
Reached for comment, Joe Torre, the Yankees manager, reacted with surprise: "I had no idea there was going to be a Game 8. I thought we won Thursday night. Also, I feel our best work is far less sentimental than Plath's or Hughes's. Except for Matsui and Zim, who don't speak English, we're much more in the Billy Collins school."
Another change that will take place during the game is the removal of second and third base when the Red Sox are batting. "We've noticed that second and third bases are troublesome for the Red Sox, especially later in the game," said Bud Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball. With the removal of the two bases, according to a diagram released by the commissioner's office, Sox baserunners would be allowed to proceed from first base directly to home plate.
Selig said he would address the new "blindfold" rule for the Yankee hitters in the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the lineup at a later date.
Little said that one substitution on his roster would be benching center fielder Johnny Damon for Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations. "Johnny's working with Unesco right now on some pretty serious stuff and Kofi, whose name means `Friday' in his native Ghana, kindly agreed to play."
The winner, of course, will play the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. The Cubs qualified for the Fall Classic after losing to the Florida Marlins on Wednesday.