As the curtain went down on the past baseball season, the Boston Red Sox had not only completed the greatest comeback in baseball history to defeat the Yankees, they became world champions for the first time in 86 years.
The images on the TV screen were almost unfathomable. Something changed that night, but it was hard to put your finger on just what it was.
Even though most people, myself included, were happy to see the curse come to an end, something about the whole thing didn’t seem right. Now, in the early days of April, it all seems so clear.
The Red Sox didn’t break free of the curse, they lost it. The curse of the bambino hung off the city of Boston and the New England area like shackles on a prisoner, but it also was their identity.
They were the lovable losers. They came close so many years, the most painful of which was 1986, when a ground ball to end it all trickled through the legs of Bill Buckner and allowed the Mets to walk away with the World Series.
It may have been heartbreaking, but it was the identity that the team wore around their necks like an albatross for 86 years. Now that they are unchained, nothing will ever be the same.
When the celebration in Boston cooled down, the eyes of the baseball world turned to Chicago, the only cursed team left. Many people thought that the pressure would be on the Cubs now that the Red Sox had crossed the threshold.
I think that the Cubs will be laughing last. The curse makes them unique.
When you’re a Chicago Cub, losing doesn’t wear you down, it insulates you. When losing is your identity, you can just wrap yourself in losses and walk down the street unashamed because it is who you are.
Now the Red Sox are left to stagger into a strange new world, a world where they have no identity and no excuse for not winning. The weight of expectation will be crushing, and the critics and fans alike will swoop down on losses not with dull melancholy, but with talons drawn.
It’s been said before, and it will be said again in Boston as the season unfolds. Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.

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