The curse of the Nomar

I came across this archived New York Times article dated September 12, 1918 and found it both interesting and demoralizing. Interesting because sportswriting certainly has changed in almost a century (and not necessarily for the better); demoralizing because the only team the Red Sox were able to beat is the only team more historically mired in futility than Boston.

I was being facetious with the "curse of the Nomar" reference, but only because he got traded to the Cubs. Otherwise, in 80 years we could have been talking about how the Devil Rays owe their string of championships to the Nomar Garciaparra trade in 2004.

Anyway, here's the first paragraph of the article celebrating the Red Sox's last World Series win:

SOX GIVE CUBS COUP DE GRACE IN SIXTH GAME



Special to the New York Times.
BOSTON, Mass., Sept. 11.--When Max Flack made a ludicrous muff of Whiteman's line drive in the third inning at Fenway Park this afternoon two runs wafted over the plate, which gave the Red Sox the baseball championship of the world. The score was 2 to 1 and the 1918 triumph marks the fifth world's series that the Red Sox have brought to the high brow domicile of the baked bean. Boston is the luckiest baseball spot on earth, for it has never lost a world's series.

Apparently a lot can change in 86 years.