The Tampa Bay Rays — this year’s best baseball story by far — are the 30th, and final major league franchise to make it to postseason play. Every other club has appeared in the postseason, though not necessarily in the World Series. Should the Rays prevail and make it to the Series, they will be the 27th club to play in the Fall Classic. The three clubs yet unseen in the Series? The Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners and, yes, the Washington Nationals.
Now, think about those three franchises for a second. Do you see a common thread? No? Well, consider this: Texas used to be the Washington Senators. The old Montreal Expos are the Washington Nationals. And the Seattle Mariners play in the state of Washington.
Somebody somewhere apparently doesn’t want to see a team representing anyplace called “Washington” in the World Series.
Okay, okay, that’s ridiculous, I know. But, given the mileage the Red Sox got out of “The Curse of the Bambino,” and what the Cubs are still getting out of “The Billy Goat Curse,” maybe it’s time for Washingtonians — here and in the Pacific Northwest — to manufacture their own baseball curse.
Where does one begin to manufacture a myth? We know that both the city and the state are named in honor of George Washington, the father of our country. Inasmuch as there’s no evidence George ever played the game — though recent evidence suggests it was around in some form in the 1700s — we can’t hang the origins on him.
What other person, or event, could have precipitated this decades-long bi-coastal drought of October baseball? I’m open to suggestion, but inasmuch as the original Washington franchise, now the Minnesota Twins, have appeared in 6 World Series — 3 in each location — I’m figuring it’s something that began in the 1960s.
Here’s a scenario that I’ll call Calvin’s Curse: Before Calvin Griffith moved the original club to Minnesota, he actually was ready to stay — as long as he had his say on where a new ballpark would be built in the city (he had his heart set on upper Northwest). He was quoted late in the 1960 season saying that “the Senators will never leave town during my lifetime. …” That much is fact.
But, let’s say he went a little batty upon hearing that the new park was instead being built on the other side of town, and went to his local gypsy, alchemist, whatever, and swapped an old pair of Tex Clevenger’s cleats for a spell guaranteeing that no future Washington team — he was leaving, of course — would ever play in, and therefore win, a World Series.
Pretty feeble, I’ll admit. But as I said, I’m open to suggestion. If you’ve got a more colorful — or more ridiculous — myth, I’m all ears. After all, baseball lore is replete with myth, superstition and what-ifs, so creating a back story out of thin air shouldn’t be too difficult. Whether it spawns a “curse” cottage industry — books, T-Shirts, etc. — like the Red Sox and Cubs, remains to be seen. But, when you’ve finished with the 29th and 30th worst won-lost records, a la the Mariners and Nats, a little distraction can’t hurt.
Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
