History of the Boston Red Sox Rivalry on Earth" by some journalists. The sale would later be attributed as the cause of the "Curse of the Bambino", a tongue-in-cheek curse blamed for the inability of the Red Sox to win the World Series, from 1918 to 2004. The Red Sox had finished 6th in 1919, only a year after winning the World Series. Frazee intended to use the money from selling Ruth to rebuild the team. However, he ran into trouble with his theater interests from 1918 onward, leaving him without enough money to service the debts on both Fenway Park and the Red Sox. He
Curse of the Colonel Curse of the Colonel The curse was said to be placed on the team because of the Colonel's anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues, which was thrown into the Dōtonbori River by celebrating Hanshin fans following their team's victory in the 1985 Japan Championship Series. As is common with sports-related curses, the Curse of the Colonel was used to explain the team's subsequent 18-year losing streak. Some fans believed the team would never win another Japan Series until the statue had been recovered. They have appeared in the Japan Series three times since then, losing in 2003,