Boston Red Sox: 100 years later, the return of the curse?

Last night, the Red Sox and manager Alex Cora mutually parted ways after details of the 2017 sign-stealing scandal emerged. Could this be the return of the curse for Boston?

The city of Boston must have felt that all too familiar feeling when the details of the Astros sign-stealing scandal broke. That sinking feeling Red Sox fans lived with for 86 years before 2004; waiting for the worst thing to happen.

For 15 years, since 2004, the team has had nothing but success, seemingly slaying the curse that kept them down for so long. In that time span, they won four World Series titles, the last of which in historic fashion.

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You see, the 2018 championship team didn’t just set a franchise record for wins in the regular season (108) and in total (119), they also dominated the league in just about every hitting category.

• AVG = .268
• OBP = .339
• SLG = .453
• wOBA = .340
• Runs = 876

It’s almost like they know what was coming…

Then, almost 100 years to the day of the Sox trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, the news broke. After being fined, alongside the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, for using the replay room to learn the sequences of signs in 2017, the 2018 Red Sox continued to do so under Alex Cora‘s watch.

What’s more, upon completing its investigation into the Astros sign-stealing scandal in 2017, it appears that Cora was the mastermind behind the scheme. As a result, just days over 100 years after trading Ruth to the Yankees, the Sox and Cora decided to “mutually” part ways, ending Cora’s short tenure as the team’s manager in shame.

All of this before MLB even handed down its punishment.

And so, we’re here to speculate one something else altogether; something, perhaps, supernatural.

The return of a curse.

Since the Black Sox scandal — some would argue the Pete Rose Scandal — baseball hasn’t seen such a scandal like the one Cora’s so heavily involved in. Unlike PED’s, where players individually took it upon themselves to “juice,” this was organizational and blatant.

Of course, we’ll never know if this is the start of a new championship drought, only time will tell that. For one day, however, the Boston Red Sox got that sinking feeling again.

As a Yankees fan, nothing brings me more joy.