Curse reversed

Ever since the Yankees poured champagne on his likeness that fateful evening in the Bronx after their 2003 ALCS-clinching victory over the Red Sox, the Babe has seemed to have changed his mind about which former team he decides to haunt with his unfortunate mojo.

“He’s smiling,” a cackling Roger Clemens exclaimed on the heels of Aaron Boone’s game-winning home run, rubbing the bubbly on Babe Ruth’s lips in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park. “He’s smiling.”

Smiling. Or smirking.

Even the most ardent scoffers of the Bambino’s former supposed Curse on the Red Sox have to wonder if there isn’t something deliriously strange going on with the team that most benefited from Ruth’s mystical influence. The Yankees are in last place, gouged by injury, and starting pitchers are dropping like hints from The Boss that he’s “doubly, really, totally serious about righting this ship. Or else.”

And when you think things can’t get worse, fate has a funny way of slapping you around.
Last night it was rookie Philip Hughes, who was no-hitting the Texas Rangers in his second major league start. He might have been on his way to becoming the youngest AL pitcher ever to hurl a no-no. The Yankees had found redemption in Hughes, one of nine pitchers to start for them in the first month of the season, a franchise record. Mike Mussina was coming off the disabled list later this week, Chien-Ming Wang would certainly pull it together soon, and New York would finally have a formidable rotation in order to…
Never mind.
Hughes was through 6 1/3 innings of his historic bid when he felt his hamstring pop. He’s out four to six weeks, which really makes him a veteran Yankee pitcher already. Join the club, kid. Mussina has been there. Wang has been there. Jeff Karstens has been there. Carl Pavano has obviously been there. Pavano has his fan mail sent there at this point, albeit as light a load as that is.
If I’m Andy Pettitte, I don’t want to take the mound tonight in Arlington, seeing as two of the last three starters the Yankees have trotted out to the hill have found their way to the disabled list. That’s what the math geeks call a bad ratio.
Bambino though? Maybe not. But as the folks over at The Sports Frog aptly propose, it could be the Curse of Jeff Mangold, which admittedly doesn’t flow as easily.
Prior to the season, Cashman fired Mangold, the team’s strength and conditioning coach for nearly a decade and replaced him with Marty Miller, who the New York Daily News’ Mark Feinsand points out was “director of fitness at the Ballen Isles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He has a master’s degree from California University of Pennsylvania in performance enhancement and injury prevention.”
Translation: Don’t expect Miller to wind up in too many college brochures.
Since the start of spring training, Mussina, Bobby Abreu, Pettitte, Wang, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and now Hughes have suffered a pull or strain of some kind. Even Michael Kay’s lips have been aching without their normal contortion to a smug sense of satisfaction.
“Marty isn’t a baseball guy like Mangold was,” one Yankees player told Feinsand. “Marty has been given a lot of pull, and I think he’s a little too gung-ho right now.”
The only reason the Yankees won’t have to employ a 10th different starter this early in the season is because Mussina is due to come off the DL this week. His return will elicit a certain sigh of relief from the Bronx brass, seeing as their top three of Wang, Pettitte, and Mussina will be active at the same time for the first time all season. For now. Roger Clemens has to feel somewhat wary about putting the Yankees on top of his return list, citing “Strange karma” at the top of his “Against” column for New York.
I know, you’re as excited about the annual Roger Clemens sweepstakes as anyone, but this year it’s a no-brainer. Is there any doubt Clemens will come to Boston now? We may as well declare it inevitable. No matter how badly New York might need him, Clemens has to be a bit concerned that he’d be next in the line of walking wounded.
According to Yahoo.com, the A’s recently dialed up the Red Sox wondering if they might be interested in making a deal for talented righty Rich Harden, who is currently on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. “The call to the Red Sox could have been an effort to tempt the New York Yankees, who are not yet frantic over their starting pitching, but could be soon and, perhaps, should be,” writes Tim Brown.
Sure. Because that’s all the Yankees need now, another oft-injured arm to join their injury brigade. I suppose he and Pavano would at least have a fine time having each other as gin rummy partners, but risky all the same.
Which means it’s perfect for the Yankees.
It’s borderline hysterical how the Yankees’ acquisitions over the years have paled in comparison to similar ones made by their bitter rivals. The Red Sox got Curt Schilling, who helps them win the World Series. The Yankees grabbed teammate Randy Johnson, who’s back in Arizona. The Yankees signed Pavano, who has pitched about as much the past three seasons as coach Ron Guidry. The Red Sox made a deal for Josh Beckett, who tries to go 6-0 on the season tonight. The Red Sox grabbed Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Yankees countered with Kei Igawa and got a killer pair of sunglasses thrown in as part of the deal.
It’s obvious that injuries have gotten the Yankees into the mess they’re in. But let’s not altogether discount poor decision-making on the part of Cashman and Co.
Or, we can just blatantly excuse all that and call it a curse. Worked here for years.
Pettitte starts tonight for the Yankees. No matter how he performs, if he’s able to make his next start, well, at this point that’s about the best victory the team can ask for.
And if this is indeed the work of Ruth or even Mangold in a twisted reversal of fortune, Clemens had indeed better stay far away. If the Babe’s carrying a grudge from that night, Clemens was at the forefront, feeding him champagne in a moment of face-rubbing that, come to think of it, serves as a significant reminder as to why some Red Sox fans don’t want him back here either.
But he’s coming here. I mean, you wouldn’t willingly submit yourself to being part of that jinxed group, would you?