A New Excuse
Over the many years that I’ve rooted for baseball teams who inevitably fell on their collective butts as the shadow of the postseason approached, I’ve held to the belief that they “didn’t have enough pitching” or “failed to make timely hits” or even “even good players can’t win with a bad manager.” It was comforting to know these human failings were the suspected root cause of a given team’s perennial habit of almost-but-not-quite-there outcomes, for humans can always overcome their failures and prevail next year. Baseball fans count on getting a seat on the “we’ll get ‘em next year” bus.
But this year I can throw all that dogma out the window, for there’s a “new” excuse in town that’s even better: they’re cursed! Hey, it’s working for the Cubs and Red Sox, so why not the Astros? Why bother with delving into stats or analyzing critical plays in critical series, when with a flip of the wit one can invoke “it’s the curse!” and all is well. While the Astros don’t have a goat or the Babe to identify with their curse, they aren’t short of reasons why their curse is just as persistent, even if not historically rooted. They’re cursed with running out of steam in postseason play…cursed with trading away players who become stars on other teams while the ones they get in return rarely achieve…cursed with beating good teams reliably and looking like minor leaguers against the lowly Brewers…and most of all, cursed with tight-fisted owners who create just enough interest to generate fans but never enough to successfully challenge for a pennant.
While hanging onto a “curse” as an excuse is somewhat comforting because it removes human failings as a cause and replaces that with something that’s beyond mere mortal control, hence supporting the whine “hey, it’s a higher power thing…what can we do,” fans rarely confess “hey, we were CRAP this year and the other team beat our butts off.” No, other than using poor soul sitting down the Cubs foul line in game 6 as a goat (there’s another damn goat reference), the typical fan would prefer to blame the curse and move on to another curse-potential year. And Red Sox fans? More poignant were the Yankee players celebrating after game 7 by toasting then dousing the plaque of the Babe and exclaiming “…the curse lives!” When the competition starts believing in your curse, you’re toast…might as well ask “pass the butter, please” and enjoy.
