Is the Curse Reversed?

The Boston Red Sox rally past their haunted history--and the hated Yankees--to face one last ghost: the Cardinals in the World Series

Fans of the Boston Red Sox are defined by the magnificence of their misery. They can itemize their team's climactic agonies like the Stations of the Cross. A tantalizing lead, inevitably followed by victory-snatching disaster, stains their dreams and scars their muscle memory. Since 1918, the last time Boston won a World Series, postseason has been the haunt of red October. And so very often the satanic specter for Red Sox Nation has been Damn Nation: the New York Yankees. A home run by Bucky (Freakin') Dent in a one-game playoff in 1978; an 11th-inning blast by Aaron (Flippin') Boone in...

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