Baseball superstition holds teams that lead their division in July go to the postseason. Boston’s current place in the standings looks as though they will have to wait until next year. 20 years ago, the Red Sox reversed the “curse of the Bambino” and won the World Series.
John Vorperian, a lifelong Westchester resident and sports historian, grew up a Boston Red Sox booster. His obsession with the Sox began in 1968. His family summered in the Hub and regularly took the then 10-year-old to games at Fenway Park. Those trips resulted in a passion for Beantown’s nine and baseball history.
Vorperian along with 67 Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) members, which included some Yankee and Cardinal fans have published a book about the famed 2004 Championship club. Issued on the 20th anniversary, SOX BID CURSE FAREWELL celebrates that renowned squad by detailing the biographies of all the players and coaches alongside essays about that unprecedented season wherein the New England franchise won the World Series for the first time in 86 years.
Boston became the first team to ever win a seven-game series after being down three games to none to their archrivals, the New York Yankees. The Sox then swept the St. Louis Cardinals four games to none in the Fall Classic.
Vorperian has written for RED SOX MAGAZINE and contributed to eleven other baseball team books for SABR. He also hosts a sports themed cable TV program BEYOND THE GAME on White Plains Community Media.