3 replies to this topic

[Elsternwick Pierre]

I see you have Boston on the front screen clock. That’s enough to get me going.
I spent much of 1973 working in Boston. Yet another attempt to get Footscray to win the premiership by being out of the country. Back in those days there was no real footy on the TV over there (and no internet, of course) so I had no idea how they were doing except the occasional mention in letters from mum.
In the evenings, if there were no interesting concerts on or I didn’t go out to dinner, there was always sitting in front of TV. Now if you think Australian TV is bad you should see American (it’s even worse now than in 1973). The last resort was watching baseball which was on quite a lot during summer. Like cricket, it’s good for sitting in front of, glass of wine in hand and not really taking too much notice unless something interesting happens (quite rare in baseball).
As this was Boston I saw a lot of the Red Sox and, by osmosis really, became a fan of that team. In hindsight it was an inspired choice given their similarity to Footscray. They were everybody’s “second” team, they hadn’t won a World Series since about 1912.
In baseball superstition, especially in Boston, this was called “The Curse of the Babe”. This is because the baseball’s greatest player, Babe Ruth, started with the Red Sox and played a couple of seasons there. The owner of the club sold him to the Yankees (bastard). This would be like selling Ted Whitten to Collingwood in 1953 – “The Curse of the Ted” I suppose that would have been. Fortunately, it didn’t happen, but there does seem to be the curse of some sort on us. Think 1997 especially. Think, maybe, 1985. Perhaps 1998, 1961.
Anyway, the point of this is that three years ago they finally broke though and won the Series. Not only that they did it again this year.
So, if the Red Sox can do it, so can Footscray.

[Caveman]

Yes I remember reading about the Boston Red Sox finally breaking through after a few lifetimes of no Premierships (or whatever they call it)

1998 was the year that Jana Novotna won Wimbledon, the Scottish soccer team Heart Of Midlothian finally won a trophy after years of nothing (and their Scotland's third biggest club) and that was their first trophy after years in the wilderness. This pointed to us- but we got Preliminitis again and there has been no Preliminary Final since then.

Maybe there is the curse of Ted Whitten? Our last 'major' trophy (which is also our last Grand Final appearance) was the 1970 Night Grand Final. Ted our coach that night- we beat Melbourne at the Lakeside Oval, then at the end of 1971 Teddy Whitten was sacked as coach. No Grand Finals since.

[Lisbon]

Here's a thing I don't get about baseball: teams from the same city (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) or from neighbouring cities (Washington/ Baltimore, Oakland/ San Francisco, Dallas/ Houston etc.) never play in the same league - one is always in the American League, the other in the National League, which ensures that they never play against each other in the regular season and may well go decades without ever featuring in the same match. Don't they like local derbys? I remember that a few years back both New York teams reached the World Series and interest was huge. That year's World Series was dubbed the "subway series", because you only needed to take the subway to go to the games, even if your team played away. Everybody liked it, so why not make a regular feature?
On the subject of curses, there's a nice little one in Portuguese soccer. My team's great rivals Benfica had their golden age in the 60s, when they won the league eight times (in 62 and 66 Sporting - thankfully - were champions) and also won the Champions Cup in 61 and 62. The coach who led them to their double European title was the Hungarian Bela Guttman, a man who lived a pretty interesting life, which included playing for the famous Jewish team Hakoah Vienna, playing professionally in the USA, at at time (20s and 30s) when Central European emigrants in New York ran a very popular league and giving dance lessions and running a speakeasy as a means to supplement his income while living in America.
He left Benfica in acrimony right after the 62 European title and cursed the club, saying that no Portuguese team would win consecutive European titles in the next 100 years and that Benfica would never become European champions without him. Since then Benfica have played five European cup finals and lost every one of them. First they lost against AC Milan after having scored the opening goal. Then the final was played against Inter in Milan and Inter won 1-0 thanks to a colossal goalkeeping blunder. In 1968 they played Manchester United in London and Eusébio missed a golden opportunity in the last minute of regulation time, with the score tied at one a-piece. Man U then scored three goals in extra-time. In the late eighties Benfica played against PSV Eindhoven in the final and lost on penalties, having twice failed to score because players' boots had fallen off when their owners were poised to score. In 1990 Benfica reached the final once more and the match took place in Vienna, where Guttman is buried. Before the game, a delegation from the club visited Guttman's grave and prayed for forgiveness, but to no avail - they lost 1-0 to AC Milan.

[Caveman]

I remember watching that 1988 European Cup Final on the television and how it went to penalties. Eusebio was shown on tv at the game.

As for Eusebio and the 1968 Final at Wembley, the goalkeeper Alex Stepney won (or as others would say prevented Manchester United from losing) the European Cup because of that save from Eusebio. Benfica seemed to be spent in extra time, that probably would have won it for them.