Can two curses cancel each other out?

The Boston Red Sox have been on a bit of a run as of late — going 21-7 in August and 7-1 in September. They’ve wone 20 of their last 22 games, and have gone 8-1 in their last three series against the cream of the American League West. Since August 15th, the Red Sox have chopped eight games off the Yankees’ 10-1/2 game lead in the AL east. Even more enjoyably, these Sox are winning in a variety of ways — pounding the cover off the ball one game, and then winning with quality defense and pitching the next. Even though they’ve suffered through a rash of injuries, everyone is starting to get healthy at the right time. David Pinto’s wife thinks the Red Sox are in “kill mode.” Even the New York Daily News observes:

For the first time in what seems like forever, the Red Sox don’t need to rely on divine intervention to further their cause. If anyone is playing baseball that is blessedly pure, it’s Boston, which has a rotation that routinely cruises through seven-plus innings and has barely put a wrong foot defensively since trading Nomar Garciaparra, its favorite son. If anyone is cursed now, it’s the Yankees. Even Manny Ramirez stepped out of his own special universe yesterday to ask a visiting New Yorker about Kevin Brown, the Yankee pitcher who did what thousands of Red Sox fans have done across the decades [Brown punched a wall after a so-so start, breaking his non-pitching hand and sidelining him for at least three weeks–DD]. “He punched a wall? Intentionally? Wow,” said the man who has been known to do silly things like play with a water bottle in his back pocket, but has never come close to committing Brown’s stupidity.

Meanwhile, the Yankess have gotten into a pissing match with the Commissioner’s office, and neither side looks good. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t post any of this, convinced from last year’s experience that the very act of positive posting about the Red Sox could jinx the team and leave me cursed with spam comments for eternity. However, today I see that the Old Towne Team is on the cover of Sports Illustrated (here’s Tom Verducci’s article for SI subscribers, and Verducci’s mailbag for everyone). Of course, this invites the dreaded SI cover jinx to rear its ugly head. Compared to the aunted Satanic powers of the SI jinx — especially in this decade — this humble blog can do little harm. According to the Boston Globe‘s Bob Hohler, SI cover boy Curt Schilling and manager Terry Francona aren’t too worried:

Schilling said he was not concerned. “We’re bigger than that,” he said. Nor was manager Terry Francona put off. “It’s like worrying about the weather,” he said. “You can’t do anything.”

There are forces more powerful than danieldrezner.com at work here. All a good Red Sox fan can do is salute the bravery of Schilling, Francona et al, check the Baseball Prospectus’ Playoff Odds Report, hope that the baseball gods just let the best team on the field win the pennant (Intriguingly, today’s odds sheet gives the Sox a better chance of winning the pennant than the Yankees, even though they’re still two games back as of this writing), and pray that in some weird Buffy The Vampire Slayer fashion, the SI jinx negates the residual curse of the Bambino. UPDATE: Murray Chass mournfully writes in the Times that because of the existence of the wild card, the Sox-Yankees pennant chase will not be as dramatic as the 1978 race. This may be true — I wouldn’t count out either the Angels or the A’s just yet — but overlooks one of the major benefits of the current playoff format. Now, instead of a one day playoff, the possibility looms that the Yankees and the Sox could play another seven-game series. Surely, Chass would grant that last year’s ALCS series more than made up for the drama lost from the absence of an exciting pennant chase. But if Chass wants to forfeit his press credentials to any of the six upcoming Sox-Yankees games, I’ll take them. When bloggers get press passes to Fenway — then we’ll know the blogosphere has arrived!! ANOTHER UPDATE: The day I post this, the Yankees sweep a double-header and the Sox lose. Arrrgggghhh!!! [Blame Sports Illustrated!! Blame Sports Illustrated!!–ed] LAST UPDATE: Jim Baker’s discussion of the Sox today in Baseball Prospectus perfectly encapsulates the inner monologue of any longtime fan. It’s also sidesplittingly funny:

By now, the Red Sox have put themselves in a position where not making the playoffs seems unlikely. What that means is this: as we speak, the following memo is going around the corporate headquarters of The Fates:

Colleagues: I am assuming that most of you haven’t noticed that our frequent past project Boston Red Sox have gone on a 20-2 run. Because of that, we must begin planning immediately for their ultimate undoing. It’s much too late to dash their hopes à la 1978 during the regular season. Clearly, we are going to have to come up with something for the playoffs, instead. Last year’s work was extraordinary but we don’t have a Grady Little on hand to make our jobs easy, so this is what we need:

I want the boys down in R & D to give me four scenarios of doom.

I need marketing to gauge the level of expectation of the Red Sox nation. How high is the cynicism factor? What can we do to overcome it, in order to maximize heartbreak?

Creative: Your thoughts? Can we top Bill Buckner without making it too obvious?

You have your assignments. I need your preliminary ideas on my desk in one week. In terms of priority, put the Cubs aside until further notice.

Heh. Rueful heh.