Babe Ruth and the curse of the Bambino

Babe Ruth, also known by his nickname "the Bambino", was the most famous baseball player ever. He spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball and was known for his hitting. Ruth set career records for home runs (714) and runs batted in (2,217). He entered the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox as a starting pitcher, but after he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, he converted to a full time right fielder. He helped the Yankees win seven pennants and four World Series titles.

The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition created because of the failure of the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004. The curse began when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in1919. Before that, the Red Sox had been one of the most successful baseball teams, with five World Series titles. After The Bambino left, it took them 86 years to win it again, while the previously poor Yankees became the most successful team in history. The curse ended for Red Sox fans in 2004, when their team famously came from a 0-3 deficit to beat the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series and then went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series.
The curse had been a big part of Boston culture in those 86 years. The best selling book about it by Dan Shaughnessy, called The Curse of the Bambino, became required reading in some high school English classes in New England.
Ruth retired in 1935 after a short stint with the Boston Braves, and the following year, he became one of the first five players to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.