Baseball's Longest-Lasting Curses

Congratulations to the Atlanta Braves, who beat the Houston Astros 7-0 in Game 6 of the World Series last night, to win their 1st World Championship since October 28, 1995.

That 26-year drought seemed to be the result of The Curse of Mark Wohlers, more about which in a moment. If there ever was such a thing, it is now over.

Note: Not every drought has been attributed to a "curse." Some teams are in markets small enough that they don't get enough attention to be called "cursed." Also, curses usually contain an element of the bizarre. And the curse usually comes some time after the last title, so the length of the curse is never as long as the length of the curse.

Baseball's Top 10 Longest-Lasting Curses

10. The Curse of Mark Wohlers, October 23, 1996 to November 2, 2021, 25 seasons. In Game 4 of the 1996 World Series, the Braves led the New York Yankees 6-0. In the 8th inning, the lead was cut to 6-3, but the Braves were just 5 outs from being up 3 games to 1, and in prime position to become back-to-back World Champions.

But Wohlers, who had gotten the last out for the 1995 World Championship, hung a slider to Jim Leyritz, and Leyritz hit a game-tying home run. The Yankees won the game in 10 innings, and the Series in 6 games.

The Braves won the Pennant in 1999, but got swept by the Yankees in the World Series. They lost in the National League Championship Series in 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2020. They lost in the NL Division Series in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2013, 2018 and 2019. And they lost in the NL Wild Card Game in 2012. What makes this curse less interesting is that there isn't a bizarre element to it. The Braves have fallen short, and let their fans down, but there really isn't a shocking moment in there, at least not since Wohlers vs. Leyritz.

9. The Curse of Donnie Baseball, September 8, 1982 to the present, 31 seasons in the last 40. The Yankees won the Pennant in 1981. They didn't win it again until 1996. In between was the entire playing career of Don Mattingly, a.k.a. "Donnie Baseball": September 8, 1982 to October 8, 1995. This included near-misses for the AL East title in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1993, and an ALDS loss in Mattingly's final games in 1995, a blowing of a 2-0 lead, although Mattingly himself hit well in that series.

In 1997, the Yankees retired Mattingly's Number 23. This was the only season between 1996 and 2001 that they didn't win the Pennant. From 1996 to 2003, 8 seasons, they won 6 Pennants and 4 World Series.

In 2004, they hired Mattingly as a coach. He left 4 years later, and they hadn't won the Pennant, including the bizarre occurrences of blowing a 3-0 lead in the 2004 ALCS against the Red Sox and the "Bug Game" against Cleveland in the 2007 ALDS.

Joe Torre was not rehired as Yankee manager, and was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He hired Mattingly as a coach. They lost the NLCS in 2008 and 2009. Mattingly became Dodger manager in 2011. They lost the NLCS in 2013, and the NLDS in 2014 and 2015. He was fired after the 2015 season. In 2017, they began a string of 3 Pennants in 4 years, and won the 2020 World Series. So they, too, began winning Pennants again after Mattingly left.

In 2016, he was named manager of the Miami Marlins, and made the Playoffs in 2020, but lost the NLDS.

So that's 14 seasons as a Yankee player, 4 as a Yankee coach, 3 as a Dodger coach, 5 as Dodger manager, and 5 so far as Marlin manager. Total: 31 seasons in a Major League Baseball uniform for Don Mattingly. That's 31 seasons over 40 years, including 3 teams, in both Leagues. No Pennants. And each of the 1st 2 teams for which he played had one of their most successful periods right after he left.

This may be the most unbreakable MLB curse of them all.

8. The Curse of Kevin Mitchell, December 11, 1986 to the present, 35 seasons. The New York Mets won the World Series in 1986, having dominated the NL in the regular season, struggled to beat the Houston Astros in the NLCS, and then needed what looked like the collapse of all time to beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Kevin Mitchell, a 24-year-old power hitter who could play several positions, but mostly left field, was a key reason why. But after the season, the Mets traded him.

Mitchell won the NL MVP award in 1989, helping the San Francisco Giants win the Pennant. Meanwhile, the Mets blew the 1988 NLCS. In 1993, they had one of the worst seasons ever, at least in terms of players' behavior.

In 1998, they needed to win 1 of their last 5 regular-season games to clinch the NL's Wild Card berth. They lost all 5. In 1999, they blew a lead in Game 6 of the NLCS and lost the Pennant. In 2000, they won the Pennant, then suffered what, to their fans, was the ultimate humiliation: The Yankees won the World Series in 5 games, clinching at Shea Stadium.

In 2006, they were tied in the 9th inning of Game 7 of the NLCS, and lost to the St. Louis Cardinals on a home run by Yadier Molina. In 2007, they led the NL East by 7 games with 17 to play, and blew it. They only needed to win on the last day of the regular season to win the Division. But they lost, and the Philadelphia Phillies won, and the Milwaukee Brewers won to take the Wild Card away from them. In 2008, again, they needed to win on the last day of the season to at least win the Wild Card, and blew it.

In 2015, they won the Pennant, then became the 1st team ever to blow leads in 5 games in a single World Series, including the 1 game they ended up winning. In 2016, they lost the NL Wild Card Game. In 2021, they were in 1st place in July, and ended up with a losing record. So what the Mets' Curse of Kevin Mitchell does not yet have in length, it makes up for in shock value.

7. The Curse of Cal Ripken, October 16, 1983 to the present, 39 seasons. The Baltimore Orioles won the 1983 World Series, with Cal Ripken Jr. winning the American League's Most Valuable Player that season, and the AL's Rookie of the Year the season before. This concluded a 20-year run that included 3 World Series wins, 3 Pennants where the World Series was lost, 2 AL Eastern Division titles where the AL Championship Series was lost, and 10 2nd-place finishes.

But, suddenly, the O's got old. By 1988, they were a 107-loss team, whose 2 biggest stars were Ripken and Frank Robinson -- and Frank was now their manager, not the Hall of Fame player he once was. They soon rebuilt, finishing 2nd in 1989. They were close to a Playoff berth in 1994. They reached the ALCS in 1996 as the Wild Card and 1997 as Division Champions, but lost both. They reached the ALDS in 2012 and 2014, and the Wild Card Game in 2016. Since then, however, they have had seasons of 115, 110 and 108 losses.

It has been suggested that catering to Ripken's needs instead of the needs of the overall team hurt them in the 1990s. But is length of time enough to say that the O's are cursed? There is only one real bizarre moment: 1996 ALCS Game 1, the Jeffrey Maier Game, when an apparently bad call by umpire Rich Garcia gave Derek Jeter a home run, and was the key in turning a 4-3 Baltimore lead into a 5-4 New York win.

6. The Curse of the Cowboy, April 11, 1961 to October 27, 2002, 42 seasons. Gene Autry, the actor and singer known as the Singing Cowboy, really made his money investing in broadcasting, radio and TV stations. When Los Angeles got an expansion team in the American League to start in 1961, he wanted to buy the broadcast rights. But when the original ownership cut out, he was offered the team, and he bought it. (Made it easier to negotiate the broadcast rights with the owner, since he now was the owner.)

But it took the Angels until 1979 to win a Division title. They won another in 1982, but blew the American League Championship Series after leading 2-0. They won another Division in 1986, but blew the ALCS after leading 3-1 and being 5 outs away from their 1st Pennant. They blew a huge Division lead in 1995.

It wasn't just the painful losses on the field. This team looked really cursed, because they had real losses. They had several players who died. Pitcher Dick Wantz died from a brain tumor in 1965. Shortstop Mike Miley was killed in a car crash in 1977. All-Star outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed in 1978. (Even after they finally won it all, that didn't stop: Pitcher Nick Adenhart died in a car crash in 2009, and pitcher Tyler Skaggs died of a drug overdose in 2019.) And Autry died in 1998, still the owner. 

In 2002, with Jackie Autry, the Cowboy's widow, now owning the team, they became the 1st team to enter the MLB Playoffs as a Wild Card entry and win the World Series. But, in ending their own curse, they extended another.

5. The Curse of Captain Eddie, September 29, 1957 to November 1, 2010, 43 seasons. In 1918, former New York Giants player Eddie Grant was killed in combat in World War I. In 1921, a plaque in his memory was dedicated in center field of the Polo Grounds. Late in the 1957 season, the Giants announced they were moving to San Francisco. After their last game, the plaque was removed from the marble monument on which it had rested for 36 years.

What happened to it? When the Mets debuted at the Polo Grounds in 1962, the monument was still there, but the plaque was nowhere to be found. The Giants publicly said that they'd taken the plaque with them to San Francisco, but no one could find it. To this day, despite one debunked claim by the son of a cop who'd worked security at the last Giants home game in 1957, the original plaque has never been found.

And the Giants just couldn't get it done in San Francisco. They lost the 1962 World Series. They had near-misses for the Pennant in 1964, 1965 and 1966. They lost the NLCS in 1971 and 1987. The lost the World Series in 1989. They had a near-miss for the Division in 1993. They lost the NLDS in 1997. They lost a Playoff for the NL Wild Card in 1998. They lost the NLDS in 2000. They fell just short of a Playoff berth in 2001.

In 2002, they won the Pennant, and led the team then known as the Anaheim Angels in Game 6 of the World Series, 5-0 going to the bottom of the 7th. They were so close to winning their 1st World Series since 1954, when they were still in New York. But the Angels scored 3 runs in the 7th and 3 more in the 8th, and won Game 7, too, to end their own curse.

People began to search for a reason why the Giants couldn't win the World Series, and someone remembered the Eddie Grant plaque, and came up with "The Curse of Captain Eddie." The Giants lost the NLDS in 2003 and 2007. They fell just short of a Playoff berth in 2004.

Finally, in 2008, as part of the celebration of their 50th Anniversary in San Francisco, they decided to have a replacement plaque made, even though Eddie Grant had nothing to do with San Francisco, or even with California. It was a nice thing to do, even if there aren't actually any "baseball gods" to appease. In 2010, the Giants finally won their 1st World Series on the West Coast. They won it again in 2012 and 2014. Maybe somebody was appeased.

4. The Curse of Rocky Colavito, April 17, 1960 to the present, 62 seasons. For a generation, the Cleveland Indians had usually been in the thick of things. They finished a close 2nd in 1940. They won the World Series in 1948. They won the Pennant in 1954. They finished a strong 2nd in 1951, 1952, 1955 and 1959, the last 2 bolstered by the powerful righthanded bat and right field arm of Rocky Colavito. He became one of the most popular players in team history. And he was only 26 years old: The future looked bright.

But just before the start of the 1960 season, Indians' general manager Frank Lane traded Colavito, the 1959 AL home run leader, to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn, the 1959 AL batting champion. It remains the only time in MLB history that a batting champ has been traded for a home run champ. And it didn't work out for either team. The Indians collapsed. They got Colavito back in 1965, but he was now injury-prone and a shadow of his former self. From 1961 to 1993, the Indians never got closer than 14 games of 1st place, except for the strike-shortened season of 1981.

The Indians moved into a new ballpark in 1994, now named Progressive Field. Had that season been played to a conclusion, instead of being cut short by a strike, and the standings at the time of the strike had held, the Indians would have been the AL Wild Card team. They won the Pennant in 1995, but lost to the Braves. A disappointment, but nothing bizarre. They won the Division in 1996, but lost the ALDS to the Orioles. A surprise, but there was no shocking moment.

In 1997, it looked like things would turn around. Tony Fernandez hit what turned out to be a Pennant-winning home run. But in Game 7 of the World Series, against the team then known as the Florida Marlins, the Indians blew a 2-0 lead, in part on an error by Fernandez, and lost 3-1 in 11 innings.

They lost in the ALCS in 1998. They lost in the ALDS in 1999 and 2001. They had a 3-1 lead over the Red Sox in 2007, and blew it. They lost the AL Wild Card Game in 2013. In 2016, they won the Pennant, and faced the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. They blew a 3-1 lead, and Game 7 was a sloppy game that neither team seemed to want to win. The Cubs took an 8-6 lead in the 10th inning. The Indians closed to 8-7 and had the tying and winning runs on, but couldn't get it done. They lost the ALDS in 2017 and 2018, and the Wild Card Game in 2020.

And there have been moments of tragedy. Young star 1st baseman Tony Horton battled depression in 1970, and survived a suicide attempt. He left baseball and straightened out his life, but never played again. In 1993, a boating accident during Spring Training killed 2 pitchers and injured another for much of the season, and another pitcher was killed in a car accident after the season.

Colavito is 88 years old. He has been welcomed back by Indians management, and has thrown out the ceremonial first ball at some big games. He says he didn't put a curse on the Indians. And, to be fair, the shouldn't have been swept in the 1954 World Series, and there was a bizarre moment between then and the Colavito-Kuenn trade: The eye injury to phenom pitcher Herb Score in 1957. Nevertheless, the Indians have the longest current World Championship drought in MLB: 73 years.

3. The Curse of the Billy Goat, October 6, 1945 to November 2, 2016, 71 seasons. William "Billy Goat" Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, had a goat as his bar's mascot, and he bought 2 tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series, one for himself and one for the goat. At the time, there was no rule against this. But fans around him complained to the ushers that the goat smelled bad, and Sianis and his goat were kicked out of the ballpark.

A Greek immigrant and a superstitious man, Sianis allegedly put a curse on the Cubs. The Detroit Tigers won the game, 4-1, all their runs coming in the 4th inning, after Sianis and the goat were kicked out. The Tigers won the Series in 7, and afterward, Sianis sent a telegram to Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, asking, "Who stinks now?"

Sianis died in 1970, about a year after the Cubs’ 1969 September Swoon. His nephew Sam Sianis has run the place ever since, and when William Wrigley Jr. sold the Cubs to the Tribune Company in 1981, Sam offered to lift the Curse of the Billy Goat. A few times, Cub management allowed Sam to take his bar's current mascot onto the field in an attempt to lift the Curse. It didn't work: Apparently, Billy's curse was stronger even than his own flesh and blood.

The Cubs won the NL East title in 1984 and 1989, but lost the NLCS, in shocking fashion the 1st time. They lost the NLDS in 1998, and the NLCS in 2003, when an 8-run collapse in Game 6, following the Steve Bartman incident, was followed by a tough loss in Game 7. They lost the NLDS in 2007 and 2008, and the NLCS in 2015. At that point, they had not won a Pennant in 70 years.

Was the goat the reason? Well, let's put it this way: In 1945, the Cubs had already not won a World Series for 37 years, and had already had a number of weird things happen to them in Series play, including a 10-run inning by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1929, Babe Ruth's alleged "called shot" in 1932, and Stan Hack leading off the 9th with a triple with what would be the tying run and then getting stranded there to lose Game 6 and the Series to the Tigers in 1935. The goat curse doesn't explain any of that.

So what's the real reason the Cubs didn't win the World Series for 108 years now? If you're not willing to say, "Bad management," then your guess is as good as mine.

Finally, in 2016, they did it -- and still almost blew it, and extended Cleveland's drought as well. As recently as 16 years ago, neither Chicago team had won a World Series in 88 years. But they each won one within 11 years. Even with each team's near-misses since, that ain't so bad.

2. The Curse of the Bambino, December 26, 1919 to October 27, 2004, 85 seasons. The Boston Red Sox had little choice but to get rid of Babe Ruth, due to the Bambino's immaturity, misbehavior and demands. His sale to the Yankees was almost inevitable. The real problem was that the Sox also sold the Yankees some key pitchers, including eventual Hall-of-Famers Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock.

The Red Sox lost the World Series in Game 7 in 1946 (Enos Slaughter's Mad Dash and Johnny Pesky allegedly holding the ball too long), 1967, 1975 and 1986 (the Bill Buckner Game that was already blown before Buckner's error).

They lost a Playoff for the Pennant in 1948. They lost the ALCS in 1988, 1990, 1999 (objecting to several umpiring calls) and 2003 (the Aaron Boone Game, where they were 5 outs from a Pennant). They lost the ALDS in 1995 and 1998. They lost a Playoff for the AL East title in 1978 (the Bucky Dent Game, after the Yankees came from 14 games behind). And they had close calls for the Pennant in 1949 and the Division in 1972, 1974, 1977 and 1991.

They finally won the World Series in 2004, and have done so again in 2007, 2013 and 2018. There were accusations of cheating: Steroid use on the 1st 3, and Apple Watches on the last.

1. The Curse of the Black Sox, September 28, 1920 to October 26, 2005, 85 seasons, 2 months longer than the Curse of the Bambino. The Chicago White Sox won the World Series in 1917, led by left fielder "Shoeless Joe" Jackson. They lost the World Series in 1919, and it looked suspicious to some people. Toward the end of the 1920 season, with the team having a good chance at another Pennant, 8 players, including Jackson, were suspended on the accusation of having taken money from gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series on purpose.

They were acquitted in 1921, but banned for life anyway. It took 2 generations for the team to full recover: From 1921 to 1954, only in 1926 and 1940 did they even get within 10 games of the Pennant winner. They won the Pennant in 1959, but lost the World Series. They finished 1 game back in 1964, and 3 back in 1967.

They missed the AL Western Division title by 5 1/2 games in 1972, went on a nosedive after being in 1st place in early August 1977, won the Division but lost the ALCS to the Orioles in 1983, were neck-and-neck for the Division title until falling off late in 1990, lost the ALCS in 1993, were leading the AL Central when the Strike of '94 hit, and lost the ALDS in 2000. Finally, in 2005, they won it all, for the 1st time in 88 years.

It was a longer drought than that of the Red Sox, but it wasn't as "romantic" as that one, or that of the Cubs across town, because there wasn't the bizarre element. There isn't really a "The (Name of Incident)" moment that ChiSox fans could point to and say, "This is where Shoeless Joe's curse raised its ugly head."