1918 - Red Sox win World Series 1919 - Hockey cancelled
2004 - Red Sox win World Series 2005 - Hockey cancelled |
The NHL has inherited the Curse of the Bambino. The Stanley Cup was last not awarded in 1919, the season following Boston winning the World Series. On Jan. 3, 1920, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees, and did not win another world title until ending the drought at 86 years in October. Now, after 86 uninterrupted seasons, hockey's holy grail again will go dormant. Unlike the labor strife that is keeping the Cup in mothballs this time, it was an outbreak of deadly Spanish Flu that prevented the hardware from being awarded in 1919.
A series between NHL champ Montreal and the Pacific Hockey Association's Seattle Metropolitans was tied 2-2 with the deciding game scheduled on April 1, 1919. All but one member of the Canadiens fell sick and the series was abandoned. "The great overtime games of the series have taxed the vitality of the players to such an extent that they are in poor shape indeed to fight off such a disease as influenza,'' the Montreal Gazette reported. One player, Montreal's Joe Hall, died of pneumonia as a result of being exposed to the disease caused by a virus doctors had yet learned to detect. The Spanish Flu was responsible for more than 21 million deaths in 1918- 19 and is the worst epidemic in recorded world history. | Not that I believe in this stuff, mind you, but does this mean another 86 freaking years before we win another Series? |
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