"Nice to mole you. Nice to meet you. Don't say mole. I said mole."
I think the Curse nonsense is yet another example of a common, fundamental problem with sports analyses by fans and writers: They confuse their own emotions for the emotions of the players.
The fans get nervous, the fans feel pressure, the fans feel like jumping off of bridges after so-called "tough" losses.
I can tell you right now what tomorrow's headlines will be. No mention of Wright or Oswalt. You will either be asked to be amazed by Houston's ability to rebound from a tough loss or you'll be asked to believe that Houston lost because they were emotionally unable to rebound from a tough loss.
The players are not robots, but they can't worry about "tough" losses too much, or pressure, or history. The ball is coming in at 90 mph.
This type of psychological analysis of a game (or a series) -- this focus on the intangibles -- has become the primary evaluation criteria. It deserves about 5% of the ink and it gets about 95% of the ink. Joe Buck watches the game that you're watching and he never, ever, ever talks about hitting or pitching. He is obsessed with "pressure" and "atmosphere" and a player's ability to psychologically respond to it.
I don't think that the Red Sox players care about the curse. But if Red Sox Nation wants to help 'em out, maybe they should stop talking about it so much.
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