Boston Red Sox might be cursed by Players’ Weekend uniforms
By Sean Penney
The Boston Red Sox have lost all five games in which they’ve worn the customized Players’ Weekend uniforms dating back to last season.
Get rid of these uniforms. Toss them away. Light a match and set them on fire. Lock them in a room with Chris Sale and a pair of scissors. The Boston Red Sox may need some sort of ritual to exercise the demons of these cursed Players’ Weekend uniforms.
This weekend was supposed to be about the players expressing themselves. A rare opportunity for MLB players to give fans a glimpse of their personality. It was supposed to be fun! The Red Sox certainly aren’t having any fun.
Boston has dropped the first two games of their weekend series to the Tampa Bay Rays, getting outscored 15-4 in the process. This is reminiscent of last year’s inaugural Player’s Weekend in which the Red Sox were outscored 25-4 while getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles.
The Red Sox are now 0-5 when donning these dreaded Players’ Weekend uniforms. They are on the verge of being swept for the first time this season and enduring only their third three-game losing streak of the year.
These uniforms aren’t the only factor the Red Sox need to overcome to avoid that fate. The Rays will send All-Star Blake Snell to the mound for the series finale. Snell is 7-1 with a 1.02 ERA at home this season.
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What is it with these uniforms? They have made the best team in baseball look like a bunch of minor league players. It’s almost as if these uniforms are cursed.
Oh, so you think curses aren’t real? Tell that to a fan base that suffered through the Curse of the Bambino for 86 years. Baseball players are notoriously superstitious. If they have even a shred of concern about these uniforms being the cause of their slump then it’s feasible that this poisonous mindset could be dragging the team down.
Have the players brought this on themselves? When given the chance to express themselves, many of the Red Sox players scoffed at the opportunity. Mookie Betts goes by “Mookie”. Sure, that technically is a nickname yet he clearly didn’t put much thought into what to put on the back of his jersey. Andrew Benintendi could have gone with “Benny Biceps” or “Benny Baseball.” Nope, just “Benny.” Xander Bogaerts could only come up with “Bogie” and Eduardo Nunez did no better with “Nunie.” Jackie Bradley, Jr. settled on using his initials. Not very creative.
A few of the Red Sox players deserve credit for showing some effort. Steve Pearce‘s “Late Lightning” and David Price‘s “Slim Dunkin” are great examples. Mitch Moreland‘s “2-Bags” and Brock Holt‘s “Brockstar” are hardly original yet remain solid choices.
We can’t pin the blame on those who actually tried to come up with a good nickname yet there are far too many players on this roster who didn’t bother. Could that have led to some bad karma?
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This could merely be a coincidence but five games over the last two years is enough of a sample size to start giving off some red flags. Perhaps these uniforms aren’t really the reason for their recent struggles yet I certainly won’t be sorry to see them go after this weekend.