What Could Go Wrong Now?

By Tim Brown

Oct. 27, 2004 12 AM PT

ST. LOUIS — If the Boston Red Sox are in fact cursed, if the Bambino still lives in their furry little heads and on the street corners of the Fens, if there remains one last installment to pay on “No, No Nanette,” we’ll find out now.

Either they are on the verge of an 86-year, jinx-breaking late October or, as you know every curl-brimmed “B” cap-wearing fatalist on Yawkey Way is thinking this very moment, the Red Sox are about to stage the greatest collapse in World Series history.

Isn’t it delightful?

Can you see the tiny hairs standing on the neck of owner John Henry? Of president Larry Lucchino? Of all the little boys and girls who could hardly watch the early games of the Yankee series, the grown men who stumbled out of Fenway Park at oh-three, in favor of The Curse?

“A lot of people have said they want to die if the Red Sox win the World Series,” Johnny Damon said after a 4-1 win Tuesday night gave the Red Sox a 3-0 advantage. “Well, there could be a lot of busy ambulances tomorrow.”

When the laughter died, he added, “Everybody is anxious. Nobody is as anxious as this team. We set out to be the best, and we’re one win from being the best. Something special can happen. But, we know what happened to the Yankees last week.”

You’d understand the trepidation of the Red Sox and their faithful; in the game’s entire history, and this is its 100th postseason, no one’s come back from an 0-3 deficit in, like, seven days.

And if something really screwy were to happen twice in a fortnight, you can be sure the Red Sox would be involved. Twice. Unless it were the Cubs.

So they stand, beating back grins, beating back temptation, beating back thoughts of parade routes and the most satisfying New England winter since 1918. If they are composed, and can remain so through another win, they will be alone in that endeavor among their neighbors.

In front of their lockers, surrounded by anticipation, Red Sox players and coaches held their ground. Few know the history better. They’ve barely showered off the gloom of 0-3 themselves.

“We’ve been fortunate,” catcher Jason Varitek said. “We’ve been on both ends of it. We need to do what we’ve been doing, focus on ourselves, pitch to pitch, to try to finish them.”

The Red Sox committed eight errors in the first two games of the World Series, got worse at first base in the National League ballpark, sent their pitcher out for a few startlingly submissive at-bats, and are a victory from the unimaginable.

It brings to mind the sign in the Bronx, the one behind third base when the team returned to Yankee Stadium needing one lousy win to attend their 40th World Series. It read: “You’re not cursed, you just stink.”

Well, there’d always been that.

The Curse has been so convenient. Boston has lost for going on a century, often convincingly, sometimes heartbreakingly, a few times when hardly anybody was looking. It was their destiny, and their children’s, and their grandchildren’s.

It explained everything.

But, now, if it is the Red Sox who are bitten, then how is it that Reggie Sanders was the one who whiffed second base Sunday? How is it that Jeff Suppan, a bright enough guy, was the one who fell all over himself on the third-base line Tuesday?

Cardinal line drives find Red Sox gloves. Cardinal fly balls find Manny Ramirez, typically a good thing, except he not only catches the baseball, he throws them out at the plate.

And how good is Terry Francona going? In the seventh inning Tuesday night he makes the appropriate decision to remove David Ortiz from the field, replaces him with the defensively sound Doug Mientkiewicz, and the first ball of the inning rolls straight to Mientkiewicz.

On Oct. 17, the Red Sox sat where the Cardinals do, where any loss would summon the luggage, hunting season, disappointment. They played with desperation, their line drives began to fall, their pitchers found the strike zone.

They had to ask themselves one question on the bus ride Tuesday night: If them, then why not the Cardinals?

“We’re not getting too giddy with this,” Kevin Millar said. “We’re in a good situation, obviously. That club is capable of doing the same thing to us. We know that.”

If they would recall, one win became two, two wins became momentum, three wins became a freight train.

“The one thing we’ll keep in mind,” Gabe Kapler said, “is how incredibly potent their offense is.... We don’t want to give them the opportunity to get hot.”

They’ve won seven in a row, carrying them from oh-three to three-oh. Red Sox Nation, all the nation, awaits.

All we know is, they’re on the brink of something.