Mayor Thomas Menino sponsored a design competition for proposals to improve Boston’s City Hall Plaza, drawing entries from around the world.

 

This first prize-winning entry proposes a baseball field with the tomb of George Herman Ruth beneath home plate - creating a useful plaza as well as exorcising “The Curse of the Bambino”, and bringing a World Series celebration back to Boston.

 

“For the last seventy years the Boston Red Sox have  been the bridesmaids of baseball.  A few times since 1918 the Sox have come close.  But Red Sox fans - among the most rabid and, certainly, the most frustrated in the country - have never been treated to a wedding ceremony.  It all started when Babe Ruth left town.

 

You could look it up.  In the first years of the twentieth century, the Red Sox were the dominant team in baseball, winners in five World Series.  Three of them came when George Herman Ruth was pitching and batting for Boston.  Then, in January of 1920, Harry Frazee, the show-biz owner of the Red Sox, sold Ruth to the Yankees.  For the rest of the century, the Yankees have won 22 World Series, the Red Sox - none.”

 

from The Curse of the Bambino