It Was a Fitting Ending to Curse

The team has a relatively short name, and so do some of the stars, meaning that for headline writers, life was good on deadline.

Of course, one word works when an 86-year-old curse is vaporized. This was the front-page headline in Thursday’s Boston Globe after the Red Sox’s World Series sweep: “Yes!!!”

There was this offering in the Lowell (Mass.) Sun: “Cursed to First.”

The lifting of the Curse of the Bambino also was acknowledged in the Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn.: “Curse? What Curse?” Just below the headline was Babe Ruth’s mug shot with a red circle around it and a slash running through the circle.

Naturally, there had to be a witty dig from Gotham. The back page of the New York Daily News had this shot at the Red Sox: “See You in 2090.”

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Trivia time: How many sweeps were there in the World Series during the 20th century?

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Game on: Democratic strategist and pundit James Carville may be a staunch Louisiana State football fan, but in an interview with the Sports Business Daily, he said the event he would most like to attend would be the seventh game of a Red Sox-Cub World Series.

“I take pleasure in the troubles of both of them,” he said, joking. “No, I like them both fine. It’s just a great story, you know what I mean? I couldn’t imagine anything having more emotion than that.”

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Mr. Humility: Deion Sanders drew a few snickers when he came out of a three-year retirement, at 37, to play nickel back for the Baltimore Ravens this NFL season.

On Sunday, he intercepted two passes and made two tackles, and later was named NFL defensive player of the week.

So was he gloating, saying, “I told you so”?

“I’m not like that,” he told writers. “I don’t have that type of attitude. I’m a very confident man.... That would go beyond the confident level.”

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Rivalry renewed: The Paul Bunyan Trophy is on the line when Michigan and Michigan State play Saturday. The four-foot wooden statue of the mythical woodsman is not exactly eye-catching. Bunyan, astride an ax, has his feet planted on a map of the state of Michigan.

“I think it’s the ugliest trophy in college football, but you know that doesn’t mean that we don’t love it,” Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr told the Detroit News. “And we want to give him a nice, secure place to live and to spend his years.

“So hopefully that trophy will never leave Ann Arbor, because we don’t want him going up there. I mean, that’s not where he belongs.”

Michigan player David Baas told the paper it looked like “Lentz with an ax.” Lentz is Matt Lentz, who plays right guard for the Wolverines.

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Bunyan mania: The Paul Bunyan Trophy is not to be confused with the Paul Bunyan Ax.

That traveling trophy goes to the winner of the game between Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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Trivia answer: 12.

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And finally: Purdue Coach Joe Tiller, going for his 100th win Saturday against Northwestern: “Either I’m getting wiser or dumber. Both are a possibility, and the latter is a probability.”