Babe Ruth played baseball.
Babe Ruth . The trade fueled Boston 's subsequent 86 year championship drought and popularized the `` Curse of the Bambino '' superstition . The Curse of the Bambino was a superstition evolving from the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 to 2004 . This misfortune began after the Red Sox sold star player Babe Ruth , sometimes called The Bambino , to the New York Yankees in the off-season of 1919 -- 1920 .