Yep PM most of it was in fans imagination,and the press,for those who aren't familiar..and from my early years stuck by them
Origins of “The Curse”
After selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees, the Red Sox did not win another Championship for 86 years (until 2004). It was a period full of heartbreaks for everyone affiliated with the Red Sox – from the players to the ever-faithful fans. The causes were many — bad management decisions, unfortunate errors and an almost-ironic amount of incredible bad-luck.
By the 1980’s, when the World Series title drought had lasted for nearly 70 years, sports journalists introduced the concept of the curse, as a way to somehow describe the luck of the Red Sox during this long period of time. The initial concept of the curse is generally credited to George Vecsey of the New York Times. As Game 6 of the 1986 World Series progressed, the Red Sox fortunes turned, when a ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs, eventually with a loss to force Game 7 with the New York Mets.
During this sixth game, many columnists had been writing of the Sox winning the Series. As the tides turned late in the game, they unexpectedly had to scramble to change their stories. Vecsey, who had been writing along the theme of the Sox finally being redeemed from their long draught, quickly changed the story to that of a jinxed team. He never used the word curse in that article. Then, after the Game 7 loss to the Mets, Vecsey, in a column titled “Babe Ruth Curse Strikes Again” wrote: “All the ghosts and demons and curses of the past 68 years continued to haunt the Boston Red Sox last night.” And, thus, the seeds of the curse were planted.
While Red Sox fans’ thoughts of a curse fermented over the next few years, all the superstitious stars aligned in 1990 when Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe published “The Curse of the Bambino”. From this book title, a cultural catch phrase was instantly born.
And, since that time, many commentaries have been issued about the Curse. Some perspectives degraded it and denied it, as if such a truth could possibly exist. Others amplified the volume, with the superstition and legend of the Curse growing larger. There has even been a documentary and a play, all centered on the same premise. Of course, Dan Shaughnessy himself admits that the Curse died on the night of October 27, 2004, when the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games and won their first World Series championship in 86 years.