Angels cursed because of Moreno's mistake

Answer: Each played a leading role in cursing a successful baseball franchise.

The producer was Harry Frazee, the Boston Red Sox owner who sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920. Ruth went on to have a fine career; the Red Sox, after winning five of baseball's first 15 World Series, didn't win another one for 84 years.

The goat belonged to a Chicago tavern owner and huge Cubs fan who took him to a World Series game in 1945. After fans complained about the goat's body odor, the tavern owner was asked to leave with the goat, prompting the man to place a curse on the Cubs. It was a good one -- the team had made several World Series appearances over the years, but none since that fateful October 63 years ago.

Now comes Moreno, generally considered one of baseball's best owners. I'd agree, except for the tiny matter of him cursing the Angels in 2005 when he announced that he was changing the team name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Before that, the Anaheim Angels won a World Series in 2002. Moreno bought them the next spring. And, well, you know the rest.

The way you can tell a curse is in place is that your team doesn't just lose; it often does so in painful or bizarre ways.

In October 2004, the Angels' season ended when the Red Sox finished them off with a walk-off home run. Yes, that was a few months before Moreno announced the name-change idea, but you just know he'd been thinking about it before that.

In 2005 -- the first season after the name-change announcement -- a highly controversial home plate umpire's call on a presumed strike three extended the bottom of the ninth inning for the Chicago White Sox.

They went on to win the game a few minutes later, tying the series at a game apiece. The Sox won the next three games and went to the World Series.

In October 2007, the Angels were outscored 19-4 in three games against the Red Sox and meekly went home again.

Then, this week, the Angels brought baseball's best record into the playoffs but were summarily dumped by the Red Sox in the first round. The Halos lost two of the games, including the clincher, in the ninth inning.

That is four playoff departures in the last five years.