The Family Curse

I think I’ve inherited the Family Curse.

The Family Curse has to do with sports fandom. In particular, our beloved Kansas City Royals. My maternal grandmother, Grandma Bosley, first exhibited the curse back in the 1970s. For the record, Grandma Bosley was a character and full of life. Those of us fortunate enough to spend time within her life circle are indeed blessed human beings. 

I remember visiting her and Grandpa for vacations at their house on Tuttle Creek Lake when I was young. Their place and the surrounding area were pure heaven to us grandkids. In my memory banks from those summer days are burned images of Grandma, a baseball lover to the core, watching or listening to Royals games. When things weren’t going well for the boys in blue, she would always throw her hands in the air and say,  “Every time I pay attention to the Royals, they play terribly.”

That my friend, is the Family Curse. Whenever attention is paid to the Royals, they perform poorly.

I’ve laughed at the Family Curse for over 50 years. I’m not laughing anymore. There’s an increasing probability it’s real and, as previously mentioned, its power may have fallen to me.

Grandma Bosley would religiously watch Royals games on TV or listen to the radio. When they gave up a run or two though, she’d scamper from the room citing how she’s cursed the team by watching or listening. Grandpa would ignore her while we kids would laugh at her, which made her madder. Grandma usually ended up on the back patio, again listening to the game on her transistor radio. 

One or more of us grandkids (and often Grandpa) would also migrate to the patio to enjoy the summer evening and listen to baseball with Grandma the way it was meant to be enjoyed…on the radio. Baseball fandom at its best with the backdrop of summer twilight magic, cicada chirps echoing through the wooded valley, the smell of cooling red cedars, ice cream bars, and family. 

Inevitably, the pastoral summer scene would again come to a screeching halt thanks to the Family Curse. The Royals’ opponent would take the lead, and our hitter would take a third strike with the bases loaded or hit into a double play. Grandma would throw in the towel and pretend to do some chore attempting to trick the curse into thinking she wasn’t paying attention. 

After Grandma died, I didn’t think much about the curse. It still made me smile to think about those old times following Royals games with her. Then, a few years after Grandma Bosley passed, I noticed something strange. My Mom started exhibiting the same behaviors as her mother. 

The Family Curse had passed to her!

I’d call and ask her if she was watching the Royals. She’d tell me she started to watch but switched channels because…you guessed it,  “Every time I pay attention to the Royals, they play terribly.” I’d laugh at her and tell her she was acting just like her mother, which she did not like the comparison at all.

Her behavior continued through two Royals World Series appearances and multiple one-hundred-loss seasons. It did not matter if the Royals’ product on the field was successful or not, Grandma and Mom blamed every bad thing the Royals did when they were watching or listening on the curse. The curse they brought upon the team by paying attention to them. 

Mom died last September. I didn’t think at all about a Family Curse in the wave of emotions and the empty space in our world left by her death. However, in the past few weeks, I’ve noticed something that’s never happened before. When I pay attention to a 2024 Royals game, they don’t play well. Recently, I cleared the schedule to listen to a game. I sat down at my desk and turned my MLB At-Bat app to the Royals radio broadcast to find out they were already down 7-0. In the first inning! 

That’s when it hit me. The Family Curse has been passed to me. 

What was funny when it happened to Grandma or Mom, is not so funny when it’s happening to me. The Family Curse hangs over the family despite the logic that a single person watching or listening to a baseball game from many miles away cannot affect the outcome or performance of the team. 

In a way, even though it might end up with some horrible play from my favorite MLB team, my heart tells me the Family Curse might be a blessing. Carrying the Family Curse has a silver lining, if you can believe it. Having the curse now makes me feel closer to two women I miss dearly. Knowing I’m still connected to Grandma and Mom in this small way makes life, and a 7-0 first-inning deficit, a little brighter.

But don’t worry fellow Royals fans, I will wield my new Family Curse power wisely and in a way that promotes the greatest chances of not losing 100 games ever again…or at least in my lifetime.