SUDBURY -- With the Boston Red Sox breaking the Curse of the Bambino and winning the World Series this week, one local organization was left wondering what to do after years of searching for Babe Ruth's infamous piano.
Divers have searched Willis Pond in Sudbury for years -- where the instrument is rumored to be submerged -- as many people hoped finding the piano would end the curse and pave the way for Boston's first world championship in baseball since 1918.
"I do think that our search these last few years and the publicity it got, started this whole breaking the Curse of the Bambino thing. I think we played a part in (ending the curse), even without finding the piano," said Eloise Newell, director of the Acton-based Restoration Project, which spearheaded the searches.
The hunt has spanned three years and involved five underwater searches without coming up with a single piece of the piano. John Fish, an expert in locating submerged objects, was even brought in to assist with the search in November 2002.
The legend of the piano stems from the winter of 1918, when baseball slugger Ruth vacationed at a cabin on Willis Pond. According to the legend, while drunk at one of his many parties, Ruth threw a piano into the pond as a display of his Herculean strength.
Another version of the story says Ruth was hosting a sing-along for children and the cabin became too crowded with children who came from miles away to see him. Ruth and the children then pushed the piano down the hill on top of the frozen pond and the sing-along continued.
After the sing-along, he supposedly left the piano there, where it eventually sank to the bottom when the ice melted.
Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees in 1920 and not long after that the legend of the "Curse of the Bambino" was born. Until Wednesday night, the Red Sox had not won a World Series since the piano allegedly went under.
"I'm very excited that the Red Sox have won," Newell said. "But it does of course leave us with (the question), 'What are we supposed to do?'"
Although people have volunteered their time to search the pond for the piano, if it is ever found, it will be costly to bring to the surface and restore. Newell said she is afraid support for the cause will diminish now that the Red Sox have won the World Series.
SUDBURY -- With the Boston Red Sox breaking the Curse of the Bambino and winning the World Series this week, one local organization was left wondering what to do after years of searching for Babe Ruth's infamous piano.
Divers have searched Willis Pond in Sudbury for years -- where the instrument is rumored to be submerged -- as many people hoped finding the piano would end the curse and pave the way for Boston's first world championship in baseball since 1918.
"I do think that our search these last few years and the publicity it got, started this whole breaking the Curse of the Bambino thing. I think we played a part in (ending the curse), even without finding the piano," said Eloise Newell, director of the Acton-based Restoration Project, which spearheaded the searches.
The hunt has spanned three years and involved five underwater searches without coming up with a single piece of the piano. John Fish, an expert in locating submerged objects, was even brought in to assist with the search in November 2002.
The legend of the piano stems from the winter of 1918, when baseball slugger Ruth vacationed at a cabin on Willis Pond. According to the legend, while drunk at one of his many parties, Ruth threw a piano into the pond as a display of his Herculean strength.
Another version of the story says Ruth was hosting a sing-along for children and the cabin became too crowded with children who came from miles away to see him. Ruth and the children then pushed the piano down the hill on top of the frozen pond and the sing-along continued.
After the sing-along, he supposedly left the piano there, where it eventually sank to the bottom when the ice melted.
Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees in 1920 and not long after that the legend of the "Curse of the Bambino" was born. Until Wednesday night, the Red Sox had not won a World Series since the piano allegedly went under.
"I'm very excited that the Red Sox have won," Newell said. "But it does of course leave us with (the question), 'What are we supposed to do?'"
Although people have volunteered their time to search the pond for the piano, if it is ever found, it will be costly to bring to the surface and restore. Newell said she is afraid support for the cause will diminish now that the Red Sox have won the World Series.
"It's going to cost a lot of money to bring the piano up and I'm not sure the money would be there now to bring it up," she said, adding that her enthusiasm for the search has not dwindled.
Restoration Project began the search as part of an anti-stigma campaign to show how people are affected by what others think of them, she said. The non-profit group provides a vocational rehabilitation program teaching traditional methods of furniture restoration to adults with mental illness and at-risk adolescents.
"We were trying to make the point that one of the things that held back the Red Sox was that the public perception of them being losers was a self-fulfilling prophecy," Newell said.
The Red Sox could not help but be affected by all the talk about this baseball team being cursed by a former player who was traded more than 80 years ago.
Not thinking about outside perceptions can help a person or a team succeed, Newell said.
The possibility remains open that divers could continue to search the pond and Newell said it is important to remember the real reason behind looking for the piano was not to break the infamous curse.
After the first search years ago proved to be unsuccessful, Newell said, "We're not going to give up. We're going to find it."
If the piano is found, Restoration Project plans to restore it at a cost of more than $200,000.
Search for Babe's piano on hold
A photograph of Babe Ruth stands guard at the door of his former home on Dutton Road in Sudbury.
