We all know about curses in New York sports. The Rangers use to have 1940, the Cubs have the billy goat, and the Red Sox broke their Babe Ruth jinx against the Yankees in 2004. During times of drought fans like to point to their own curses as reasons for failure. The Cardinals fans started the Keith Hernandez curse in between title droughts. Some Yankees fans are talking about the curse of 2000, when the Yanks failed to hand out championship rings to all their staffer, as reason for the team not winning a title since. What about the Mets? You hear some theories from time to time, but this year, and what has transpired during the inaugural season of Citi Field, makes me think of a possible new curse: The Koosman Curse.

On Saturday, Newsday’s Jim Baumbach caught up with former Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman. Part of that discussion was what happened to the ball caught by Cleon Jones for the final out of the 1969 World Series. For those wondering, Jones didn’t keep the ball; rather, he gave it to Koosman the winning pitcher. After “guarding it with his life” during the postgame celebration, Koosman would sell the ball two decades later.

See where I am going? Koosman sold the ball sometime in the early nineties. Think about some of the odd things that have happened to this franchise since then. Generation K, the 98′ collapse, losing in 2000 to the Yankees, 2006 NLCS, and of course, the back to back September collapses in ’07 and ’08′. Now Johan Santana might be lost for an extended time. Did Koosman anger the baseball gods? Well, what has happened this year might very well have sold me. Think about it, how many times in baseball history have all four core offensive players been lost on a team? I doubt it has ever happened. Look at the laundry list of injuries. Johan Santana will be the 20th player to spend time on the DL this year. That is almost an entire ballclub. Even players, like Jeff Francoeur and Fernando Nieve, who have been imported from other teams have suffered injuries.

I am not indicting Jerry Koosman. How was he to know a simple ball could turn the fate of the franchise around. Of course, it was the final out of the team’s first world championship, so maybe he should have treated the ball with more care. The only other theory I have, which I shared with NY Post’s Bart Hubbuch on twitter, is that since Citi Field is built on the former Shea parking lot, the ghosts of those who paid excessive parking fees are gaining their revenge. Heck, it was a little ridiculous paying $10 bucks to park at Shea during the early nineties! The World Series ball sounds a little more logical. Of course, it could be a combination of bad luck, poor management, and misuse of payroll, but a curse always is a more interesting theory.

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com

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Tags: 1969 World Series, Cleon Jones, Jerry Koosman, Jim Bambach, Johan Santana, New York Mets, Newsday