To be a Boston Red Sox fan — and most everyone in New England is, whether they admit it or not — is to have an intimate relationship with heartache.

The worst moments are frozen in time, and in the collective psyche. Johnny Pesky holding onto the ball in the 1946 World Series while Enos Slaughter scored the decisive run. Bill Lee serving up the blooper pitch that Tony Perez hit over the screen for a homer in Game 7, 1975. Mike Torrez giving up Bucky Dent’s homer in the 1978 playoff with the Yankees. Bill Buckner letting Mookie Wilson’s grounder go through his legs in 1986, when they had just moments before been one out away from the World Series title.

One…..out……away!

It hasn’t always been torture to root for the Bosox. They seemed to be dynasty-bound, in fact, when they went 4-for-4 in World Series play during a seven-year span during the 1910s. But they haven’t won again since 1918, losing all four Series in which they’ve been involved — all in seven games, naturally. They’ve been involved in both American League playoffs, and lost both, of course. In 1978, they let the Yankees overcome a 14-1/2-game deficit to eventually beat them in a one-game playoff.

According to local legend, the team has been jinxed since 1920, when cash-strapped owner Harry Frazee sold a young pitcher named Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. The cancer la plamani went on to win 22 World Series titles. The Red Sox are still waiting for the so-called “Curse of the Bambino” to be lifted.