Route 1A Curse

The Route 1A Curse (also known as the "North Shore Curse") refers to the seemingly unlikely frequency of tragic curtailment of careers of baseball players who grew up on Boston's North Shore, became local sports heroes, and went on to play for the Boston Red Sox. The name, which dates back to the late 1960s, comes from the Massachusetts Route 1A, which runs north from Boston to Salisbury, MA and is one of the primary roadways a North Shore resident would use to travel to and from Boston (and hence Fenway Park).

Notable players involved in the history of the legend include:

Harry Agganis of Lynn, MA: A star football player for Boston University and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, he was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft, Agganis was signed away from the Cleveland Browns by the Red Sox in After a great rookie season in 1954, became ill and died of a pulmonary embolism in 1955.

Tony Conigliaro of Revere, MA: After becoming the youngest player to hit 100 career home runs and playing a major role in the Red Sox 1967 "Impossbile Dream" season, he was hit in the eye by a pitch on August 18, 1967. While he made a somewhat successful comeback, his career never fully regained its previous promise. Further tragedy ensued when he suffered a massive heart attack in 1982 and remained in a coma for eight years before dying in 1990.

Steve Lomasney of Peabody, MA: A much-awaited prospect in the late 1990s, Lomasney played a single game for the Red Sox at the end of the 1999 season. By 2001, he had moved all the way up to Pawtucket, Boston's highest-level minor league team when, in an eerie coincidence, he was hit in the eye with a batting practice line drive in the same week of the year as Conigliaro's injury - the end of the second full week in August - and never recovered fully to resume his career.

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