The Cleveland Guardians’ story has always carried a shadow from the past, one that traces back to 1948—the year they last stood atop the baseball world. What followed was not just a championship drought but the birth of one of the sport’s strangest legends: the so-called curse of the pennant.
The Funeral That Sparked a Curse
After winning the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves, the then-Indians looked poised to build a dynasty. But just a year later, their bid to defend the American League pennant fell short. On September 23, 1949, team owner Bill Veeck decided to stage a bizarre spectacle: a funeral for the 1948 pennant.
In front of fans at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, players carried a coffin containing the massive 14-by-20-foot flag behind the center-field fence. Accounts vary on whether the banner was truly buried or if the stunt was purely theatrical, but one thing became certain—the flag vanished. And with it, some fans believed, went the team’s ability to win another championship.
The Indians would return to the World Series in 1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016. Each time, they came up short. The losses fed the superstition that the “buried pennant” doomed them to repeat heartbreaks, just as Boston suffered through the “Curse of the Bambino” or the Cubs endured the “Curse of the Goat.”
For decades, Clevelanders spoke of the curse as a cruel joke. Now, in 2025, that story has taken on new meaning as the Guardians inch closer to rewriting history.
Tigers Toppled, Division Within Reach
This September, Cleveland looked like a team that had been written off. On July 8, they trailed Detroit by 15.5 games in the AL Central. By September 10, they were still 9.5 games back, and most pundits had already handed the Tigers the division crown.
But something changed. The Guardians began chipping away, series by series, until they found themselves in striking distance. Their defining moment came last week when they swept the Tigers on the road, stunning a rival that had controlled first place since April.
The statement win came on September 23, the very anniversary of the 1949 “funeral” for the pennant. Facing Detroit ace Tarik Skubal, Cleveland pulled off a 5-2 victory. The win gave them an identical 86-72 record to the Tigers, but thanks to a 7-4 head-to-head edge, put them in control of the tiebreaker. For the first time in five months, Detroit no longer stood alone at the top.
With five games left on the schedule, the Guardians’ magic number to clinch the AL Central is five. Any combination of Cleveland wins and Detroit losses that equals that number will secure the division. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a team that looked buried just two months ago.
For long-suffering Cleveland fans, the timing is impossible to ignore. On the same date the pennant was laid to rest 76 years ago, the Guardians clawed their way into first place. Superstition aside, this run feels like the kind of story that tests curses rather than confirms them.
The Guardians have embraced their role as spoilers, toppling a Tigers team that once seemed uncatchable. Now, with the division at stake and October baseball ahead, Cleveland is closer than ever to exorcising one of baseball’s strangest legends.
If the Guardians can finish the job, they won’t just clinch the Central—they might finally put the pennant curse to rest.
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