But then, there are the other curses, the real ones, the ones that are kind of hard to dismiss. Scoff if you want, but consider...

Sports players and fans alike are a superstitious bunch. As a result, every team that's gone a few years without a title is declared to be under some kind of "curse" or other, despite the fact that, you know, only one team can win it all each year.

6 The San Francisco Giants and the Curse of Coogan's Bluff

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The Cause:

Once upon a time, the San Francisco Giants baseball team played in New York, at the Polo Grounds ballpark in Harlem, underneath a cliff face known as Coogan's Bluff. As one of three baseball teams playing in New York at the time, the Giants decided in 1957 to abandon their crumbling stadium and move to a less stifling (but more fabulous!) city, San Francisco.

The move was very sudden and incensed long time fans in New York who took it as a sign of outright betrayal, forcing them to make an impossible choice: continue rooting for their team that was now 3,000 miles away, or become Mets fans. As any rational person would do when faced with such a dilemma, Giants fans in New York placed a hex on the team they once loved, dictating that the Giants would never win a World Series again as long as they were based somewhere other than New York City.

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The Effect:

When the Giants played at Coogan's Bluff, they were in the World Series 17 times in 65 years, even making it to the big game four times in a row during the early 20s. Their win in 1954 added a fifth title to their belts, just three years before deciding to move cities.

That would also be the very last time the Giants won the championship.

To put it in perspective, the last time the Giants touched the Commissioner's Trophy was the very first time a sporting event was broadcast in color. Or, for the geeks out there, when Lord of the Rings was first published. In the 51 years since the pox was placed on the Giants, the team has only managed a pitiful three championship appearances, losing in each one, despite acquiring such historical weapons as Willie Mays and later, the lethal duo of Barry Bonds and illegal steroids.

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Still Not Convinced?

Here's where it gets weird.

Two of the Giants' three appearances in the World Series since moving (1962 and 1989) were delayed by freak acts of nature's wrath. Heavy, monsoon-like rains delayed the 1962 championship and a massive earthquake during the 1989 World Series destroyed some of San Francisco, including damaging the Giants' home field. From this, we can scientifically deduce that instead of a robe, God wears an "I Heart N.Y." T-Shirt.