En route to finally winning their respective World Series championships, the Red Sox and Cubs were inundated with stories about the 'Curse of the Bambino' and the 'Billy Goat Curse.' In their current iteration, having relocated from Montreal in 2005, the Washington Nationals are a fairly new franchise, but perhaps we should start talking about their curse, which we'll call the Curse of Self-Affliction.
In Washington's case, the curse is all the more painful because it's of their own making. In 2012, having won a still-standing franchise record of 98 games (even including the Expos years) Washington's front office decided to shut down the completely healthy staff ace, Stephen Strasburg.