Cubs Curses

During the upcoming playoffs you will hear these following words spoken a million times; the Billy Goat, Black Cat, Bartman, Gatorade Glove, and 1908. When talking to a buddy of mine from Myrtle Beach about the upcoming series I mentioned how we will hear these words over and over again, and I was surprised to hear that he didn't know the real stories for the most of the phrases. I figured he probably wasn't the only uninformed fan out there, so here we go:

• 1908: The last year the Cubs won the World Series


• The Billy Goat Curse: Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant (from Paleopyrgos, Greece), who owned a nearby tavern (the now-famous Billy Goat Tavern), had two $7.20 box seat tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, and decided to bring along his pet goat, Murphy (or Sinovia according to some references), which Sianis had restored to health when the goat had fallen off a truck and subsequently limped into his tavern. The goat wore a blanket with a sign pinned to it which read "We got Detroit's goat". Sianis and the goat were allowed into Wrigley Field and even paraded about on the playing field before the game before ushers intervened and led them off the field. After a heated argument, both Sianis and the goat were permitted to stay in the stadium occupying the box seat for which he had tickets. At this point, Andy Frain (head of Wrigley Field's hired security company at the time), waved the goat's box-seat ticket in the air and proclaimed "If he eats the ticket that would solve everything." However, the goat did not. Before the game was over, Sianis and the goat were ejected from the stadium at the command of Cubs owner Philip Knight Wrigley due to the animal's objectionable odor. Sianis was outraged at the ejection and allegedly placed a curse upon the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in a World Series at Wrigley Field again because the Cubs organization had insulted his goat, and subsequently left the U.S. to vacation in his home in Greece. The Cubs lost Game 4 and eventually the 1945 World Series, prompting Sianis to write to Wrigley from Greece, saying, "Who stinks now?" Following a third-place finish in the National League in 1946, the Cubs would finish in the league's second division for the next 20 consecutive years. This streak finally ended in 1967, the year after Leo Durocher became the club's manager. Since that time, the supposedly cursed Cubs have not won a National League pennant or played in a World Series – the longest pennant drought in Major League history. Sianis died in 1970(All information drawn from Wikipedia).



• The Black Cat: In 1969 the Cubs had an amazing squad which included Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, and Billy Williams, all hall of fame talent. The Cubs were rolling on everyone that year, and at one point had amounted a 8.5 game lead in the division. The race got interesting by September though, and the Cubs went to NY for a huge series. Midway through that important game, Mets fans released a black cat, and it ran right towards Ron Santo who was waiting at the on deck circle. The black cat then just stared at Santo for a while with a haunting glare. After that it ran into the Cubs dugout, where it just stared down the Cubs players. The Cat just walked around back and forth, and in circles for a while as the whole stadium just watched in amazement. The Cubs went on to lose that game and collapse that September.



• The Gatorade Glove: In 1984 the Cubs were in the NLCS, and were up in the series 2 games to 0. They were also up 3-2 going into the bottom of the 7th in a decisive game 5. In that inning a ball rolled right under Leon Durham's glove, similar to the Bill Buckner play in the 86 WS. The runner scored and the Padres went on to win the game 6-3 and as well as the the World Series that year. That error is also known as the Gatorade Glove Play, because there was some Gatorade spilled on his glove in the dugout right before he came out to play the field. What are the odds of that happening? People believe this is another incident attributed to the curse or that this is a separate curse in itself.



• Bartman: I think it is safe to assume that anyone reading here knows the story behind Steve Bartman and Moises Alou. If not you can go here to watch the video.

You can also ready yourself to hear about how the Dodgers are 1-12 in the playoffs since winning the World Series in 1988.

It should be a fantastic series between the two clubs, with neither of the teams looking like a lock at this point to win. They match-up pretty evenly across the board.The biggest difference is how they have played all season. The Cubs have been consistent all year, but the Dodgers are the hottest team in baseball. So it really could go either way. I guess we will just have to wait and see how the series unfolds.

The series between the Dodgers and Cubs starts tonight at 6:30 and can be seen on TBS.