The Chicago Cubs and the Curse of the Goat
The perpetrator of the curse, William “Billy Goat” Sianis, was born in Greece, sometime in the late 1800s. At the turn of the century he immigrated to the United States, where eventually, in Chicago, he became the owner of the famous Lincoln Tavern on West Madison Street. He took his nickname not from the events that would make him famous, but from the goatee he wore on his chin. Sianis was so shrewd a businessman that when the Republicans held their convention in Chicago one year, he placed a sign in the window that read “We do not serve Republicans”. Naturally, Republicans were falling all over themselves to get in the door, and Sianis made a killing. William was a big fan of the Chicago Cubs, often attending games, and during the Thirties the Cubbies were pretty darn good, winning three National League pennants and always finishing in the first division. They slumped in the war years, but in 1945 they rebounded and won the flag by three games over the Cardinals. The World Series began on October 3rd, and by the fourth contest the Cubs held a 2-1 Series over the Detroit Tigers lead by virtue of a pair of shutouts, one by Hank Borowy and the other from Claude Passeau.. Enter, and exit, the goat.
Sianis had a pet goat that he taken in after it reportedly jumped off a truck near his tavern. He called it Murphy and when the fourth game of the Series was at hand in Chicago, William decided to bring his goat to the game at Wrigley Field, most likely as a promotional stunt. He had a sign made up and pinned to a blanket on the goat’s back that read “We have Detroit’s goat”. Innocent enough, until Sianis, who had box seats for himself and the goat, was given a hard time by the ushers. He produced the pair of tickets, which had cost him $7.20 {you couldn’t buy two hot dogs at Wrigley today with $7.20} and insisted the goat should be allowed to stay. The odd pair was allowed to remain in their seats and the game commenced, the goat even getting to walk around on the field for a time.
Unfortunately for the 1945 Cubs and all future Cubs teams, it began to rain. The sun soon shone through once more, but the goat’s odor was magnified by the wetness. When fans objected to the smell, both Sianis and the goat were given the heave-ho by Cubs security with the whole hearted approval of owner Phil Wrigley. The Cubs lost the game 4-1, but worse yet, they lost a fan in William Sianis. One very vindictive fan.
Sianis supposedly stood outside the stadium and invoked a curse, promising that the Cubs would not play in another World Series in Wrigley Field. He told anyone who would listen that his goat had been insulted, and that the curse was retribution for this terrible act. He even went as far as to send Wrigley a telegram after the Cubs lost Game Five by the score of 8-4. It simply read “Who stinks now?”
The Cubs would lose the Series in seven games when Detroit pounded Borowy for five first inning runs in a 9-3 thumping to claim the championship. The curse was not really made into that big a deal, but it began to grow over the years in the Windy City. Sianis changed the name of his establishment to the Billy Goat Tavern and raked in the dough. The Cubs meanwhile became a laughingstock, unable to get out of their own way for twenty years. Sianis died in 1970, but before his death, in April of 1969, he was said to have lifted the curse. But he must have only known how to put a curse on a team, and not how to remove it. Either that or the goat really did feel insulted.
In 1969 the Cubs held a comfortable 8Ã?½-game lead in the National League East during the second week of August. They appeared on their way to the playoffs, but on September 9th, the curse visibly raised its head for the first time since 1945. The Cubs were playing the Mets in a key series. As third sacker Ron Santo was batting, a black cat came out onto the field and stopped and stared at him in the batter’s box. The Cubs lost that game, they lost the next day to the Phillies, and from there it was all down hill. They folded like a cheap suit and coughed up the lead; finishing an incredible 8 games in back of New York. Apparently the goat had not gotten the message from Sianis. Worse yet, he had other animals helping him.
In 1973, the Cubs were once again cruising along, with a large division lead in July. However, they proceeded to lose 49 of their last 76 games and wound up seven games under .500, but only five games out of first in a year when the Mets, who the goat must have had a soft spot for, won the division with an 82-79 mark. By now, Sam Sianis, William’s nephew, had inherited the curse’s legacy.
On Friday the 13th of April, 1984, the Cubs decided to try something different and allowed Sam and his goat onto Wrigley Field. It appeared to reverse the curse as the Cubs won the division and took a 2-0 lead in the best of five League Championship Series against the Padres. But Sam’s goat must have fallen asleep at the switch, and Murphy the Goat woke up just in time, as the Cubs lost three in a row to blow their chance at the Series. A ground ball that went through first baseman Leon Durham’s legs sealed their fate in the deciding tilt, and the curse was alive and well, much to the horror of the Cub faithful.
Sam and his goat were summoned to break losing streaks every now and then, and in 2003 it looked like Murphy the Goat had met his Waterloo. The Cubs won the division, beat the Braves in the first round of the playoffs, and held a 3-0 lead on the Marlins in the sixth game of the League Championship Series that they had a 3-2 games lead in. Five outs away from the World Series, disaster struck in the form of one of their own fans, Steve Bartman. As a lazy foul ball off the bat of Luis Castillo looked to be coming down in the outstretched glove of Cubs’ left fielder Moises Alou, Bartman reached out and deflected the ball away! Angered fans were ready to pounce on Bartman; they were ready to lynch him after the Cubs fell apart and allowed the Marlins eight runs before the inning ended. Bartman had to be escorted out under protective custody as the Cubs lost Game Six. He became a pariah when the Cubs were beaten in the seventh game. Score at this point: Goat 4-Cubs 0.
The goat barely had to break a sweat in 2004 when the Cubs held a couple of games lead in the wild card chase over the Astros late in the season. Naturally, they lost seven of their last nine and failed to reach the post-season. In one vital game they held a 3-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth over, whom else, the Mets, but lost when rookie Victor Diaz hit a three run homer to force extra innings. Murphy the Goat, wherever he was working his curse from, didn’t mind the overtime, as a solo Mets’ homer beat Chicago in the eleventh.
In recent years, other baseball curses like the Curse of the Bambino and the Curse of the Black Sox have been broken by the Red Sox and the White Sox respectively. The Curse of the Goat continues on its merry way, with no end in sight for the luckless Cubs. Had they only known back in 1945 to let a goat remain in his seat, they could have avoided all this heartbreak, which could all be summed up by two words-Murphy’s Law!
