Tagged As: baseball, MLB, Sports, Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Curse, Billy Goat

Monday morning Chicago sports fan went that extra mile to prove that the fair city deserved the first local ESPN page, ESPN Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, disturbingly motivated fans placed a severed goat head outside of Wrigley Field in what can safely be hypothesized to be an attempt to end the Curse of the Billy Goat.

This same stunt was pulled on October 3, 2007. Only that group went one step further and hung the butchered goat from a statue of Harry Caray. Personally, I think if you are going to hang anything from Harry Caray’s statue to appease the baseball gods then you should hang a keg of Old Style. Similarly, if you believe the superstition, then you would know that the Chicago Cubs owners are supposed to sincerely embrace the goats, not mutilate them.

I think the first round sweeps in 2007 to the Arizona Diamondbacks and in 2008 to the Los Angeles Dodgers can be traced back to that grossly misguided little bit of fan help. In fact, I think the 2007 and now the 2009 culprits can be classified as worse fans than Steve Bartman.

Broken Curses

There of course many more curses that have been both the bane of fans existence and, yet, a driving force in the continued popularity of baseball. Some have been broken. The Boston Red Sox put the Curse of the Bambino to bed after an improbable comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the 2004 ALCS. The Red Sox then went onto win the World Series and repeated two years later in 2007. Bill Simmons, the resident Red Sox fanatic on Page 2, theorizes that it was that moment, when the team was down 3 games to zero and well on their way to being swept late in Game 4 that ultimately broke the curse. The situation was so dreadful that the fans finally gave up. The result was perhaps the most incredible series I have seen in any sport every.

The other curse, the Curse of the Black Sox, was broken just a year later when a Chicago White Sox team that experts downplayed all season easily strode through the playoffs to sweep the Houston Astros. This was never one of the most recognized curses. Mainly because the White Sox are the second baseball team in Chicago and, really, the second Sox team, always deferring to their Red cousins when referencing the single nickname, Sox. Still, I think the key to breaking this curse was the hard work Sox fans put in beating up first base umpires at Royals games.

Lingering Curses

It would seem to somebody foreign to the obsession of baseball that the Cubs curse is the last great curse left in MLB. They are however wrong. There are many teams and many bad teams that have needed to find a singular point in time or a single person to blame their struggles.

This team’s troubles have largely been forgotten because of their dominance in the ‘90s, but the Cleveland sports fans have endured much more pain than any collective group of people ever should. They have suffered as Browns fans for the last few decades (a dedication that has included losing their team), they watched Jordan erase their hopes and dreams for an NBA championship time and time again (LeBron James may end that image of Jordan hitting a jumper of Craig Ehlo this season), and, finally, they have suffered since 1948 a World Series victory.

The curse bestowed upon the franchise is the Curse of Rocky Colavito. In the days before opening day in 1960, General Manager Frank Lane traded revered slugging right fielder Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn, the previous season’s batting champion. Colvato would go on to have a stellar career with the Tigers while Kuenn lasted one season before being traded two useless veterans.

The Indians would spend the next 33 years at the bottom of the standings and become immortalized in the movie Major League for their brand of bad baseball. The organization would turn things around with six AL Central division titles from 1995 to 2001, but would fail to turn any playoff appearance into a World Series win. There is currently no known cure for the curse.

The San Francisco Giants are one of the oldest teams in baseball history, beginning play in 1883. They were quite competitive in their time in New York, but ultimately left the East Coast for a view of the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco in 1958. They also left five World Series behind and have not been able to christen their home for over five decades with a World Series win.

Fans blame this on the Curse of Captain Eddie. Captain Eddie was a Eddie Grant, a New York Giants outfielder who gave his life in World War I and was honored with a plaque in center field at the Polo Grounds. The plaque was left in New York in the move westward and ever since the team has been unable to complete a World Series victoriously.

The team has tried to reproduce the plaque, but even that simple plan has proved difficult, with the replica plaque cracking twice during its construction. My theory is that the plaque at AT&T Park has been re-cursed because the Giants tried to undo their bad luck while Barry Bonds was on the team. The San Francisco baseball fans may love Bonds, but many around the league do not and consider his actions repulsive. Perhaps the answer to un-curse the re-curse is to put an asterisk by his name in the record books or remove his name completely.

Another curse that exists just below the level is the Curse of Donnie Baseball. Not many people would consider waiting eight years plus for another World Series justification for a curse, but these people are not Yankees fans. This is a team with a ridiculous payroll (over $200 million) and justifiably ridiculous expectations.

This particular curse rests on the beloved former Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly. He is on the fringe of Hall of Fame considerations, but during his 14 years as a New York Yankee he was a one-time AL MVP and a World Series virgin. He is a rare Yankee legend that never even played in a series that has become so commonplace to the franchise.

His return as a hitting coach in 2004 seemed to keep the New York Yankees out of the World Series. This includes the series in 2004 in which that failed to capture the final win needed to go to the series after building a three games to none lead over the Boston Red Sox. The curse should be lifted as Mattingly left for the a Dodgers job in 2008, but they still have the curse of A-Rod, a great player unable to hit and win in the postseason, to beat. Bet they love that 10-year, $275-million contract now.

New Curses

I feel that there should really be more curses, but so many of the paltry teams have few single events, trades, and players to blame their annual frustrations. Really, the Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Washington Nationals, and San Diego Padres deserve some sort of story their decades without World Series title (while the Florida Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks have each been able to win one in the first five years of their existence).

I am developing some sort of demise for the Mariners based on their location in Seattle, a sad city plagued by rain, depression, and departing teams (the Seattle Pilots, now the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Seattle Sonics, now the Oklahoma City Thunder). Perhaps including the tidbit that the city only received another franchise after another team was added north of the 49th parallel in hockey country. I believe the Expos, and soon the Blue Jays, should seen as arguments against baseball anywhere near the Arctic Circle.

The curse for the Houston Astros is obvious though. They are serving eternal penance for bring baseball indoors. I however, cannot find any solid reason for a curse on the Texas Rangers, pennant-less since their inception in 1961, and the San Diego Padres, unable to win a World Series since their inception in 1969.

The only plausible story I can come up with is that there fate is tied to the frozen head and body of Ted Williams. Williams served as the Rangers manager from 1969 to 1972, and the phenomenal, yet surly hitter never managed to win a World Series himself. Since his head and body have been frozen by Alcor, his soul has been unable to witness the Red Sox World Series victory and thus his curmudgeonly attitude that has forever stained the franchise will continue to keep the Rangers down until his remains have been thawed and he can see that the Red Sox have finally won it all, giving him peace and his soul a pleasant attitude, removing the gloomy future of the Rangers.

The Milwaukee Brewers (as the Seattle Pilots), Washington Nationals (as the Montreal Expos), and the San Diego Padres came into MLB along with the Kansas City Royals in 1969. Of the four, only the Royals have won. It is my belief that perhaps the collective suck-itude by all four teams in the postseason has created a plague that will keep each of these teams from winning another title. Other possible causes corresponding to the year 1969 are the last live Beatles performance on top of the roof of Apple Records (a bittersweet day for rock and roll), Richard M. Nixon taking office as the President of the United States, and the opening of the first Gap store.

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