The Curse of the Billy Goat

A hex, a baseball team, and 71 years of disappointment

When William Sianis went to see Game 4 of the 1945 World Series, he brought a friend with him. A friend named Murphy.

The pair had met a few years before, when Murphy had fallen off a truck and injured himself in front of the bar that Sianis owned in downtown Chicago.

Since then, the pair had grown inseparable. Yet, when they both went to see the Chicago Cubs play the Detroit Tigers on October 6, 1945 — the fourth game in Chicago’s most recent World Series bid — the night ended in division.

Not only did the Cubs lose that night, but Murphy, to Sianis’ dismay, was never allowed in — and for one particular reason:

Murphy was a goat.

See, “Billy Goat” Sianis earned his nickname through more than just his carefully manicured facial hair. Not only had he adopted Murphy all those years ago, but Murphy was now the face of Sianis’ bar, renamed the “Billy Goat Tavern” in his honour.

To most, denying entry to Murphy was only natural, but to Sianis, who had supported the Cubs since he had immigrated from Greece nearly 30 years earlier, it was nothing less than sacrilege.

So, as legend has it, Sianis responded to Murphy’s prohibition with a declaration of his own, one that would come to haunt the Cubs and its fans for the better part of a century:

“Them Cubs, they ain’t going to win no more.”

While nobody could have foreseen it at the time, the Murphy incident marked a string of terrible luck that the Cubs and their fans couldn’t shake — no matter how many marketing stunts they pulled to reverse it — for 71 long years.

And boy did they try.

History Lost

Long before the World Series even existed, winning the National League Pennant was the ultimate mark of accomplishment in professional baseball, and the Cubs did it six times prior to the formation of the MLB in 1903.

After the MLB era began, the Cubs made three straight World Series appearances from 1906-1908, the latter two they won, making them the first team in professional baseball to repeat as champions.

While they wouldn’t win on the big stage for over a century, the team did win 7 more NL pennants over the following three decades — with the World Series matchup between them and the Detroit Tigers being their 10th appearance since the formation of the Major League.

Sadly, it was only downhill from there.

After the ‘45 World Series, the Cubs didn’t even make it into the postseason for nearly 30 years. When they finally made a run in 1984, they got eliminated by losing three straight games after being up 2-0 in the National League Championship Series (NLCS).

Five years later, the Cubs made it back to the NLCS in 1989 (which was now a best-of-seven series), where they faced off against the San Francisco Giants. They started off the series splitting their two home games, but dropped the next three despite holding leads in each game.

The next time the team made the posteason, it was 1998, but in spite of winning the wild card to get in — and having Sammy Sosa, the NL MVP to boot — the team got swept in the first round, banished for what would be another half-decade.

When 2003 rolled around, a harrowing reality set in: From 1903-1968, the world series was the first (and only) round in the postseason. Given each of their collapses from 1984 onwards, it meant that the Cubs hadn’t even won a playoff series in 95 years.

Thankfully, 2003 proved to be the year where that streak was broken. The Cubs won their division, and beat the Atlanta Braves in the first round to advance to the NLCS against the-then Florida Marlins.

Like so many years before, the Cubs positioned themselves to break the curse once and for all. Through five games, the Cubs held a one-game lead, and all they needed to do was close out Game 6 at home to advance to the World Series.

At the top of the 8th, the Cubs led Game 6, 3-0. They were five outs away from winning when a Marlins players hit what looked to be a foul ball, and a Cubs fan, Steve Bartman, ended up deflecting it and putting it back into play.

Somehow, that error was the first domino to fall in a historic collapse. The Cubs went on to give up eight runs that same inning, spelling a loss in Game 6. They lost Game 7 the very next day.

Despite being picked to win it all at the beginning of the 2004 season, the team failed to hold on to a 1.5-game lead in the wild card race — losing six of their last eight games in the regular season.

In 2007 and 2008, the Cubs made it to the playoffs, but they were swept both times in the first round. They wouldn’t make it back to the postseason until 2015, where, after winning the wild card and the NLDS, they were swept in historic fashion in the NLCS. The team batted a record-low .164 and didn’t hold a lead at any point in each of their four games.

For the first 70 years of the team’s existence, the Cubs racked up 51 winning seasons, 16 National League Pennants, 10 World Series appearances, and 2 World Series wins. For the following 70 years, they would only notch 18 winning seasons, and wouldn’t even win a single NL pennant, preventing them from not only winning — but even appearing — in a World Series game.

Reversing the Curse

Surprisingly, one of the first attempts to reverse the Curse of the Billy Goat came from none other than William Sianis himself. Having witnessed 25 straight years with no postseason appearances, by 1970, Sianis seemingly had enough, and publicly recanted the curse — to no avail.

14 years later, Sianis’ nephew (the new owner of the Billy Goat Tavern) tried his hand at undoing the hex. He came to Wrigley Field on opening day in 1984 and paraded around a goat (who was reportedly a descendant of Murphy). The team made the postseason for the first time in 30 years, but they got swept in the NLCS.

Sianis’ nephew did the same thing in 1994 and 1998 — two years where the team would in fact make it to October, but lasting success never came.

In line with the Zodiac’s year of the Goat, 2003 saw a group of Cubs fans travel to Houston for the season opener. Whether by luck or design, the sojourn mirrored William Sianis’ original gesture quite closely, as the group of fans brought a goat of their own, and after being denied entry to Minute Maid Park, they unfurled a scroll, and confidently proclaimed to “reverse the curse”. That year, the team came within five outs of getting to the World Series, but the Steve Bartman incident struck, and the Cubs’ hopes were dashed.

Interestingly enough, the Bartman baseball was sold at auction several weeks after the 2003 playoffs — for $113,000 USD. Bought on behalf of the Harry Caray restaurant in Chicago, the baseball was put on display in the restaurant, but only for a few months before it was subject to capital punishment.

Comparing it to the plot of The Lord of the Rings, the manager of the restaurant thought that destroying the Bartman baseball was the only way of freeing the Cubs from the scourge of yesteryear. So, he publicly electrocuted the ball, leaving only a husk of leather and string behind. Sadly, the move proved unfruitful, as the Cubs missed the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six years.

Several years later, Harry Caray’s name became involved with the Billy Goat Curse once more, when somebody hung a goat carcass off of the famed announcer’s statue in front of Wrigley Field. While the Cubs did make the postseason that year, it proved to be case study in first-round cleanups. The team got swept, and would suffer the same fate the following year, too.

Prior to their inevitable heartbreak in 2008, however, the Cubs themselves took an active stance in getting rid of the curse. A Greek Orthodox priest was brought into Wrigley Field and blessed the dugout before their first playoff game against the LA Dodgers — apparently in hopes of fighting a Greek Orthodox curse with a Greek Orthodox blessing.

In what would easily become the most altruistic attempt at reversing the curse, in 2011, a “Reverse the Curse” social enterprise was founded. The organization sent hundreds of goats to families in The Dominican Republic and Haiti to “reverse the curse” of poverty.

In February 2012, a group of friends started walking from the Cubs practice facility in Arizona with Chicago as their destination — a distance of more than 1700 miles. As always, a goat figured in, too. A Nigerian goat named Wrigley came along, walking with the group for the first 5-10 miles every day and spending the rest in a stroller. The walk was completed in late May, and the group raised more than $20,000 for cancer research in the process. Sadly, however, the Cubs missed the playoffs that year.

At the end of 2015, when the Cubs lost the NLCS in historic fashion — one more attempt at bringing the curse to an end was set into motion: Five competitive eaters, including the world renowned Takeru Kobayashi, took a valiant stab at the Billy Goat Curse by devouring a 40-pound goat in 13 minutes at a restaurant in downtown Chicago.

But after 70 years of bad luck, it couldn’t be that simple — could it?

The Promised Land

2016 was a special year for the Cubs.

Finishing the regular season with 103 wins, they boasted the best record in the MLB and notched their first 100-win season since 1935. They steamed into the playoffs with power and ease.

Plowing through the NLDS, the Cubs faced off against the LA Dodgers for a shot at the NL pennant. And, on the 46th anniversary of William Sianis’ death, they finally broke through, defeating the dodgers 6-0 and punching their ticket to the World Series for the first time in 71 years.

Pitted against the Cleveland Indians, the Cubs started off their championship bid on the wrong foot. Mirroring their finish in the Pennant race, they lost Game 1 in a shutout (6-0) before recovering with a win in Game 2. Gaining homefield advantage for Game 3 and 4 didn’t help, as Chicago dropped the next two games, bringing the series to 3-1 and putting the Cubs on the brink of elimination.

Game 5 saw a one-run lead for the Indians early, but two runs and a homer in the 4th inning brought the Cubs ahead. While the Indians came within one after the 6th inning — and had a man on second base in the 7th — the Cubs brought in relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman to close out the game, and he didn’t disappoint. Chapman pitched three scoreless innings, and the Cubs won the game, 3-2.

It was the first World Series win at Wrigley Field since 1945.

Game 6 was a blowout — one that the Cubs were thankfully on the right side of. They scored three runs in the 1st inning (all with two outs), and would be responsible for the the first World Series Grand Slam since 2005 in the 4th inning. Notching two more runs in the 9th, the Cubs forced a Game 7 with a 9-3 tally.

Like so many years before, Game 7 was an all-or-nothing moment for the Cubs. After a lead-off homer, they pulled away in the 1st inning, but the Indians would tie the game at the bottom of the 3rd. Scoring two runs in both the 4th and the 5th inning, the Cubs established a 5-3 lead before increasing the margin to 6-3 in the 6th.

After a scoreless 7th, the Indians stormed back into contention with an RBI and a two-run homer in the 8th inning — tying the score at 6-apiece. The Cubs had a chance to score what would’ve been the game-winning run in the 9th, but they failed to capitalize, and the game went to extra innings.

But — before they could start, a cloudburst caused a rain delay that lasted 17 minutes.

Having lost their momentum, the Cubs were on the precipice of another soul-crushing defeat — this time on the biggest stage in baseball. Luckily, right-fielder Jason Heyward felt inspirational. He proceeded to give a speech so rousing that it was later credited as an instrumental part of their victory.

Because, of course — they won the game.

After scoring two runs at the top of the 10th inning, the Cubs were able to hold off a comeback by the Indians for their first World Series win in over 70 years.

It was a momentous victory, and a storybook ending to the curse which had plagued the city of Chicago — and Cubs fans — for the better part of a century.

Finally, Chicago had gotten somebody’s goat.

Takeaways

In 2020, Forbes ranked the Cubs as having the second-most loyal fanbase in Major League Baseball.

That kind of credit doesn’t come cheap — because loyalty isn’t forged in times of glory.

In fact, much like hitting in baseball, fandom is a losing game. Every year, most fans end up disappointed, because only a select few teams across major sports win championships.

As for the Cubs: you could argue that no fanbase had it worse over that 70-year period. Once a perennial contender, they spent the better part of a century regressing into the poster-child for failed expectations and postseason collapses.

But here’s the thing about failure: it builds character — and Cubs fans put that character to good use.

Whether it involved out-of-state pilgrimages, the founding of charitable organizations, or even the electrocution of baseballs, each attempt to reverse the curse was a small way for Cubs fans to channel their frustration and own the narrative of failure which the followed the team for so long.

As a by-product, it was also some damn-good marketing, too.

Unlike traditional marketing campaigns — which intentionally promote brands for financial gain — Cubs fans never intended to fatten the team’s bottom line. Still, they galvanized other fans, attracted large amounts of media attention, and rendered the Cubs brand more unique in the process — three things which only the best sports marketing can achieve.

It’s a powerful lesson. Even now, when brands have more data than ever, cracking the code might be as simple as letting your audience do what they do best: express themselves.

Results may vary, but if the Billy Goat Curse has shown us anything, it’s that even the most frustrated fanbases can (and usually will) find funny, creative, and powerful ways to to turn heads — which is what great marketing is all about.