When the Red Sox finally broke their 86-year-long curse to win the World Series in 2004, only one team had been waiting longer for a championship — the Chicago Cubs.
In baseball’s early days, the Red Sox and Cubs were frequent World Series champs. But then fate changed for both teams. As a result, fans of both long shared a bond — one built on superstitions and hopes for a better outcome next year. The Red Sox drought has ended. Now, we cheer for the Cubs as they face the prospect of putting an end to more than a century without a World Series victory.
Not only have the Cubs not won a World Series since 1908, they haven’t even been in baseball’s championship series since 1945.
That was two seasons before baseball was integrated. The first Cubs batter in this year’s World Series, which begins Tuesday in Cleveland, is set to be Dexter Fowler, who is black. The Cubs’ leadoff hitter and centerfielder said on Twitter: “Wow … speechless. Thanks for sharing this fact. I will carry it with me.”
Much else has changed in Major League Baseball since then. There were only 16 teams in 1946, as there were in 1908. None of them was located west of St. Louis. There are now 30 teams, including five in California.
In 1945, there were no designated hitters (they didn’t appear until 1973, and then, only in the American League) and no lights at Wrigley Field, the Cubs’ home park. The park, the last in the major leagues to get lights, didn’t host night games until 1988.
Like the Red Sox were until 2004, the Cubs are said to be under a curse. The Red Sox won the World Series in 1918 — by defeating the Cubs. Two years later, the Sox sold their star Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. After that deal, the Yankees began winning, collecting 26 World Series titles, while Boston didn’t win a World Series again until 2004 when the “ Curse of the Bambino” was broken.
The Red Sox’s 2004 victory was overseen by a young general manager named Theo Epstein. He is now president of baseball operations for the Cubs.
The Cubs’ curse revolves around a goat. The owner of a local tavern, the Billy Goat Tavern, brought his goat to game four of the 1945 World Series against the Detroit Tigers. The ushers would not allow the goat, which was wearing a “We got Detroit’s goat” sign, into the ballpark. The goat’s owner, Billy Sianis, asked P.K. Wrigley, the team’s owner why. Wrigley replied: “Because the goat stinks,” according to a history posted on the tavern’s website.
Infuriated, Sianis reportedly said: “The Cubs ain’t gonna win no more. The Cubs will never win a World Series so long as the goat is not allowed in Wrigley Field.” Indeed, the Cubs lost the series that year to the Detroit Tigers.
Sianis’ nephew, Sam Sianis, again tried to bring a goat to a Cubs game in 1973. Although the goat arrived at Wrigley Field in a limo, the park’s ushers turned the animal away.
In 1984, the Cubs’ new owners, the Tribune Co., finally allowed a goat to come to Wrigley, and Sam Sianis walked the goat around the field on opening day and declared the curse lifted. The Cubs had a winning season, capturing their first division title in nearly 40 years. However, the San Diego Padres defeated them in the National League Championship Series.
There is no word yet on whether the goat will make an appearance at this year’s World Series games.
