Baseball expulsion really got Billy’s goat
OCT 6, 1945
WITH the Second World War finally over, people could once again turn their attention to more leisurely pursuits – and in America that meant baseball.
But at the season-ending World Series of 1945, one man wanted more than the thrill of attending a live game himself – he wanted to share the experience with his pet goat.
The hoo-ha that created resulted in the “Curse of the Billy Goat”, which is held responsible by superstitious fans for the sport’s longest-ever losing streak.
You will never win again because you insulted my goat
On October 6, 1945, the Chicago Cubs met the Detroit Tigers, holding a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series to decide America’s champion team.
At the time, Chicago had a storied history, having won backto-back championships in 1907 and 1908, and been challengers for the title on numerous other occasions.
So anticipation was high as a local bar owner, Billy Sianis, walked up to the entrance gate at Wrigley Field clutching two tickets – one for himself, and one for his pet goat, Murphy.
Sianis used Murphy, who he’d rescued after it fell off a passing truck in the mid-1930s, as a mascot for his establishment, the Billy Goat Tavern, and was now hoping he’d bring the Cubs some good fortune.
The animal was draped in a
banner reading: “We got Detroit’s goat.”
But not everyone saw the funny side and, after complaints from other fans sitting nearby that Murphy was kicking up a bit of a stink after his pelt got wet during a rain delay, Sianis and Murphy were forcibly ejected from the stadium.
Before he left, Sianis had time to issue a hex on the team and its supporters, telling them: “You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to win the
World Series again because you insulted my goat.”
When the team went on to lose the game and the series, Sianis supposedly sent team owner P. K. Wrigley a message that read: “Who stinks now?”
And the answer for much of the ensuing 70 years has been the Cubs, who now have one of the most dismal win-loss records in baseball.
Fans were initially slow to blame their slump in fortunes on a goat, but the legend has grown stronger with each losing season.
Billy Sianis officially “lifted” his goat curse prior to his death in 1970, but their tag as perennial losers continues to this day.
Sianis’ nephew Sam has been invited to parade goats across Wrigley Field to break the curse and fans have also launched their own efforts.
In 2011, a group of Chicagoans formed a Reverse The Curse charity aimed at winning the Cubs good karma by donating goats to underpriviliged families in places such as Africa.