{"id":17825,"date":"2015-10-07T17:36:59","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T22:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=17825"},"modified":"2016-07-12T23:07:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T04:07:50","slug":"goats-black-cats-bartman-coming-to-terms-with-cubs-curses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/goats-black-cats-bartman-coming-to-terms-with-cubs-curses\/","title":{"rendered":"Goats, black cats & Bartman: Coming to terms with Cubs’ Curses"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shane Monaghan<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Grant DePorter, the signs clearly show the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series this year.<\/p>\n

For Sam Sianis, it\u2019s not about the signs. It\u2019s about making sure he can bring a billy goat to the playoffs and end the bad karma started by his uncle 70 years ago.<\/p>\n

Two of the leading perpetuators of the curses on the Cubs want the team to reach their first World Series since 1945 and then win their first championship since 1908. The first step starts\u00a0tonight, when the Cubs take on the Pirates in the National League wild-card game in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Cubs history is littered with cursed moments. From William Sianis admonishing the team for kicking him and his billy goat out of Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series, to a black cat running in front of the Cubs\u2019 dugout and signaling a monumental regular-season collapse in 1969, to Leon Durham botching a ground ball in the 1984 playoffs, to Steve Bartman reaching for a ball during the 2003 postseason, Cubs fans have wondered whether there was some type of weird voodoo involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Grant<\/a>
Grant DePorter paid nearly $114,000 for the \u201cinfamous\u201d Bartman ball before blowing it up. (Shane Monaghan\/ Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere has been a lot of things that are unexplainable. It is a lot easier to believe that there are supernatural powers at work,\u201d said DePorter, who collected the memorabilia for the Chicago Sports Museum, which features a \u201cCurses and Superstitions\u201d exhibit. \u201cWhat are the odds that you have a terrible team for 107 years?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DePorter\u2019s confidence in the 2015 version of the Cubs comes from a combination of numerology and pop-culture prognostication. He said eight is the magical number for the Cubs.\u00a0 They closed out the regular season winning eight games in a row, Wrigley Field hosted its first night game on the date 8\/8\/88 (although technically it was only the first 3\u00bd innings because the game was postponed because of rain) and the opening pitch for\u00a0<\/span>Wednesday\u00a0<\/span>night\u2019s game is scheduled for\u00a0<\/span>7:08 \u2014 19:08\u00a0<\/span>in military time. As far as the popular-culture part, \u201cBack to the Future II\u201d writers already successfully predicted Pepsi Max and a major league team in Miami, so their forecast that the 2015 Cubs would win the World Series seems plausible to DePorter. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DePorter, chief operating officer for Harry Caray\u2019s Restaurant Group, has tried to reverse the curse on his own in previous years. In 2004, he made a spectacle of blowing up the infamous Bartman foul ball.\u00a0 The ball was demolished in a machine built by Michael Lantieri, a special-effects expert on movies such as \u201cJurassic Park\u201d and \u201cBack to the Future.\u201d\u00a0 DePorter and the Chicago Sports Museum built a replica of the machine that lets fans simulate blowing the ball into fiery chunks. The replica and the tarnished remains of the actual ball are properly located in the \u201cCurses and Superstitions\u201d exhibit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As it became clear the Cubs would clinch a playoff spot, attempts to reverse the curse\u00a0increased over the past few weeks. A GoFundMe campaign was started to get Bartman to attend a potential playoff game, and a group of competitive eaters ate a 40-pound goat in one sitting at Chicago\u2019s Taco in a Bag.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"SamSianis\"<\/a>
Sam Sianis hopes he and his billy goat get the invite to Wrigley Field if the Cubs make it past the Pirates Wednesday night. (Shane Monaghan\/ Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEating the goat is going to come back and get them,\u201d Sam Sianis said. When asked what that meant, he just said again and again, \u201cEating the goat is going to come back and get them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sianis owns the Billy Goat Tavern, an underground haunt parodied by a famous \u201cSaturday<\/span>\u00a0Night Live\u201d skit featuring Jim Belushi, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. The previous owner was his uncle, William Sianis, who put the Curse of the Billy Goat on the Cubs. To Sam Sianis, the solution to the curse is simple \u2014 get past the Pirates and invite him and his goat to the playoff games at Wrigley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And just in case the Cubs\u2019 organization is wondering, he is not going to show up without being asked. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cubs have invited Sam and his goat to Wrigley in the past, including a successful attempt to end a 12-game home losing streak in 1984, and again for a game in 1994. Sam makes sure to note that he was not invited for the final game of the 1984 National League Championship Series when Durham botched a routine ground ball at first base.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe billy goat is behind the Cubs,\u201d said Sam. \u201cI am a Chicago fan.\u00a0 I like to see all the Chicago teams win. The goat and me are going to help the Cubs to win.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Molden, Northwestern University professor of psychology, said Cubs fans try not to let any supposed curse affect their expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf things start to go wrong, it is always in the back of your mind,\u201d said Molden. \u201cThe classic example of this is the 2003 Bartman game.\u00a0 The game unraveled from there.\u00a0 That was not the game deciding play.\u00a0 It was what happened after that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And don\u2019t worry if the Cubs don\u2019t win it all, according to DePorter. What would that say about the numbers he found so compelling?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not read the signs correctly,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo at top: The Cubs have had a long history of curses and superstitions, but diehard Cubs’ fans point to reversing the curse in 2015. (Shane Monaghan\/Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shane Monaghan For Grant DePorter, the signs clearly show the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series this year. For Sam Sianis, it\u2019s not about the signs. It\u2019s about making sure he can bring a billy goat to the playoffs and end the bad karma started by his uncle 70 years ago. Two of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":17834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[509,31],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-17825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2015","category-sports","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nGoats, black cats & Bartman: Coming to terms with Cubs' Curses - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/goats-black-cats-bartman-coming-to-terms-with-cubs-curses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Goats, black cats & Bartman: Coming to terms with Cubs' Curses - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Shane Monaghan For Grant DePorter, the signs clearly show the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series this year. 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