With the Chicago Cubs victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field the other day, putting them in the National League Champion Series, I started getting all nostalgic about Chicago once again and began leafing through a copy of The Best of Mike Royko: One More Time - a collection of the late Tribune columnist's best pieces. The very last article in the book was about the infamous curse of the Billy Goat. As I mentioned in yesterday's Blog post, Bill Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago - tried to bring his pet goat to a Cubs game back in 1945, was turned away, and afterwards put a curse on the team. That curse has lasted to this day. Royko says in the article that we should stop blaming some poor goat and blame the real culprit - actually an old goat, former team owner P.K. Wrigley. Just after the start of the curse, Branch Rickey broke the color barrier in baseball and drafted Jackie Robinson. After that, most major league teams began drafting talented black players from the old Negro Leagues. Most, but not all. The Cubs did not draft any black players until 1953, and while other teams became far more competitive, the Cubs sank into the lower division and stayed there for decades. The habit of losing became acceptable, and the team has been languishing ever since. Is this the year they finally break through and win it all? I say no, but then again, I am just a White Sox fan from the South Side of Chicago. And what do White Sox fans know? In point of fact, we know all about losing. So good luck to the Chicago Cubs, but expect the worst.
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