Getting their goat

Billy Sianis had a goat named Murphy, or so the story goes. One wet day in October 1945 he brought the goat, his tavern mascot, to Wrigley Field to see the Chicago Cubs play in the World Series. Sianis’ favorite team was two wins away from the trophy.

Sianis had two tickets: one for himself, one for the goat. He handed them in politely at the gate. No goats, the team ushers said, in one story version. “I have a ticket,” Sianis supposedly replied. The owner of the Cubs arbitrated the dispute and gave the official word: “The goat stinks.”

Sianis responded, “The Cubs will never win a World Series as long as the goat is not allowed.” And he cursed the club.

Such curses are not efficacious, but it has been 71 years since Murphy couldn’t attend the game, and the Chicago Cubs are now without a World Series win in 108 years. This season, though, the Cubs are one of four teams likely to win their divisions and gain the opportunity to reward patient fans.

One of these teams, the Texas Rangers, started out in 1961 as a replacement for a Washington Senators team that moved to Minnesota, but the new franchise moved southwest after the 1971 season. In neither place did the team win a World Series, although twice in 2011 it was one strike away.

The Washington Nationals, the franchise that replaced the Senators, also has a big lead in its division. That’s strange for capital-area residents: Washington won a World Series in 1924, but D.C. baseball fans have almost always suffered through losing seasons since the 1930s.

The Cleveland Indians are the fourth playoff-likely team trying to change a history of disappointment. The Indians team originated as the Grand Rapids Rustlers in 1894 but moved to Cleveland in 1900 and won the World Series in 1920 and 1948. The Indians won a pennant in 1954 with 111 wins and 43 losses, the highest winning percentage (.721) in American League history, but lost four straight World Series games to the New York Giants. Since then, the Indians have usually had losing records, and folklore blames “the curse of Rocky Colavito,” after a popular outfielder the Indians traded away in 1960.

Poor management and weak players are a better explanation for defeat than miscellaneous curses, and if Cleveland makes it to the World Series, it may be cursed only by having to play a dominating Chicago Cubs team. In 2011 Theo Epstein, a general manager who had led the Boston Red Sox to bury “the curse of the Bambino”—the Red Sox traded away Babe Ruth and did not win a World Series from 1918 to 2004— took over the Cubs. In 2012, the Cubs lost 101 games, and 2013 was also dismal. But Epstein used these failures to gain top draft picks like Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber. Smart trades and patience have created a dream roster.

This season the Cubs are heading into October as one of the best teams of the past few decades, on a pace to win more than 100 games. Their hitters are terrific and their pitchers are wizards—but if they don’t go all the way, expect to hear more about Billy Sianis and the insult to his goat.