October

It's October and that means... BASEBALL PLAYOFFS!!! This year is especially exciting for some fans because the Cubs are in the playoffs. If you happen to have been living in a cave for the last six months, you may not realize that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Cubs victory over Detroit on October 14, 1908 to win their last World Series title. Between 1908 and 1945, the Cubs played in many World Series matchups, but failed to win.

Another hot sports news item over the last six months in relation to why the Cubs haven't played in a World Series since 1945 is "the curse." A nearby tavern owner, Billy "The Goat" Sianis bought two tickets to game 4 of the series. He attended the game with his goat, Murphy. It began to rain, and Billy and Murphy were ejected from the game due to complaints from other fans about the stink from the wet goat. Billy Sianis left Chicago and went to his native home in Greece where he allegedly cursed the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in another World Series. He wrote a letter to the Cubs organization asking "who stinks now?" The curse legend was fueled by losing seasons for over 20 years after this event and the black cat incident at Shea.

Since then, there have been attempts to break the curse. Sam Sianis (a nephew of Billy's) has been invited to bring a goat to Wrigley and has done so on four occasions (1984 - year of a division win, 1989, 1994 and 1998 - another division win). In 2003, a group of fans took a goat to a Cubs game in Houston. They were, of course, denied entry with the goat. They then proclaimed they were reversing the curse. Houston had been leading the NL Central until that point, but ended up losing to the Cubs. Subsequently, the Cubs lost the NL pennant to the Florida Marlins after the Bartman ball incident (the most recent tragic event in a 63 year history of near misses on a pennant win and a chance at playing in the World Series). In 2007, unknown persons hung a butchered goat from the Harry Caray statue in front of Wrigley. The Cubs have won the NL Central both years (interestingly, the last time the Cubs won their division two years in a row was 1907 and 1908).

I know how important the Cubs are to Dad and although I'm not a goat, I figured I'd do what I could to help reverse the curse. Here's a picture of me checking out Dad's Cubbie bear and thinking good thoughts.

Dad had me do this in the 9th inning tonight when the Cubs were down 6-2 to the LA Dodgers. It didn't work tonight, but there's always tomorrow...

Puppy Slurps, Canyon