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THE BILLY GOAT
Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The newsletter that gives you baseball history with extra sauce for free.
We’re nothing like those pizza places that charge for ranch; that shit ain't cool.
Let’s dive in.
Today’s story is about an incident that haunted the Chicago Cubs for over seven decades.
We've all heard about "The Curse of the Billy Goat."
After the whole ordeal happened in '45, the Cubs didn't win a World Series series for another 71 years, and they were already in a 37-year drought before that.
Just so we're all on the same page, here's what originally happened:
A tavern owner named William Sianis and his pet goat, Murphy, were denied entry into Game 4 of the World Series in '45.
Sianis had even gone through the trouble of getting the goat it's own special ticket, so there should've been no issues, but Phillip Wrigley said the stench of the goat was unbearable.
I imagine the goat probably hit him with this look when he found out Wrigley was talking trash about his B.O.
Sianis was enraged, and as he left the stadium, he is said to have proclaimed, "Them Cubs ain't gonna win no more."
To be honest, this hardly qualifies as a curse, more like some passing comments from an angry fan.
But after the Cubs lost Game 4, Sianis' family claims that he sent a telegram to the Cubs owner saying:
“You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to win another World Series again. You are never going to win a World Series again because you insulted my goat.”
Now that's a curse.
The Cubs were up 2-1 in the series at the time, and they ended up losing in seven games.
Over the years, the aura of the curse became stronger.
Some people passed it off as just a coincidence, but, there was actually a lot of evidence to support the idea that the curse was real:
September 9, '69: A stray black cat walks past Ron Santo and the Cubs dugout during a critical pennant race game. The Mets went on to win that game and ultimately the World Series.
October 25, '86: Buckner misses the ground ball, and the Mets win the World Series. Buckner had played for Cubs back in ’84, and upon further review, Buckner was wearing a Cubs batting glove under his fielding glove when he made the error.
October 14, '03: The Cubs were five outs away from the World Series, and Steve Bartman commits fan interference. Afterwards, Chicago completely forgot how to play baseball and the Marlins put up an eight-spot.
Then there were a slew of attempts to reverse the curse, but even Sianis himself couldn’t break it.
Apparently, William claimed the curse was “lifted” in ’69 a year before he died, but nothing happened.
William’s nephew, Sam Sianis, brought a goat named “Socrates” - a direct descendent of Murphy - to Wrigley field in ’73 in an attempt to put an end to the madness.
They chauffeured the goat to the ballpark in a white limo, literally rolled out the red carpet, and draped the animal with a sign saying “All is forgiven. Let me lead the Cubs to the pennant.”
They were denied entry at the gate.
Other attempts included:
On the 46th anniversary of William Sianis's death, the curse was finally broken.
The greatest baseball movie of all time is always up for debate.
But there’s one thing we can all agree on, Sandlot is definitely in the top three.
There’s just too many iconic moments, too many amazing quotes - it’s pure cinematic gold.
And without a doubt, this is one of the most iconic images of the 90’s.
The guys over at Dugout Mugs partnered with David Mickey Evans - the man who wrote, directed, and narrated this masterpiece - to make a special edition mug.
They’ve etched Benny and the boys onto the barrel, and the mug comes with a couple bonuses:
The photo featured above, signed by the director himself.
20 minutes of exclusive interview footage with David telling some never-before-heard stories about the film.
If you don’t think this is awesome, you’re probably an L7 weenie.
STRANGE NAMES
As most of you already know, we're on a mission to find every strange name that's ever graced a baseball field.
Some you know, some you've never heard of, but they all have a story.
Today's winner is:
This guy never lived long enough to meet Nolan Ryan.
In that era, "the only" was actually a common term used to describe anyone who excelled at something.
Edward Nolan was the ace of the Indianapolis Blues, thus they dubbed him "The Only Nolan."
THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE
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