Goat cheese
I know everyone in New England is supposed to look at the Chicago Cubs and see our baseball brothers in arms, but I just can’t do it. Not as long as that stupid goat is in the picture.
Let’s face it, this “Curse of the Billy Goat” nonsense has to be the most ridiculous concoction in professional sports history outside of…well, the blowing up the Steve Bartman ball fiasco. And look, I understand that on this side of Ohio we’ve had folks diving into Sudbury lakes and our own mayor crumbling a cookie on the cement of Yawkey Way, all in the name of lifting some fantasy mumbo jumbo used as an excuse for ineptitude. The tiki curse that Bobby Brady ran into on Oahu, that my friends is a curse. Jade Scorpion, Black Pearl, Pink Panther, sure, I’ll bite.
When it comes to Red Sox and Cubs though, the curse is used as nothing more than a justification for failure.
Peter Gammons said it best on the evening the Red Sox took care of the Cardinals in Game 4 of the 2004 World Series. “There never was any curse, it was a historical lack of pitching.” Gee, ya think? I’m not sure how the kids can sleep at night knowing the reason this all didn’t happen sooner was because the personnel was sub-par, and not the ghost story that they had been led to believe.
In Chicago, they’re still smothered with curse talk, not having won a World Series since 1908, except that in this case, it’s even more ridiculous than what we had to endure. A goat? Seriously, a goat? Who came up with this one, and what did he do with the remaining 23 hours and 56 minutes of his day?
In the “Curse of the Bambino,” at least there was some semblance of folklore to make the tale one worthy of some deliberation. And once and for all, it’s not Dan Shaughnessy’s fault that it became a stigma upon the franchise, blame that on folks who took it as scripture, like the yahoo who launched an expedition to raise the Babe’s old piano from a pond in his hometown so that the curse would be lifted. But this goat business, I mean come on. It plays like a Fox TV exec ripping off another ABC British import.
The way the story goes of course is that the Cubs lost Game 7 of the 1945 World Series because patron Bill Sianis’s goat was denied permission to the game. That’s it. That’s the basis behind the curse of one of baseball’s most beloved franchises. If that were the case, then the curse on the Red Sox might as well have been the blight of one of my intoxicated friends, after they weren’t let in Gate C due to one too many at the Cask.
Besides, what did they blame for not winning a title in the previous 37 years before the goat got the bad rep?
Still, this weekend’s Cubs-Red Sox series at Wrigley Field is easily the most awaited interleague showdown ever in our respective cities. Only it’s a year too late. Actually, it’s eight years too late, but we had to get through 14,000 meetings with the Braves in order to prepare for this I guess.
Imagine this matchup last season though, between two of baseball’s most heartbreaking teams. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still intriguing, but now it’s like the Red Sox are playing the Jedi to the Cubs’ padawan. They’ve been to the promised land denied them for so long. Which team suffers more? It’s not even a discussion anymore.
As Rick Telander writes in today’s Sun-Times:
“Last year they were blood brothers.
Last year they had rabid, similar fans who only knew near misses and hope and excuses and heartbreak.
October ruined all that.”
Well, “ruined” is a relative term, but the point is ultimately valid.
Old friend Dick Pole, now the Cubs bench coach, tells Barry Rozner in today’s Daily Herald that all this curse talk is “nonsense.” But the former Boston bullpen coach also understands why this series is so anticipated across the nation.
“It’s almost freaky in the way that the Red Sox draw from all over New England and the Cubs draw from all over the Midwest,” Pole said. “And when you travel with either team, in many parks it’s like a home game because so many fans are fans of the Cubs or Red Sox.”
And it’s not just that. In St. Louis this weekend, each team’s hated rival will be playing, as the Cubs’ nemeses, the Cardinals, face the Yankees. That’s a lot of baseball history to pack into the Midwest.
This weekend, the inhabitants of baseball’s two best ballparks of yesteryear face off for the first time among the Ivy and Bleacher Creatures of Wrigley. Some year, sure we’d love to reciprocate the favor, and since Fenway is going to be standing until 2098, we’ve got plenty of time. Good thing too, as based on this interleague schedule, they’re not due to face each other again until 2013.
I’m no fan of interleague play, but it is series like this one that allow you to appreciate the concept at least. Finally we get to enjoy a matchup with as much interest as New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area have gotten over the past eight years with their cross-town rivals.
They’ll play a pair of day games and a Sunday night contest in Chicago this weekend. Friday afternoon baseball in Chicago. How cool is that?
And all we have to do to enjoy it is suffer through endless, obtuse references from Fox and ESPN about the Babe, Bartman, Buckner, and that derivative Billy Goat.
