2016 and the Curse of the Billy Goat
If you believe in a pseudo-science like Astrology, you’re also likely to believe in paranormal concepts such as curses. One such curse that is related to baseball, if not astrology, is the Curse of the Billy Goat, which supposedly afflicted the Chicago Cubs until 2016. The story goes that William Sianis, owner of the local Billy Goat Tavern, liked to bring his pet goat, named Murphy, to Cubs games. One of these games was game 4 of the 1945 World Series against the Detroit Tigers. The goat started bothering fans, Sianis was asked to leave Wrigley Field, and the outraged Sianis declared, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.”
And the Cubs didn’t win no more, at least as far as the World Series is concerned, for 71 years. Then in 2016, the north siders finally broke the Curse of the Billy Goat by defeating the Cleveland Indians in seven games. Coincidentally (or not), in the 2016 Fantasy Astrology Baseball League season, the Capricorn Goats led the Negative Polarity in fantasy points (although they trailed Positive Polarity powerhouses Aries and Libra overall). And to make matters more interesting, the top two fantasy scoring players on that MLB championship Cubs team were Capricorns: National League MVP Kris Bryant (2,484 points / 14.9 points-per-game) and left-handed ace Jon Lester (2,456 / 79.6). The stars don’t get much freakier than that…
Of course, it takes a village to win a championship, and as the above list shows, members of most of the Zodiac signs contributed to the Cubs’ special season. Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo (2,306 / 14.9) and newly-signed outfielder Jason Heyward (1,161 / 8.2) are both Leos. Co-ace Kyle Hendricks (2,340 / 75.5) and fiery infielder Javier Baez (1,171 / 8.2) are both Sagittarians. Pisceans were all over the pitching staff, with Jake Arrieta (2,200 / 71.0) completing the big three, with Hector Rondon (1,044 / 19.3) serving as the closer for most of the year, until he was supplanted by trade deadline acquisition Aroldis Chapman (1,975 / 33.5, although only 893 of those points came after he was acquired from the Yankees). Interestingly, backup catcher David Ross (533 / 8.3) is also a Pisces… and now serves as the manager of the club.
The Capricorn brown doesn’t exactly pop in this color-correction, but the cap tells the story.
The remainder of the positive signs are represented with Gemini Ben Zobrist (1,880 / 12.8), Libra John Lackey (1,880 / 64.8), Aquarius Addison Russell (1,580 / 10.5), and Aries Dexter Fowler (1,573 / 12.6). On the negative side, we have Virgo starter Jason Hammel (1,517 / 50.6) and catching tandem of then-rookie Willson Contreras (795 / 10.5, Taurus) and Miguel Montero (637 / 7.4, Cancer). This means that the only sign that did not feature a player with at least 200 plate appearances or 40 innings pitched for the Cubs in 2016 is Scorpio, which is the negative sign that appears before Capricorn on the Zodiac wheel. I do not know whether or not this is significant.
Now that we’ve gone through the players who helped break the Curse of the Billy Goat, let’s go back in time (with the help of Wikipedia) and look at some of the unfortunates who kept the curse going throughout the years. The closest the Cubs came to winning it all since that fateful 1945 World Series was in 1969, when they were neck-and-neck with the Mets in the newly-formed NL East division. During a key game against New York, with Ron Santo on deck, a black cat walked between Chicago’s star third baseman and the Cubs dugout, suffusing the situation with negative energy, causing* the Cubs to lose the game, and the pennant. Santo was a Pisces (born 2/25), whose mascot is a fish, and cats like to eat fish, so he was particularly susceptible to this bad-luck omen I don’t know I’m reaching here.
Yes, my patented Astrology Baseball Database goes all the way back to the 1960’s…
15 years later, in 1984, the Cubs would make the playoffs for the first time since the curse, facing the Padres in the NLCS. After making it to a decisive Game 5 (that’s how many games the NLCS was back then), Chicago lost the game after a ground ball went through the legs of first baseman Leon Durham (appropriately enough, a Leo, born 7/31), leading to a San Diego rally and victory. This gaffe occurred two years before perhaps the most famous baseball error of all time (which is associated with a different curse), when Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner lost a grounder between HIS legs in the 1986 World Series, giving the victory to the Mets. While this may not seem related, Buckner (a Sagittarius, born 12/14) played for the cubs from 1977 to 1984, and he was supposedly wearing a Cubs batting glove when he committed the costly fielding mistake.
The 1984 Leo Lions didn’t have a single player who qualified at center field.
Chicago would reach the playoffs five more times over the next two decades, but no postseason appearance was so devastating as the 2003 NLCS against the Marlins. In the eighth inning of Game 6, Florida second baseman Luis Castillo (a Virgo, born 9/12) hit a foul pop towards the left field stands, where Moises Alou (a Cancer, born 7/3) settled under it to make the catch. However, before the ball could settle into his glove, it was caught by a fan who reached over the railing named Steve Bartman (a Libra, born 10/1, at least according to idolbirthdays.net). If only they had safety netting to protect fans from errant foul balls, this incident never would have happened. And to top it off, in 2015, the year before the curse was broken, the Cubs lost the NLCS to the Mets, who were led by Aries second baseman Daniel Murphy (born 4/1), who shares a surname with the infamous goat who started it all 70 years prior.
Moises Alou didn’t make the Cancer Crabs starting lineup in 2003, but he would be a force off the bench.
Since the Cubs have conquered their postseason demons, that leaves their 2016 opponents – then called the Indians – as the team with the longest World Series drought, which currently stands at 72 years. Cleveland’s baseball club has just decided to drop the culturally insensitive “Indians” moniker from their team name, so perhaps this move towards inclusivity will increase their chances of taking home the trophy in the near future. But then again, if they keep making cost-cutting moves - such as letting excellent yet moderately priced relievers (Brad Hand) hit the open market, and trading away their franchise cornerstones (Francisco Lindor, Carlos Carrasco) - it’s going to be an uphill climb.
Next time, we’ll look at the 2015 FABL season, which will mark five years of full seasons covered by this project.