The Curse of the Billy Goat
William Sianis planned to spend the afternoon at Wrigley Field with his pet goat, Murphy. Sianis, a Chicago businessman and first-class attention-getter, had purchased two box-seat tickets for $7.20 apiece.
It was Saturday, October 6, 1945. The Cubs were playing the Detroit Tigers in Game Four of the World Series. Chicago led the best-of-seven match-up two games to one. Some fans had shivered all night in 30-degree temperatures to buy bleacher tickets that morning. Scalpers were demanding as much as $200 for choice box seats.
Sianis and Murphy strolled up to the ballpark’s front entrance. Murphy wore a blanket across his back. A sign attached to the blanket read “We got Detroit’s goat.”1 Sianis, meanwhile, looked resplendent, dressed in a pinstriped suit, topcoat, bow tie, and a wide-brimmed white hat. He also sported an elegant goatee. Just like a billy goat. Sianis, a native of Paleopyrgos, Greece, owned the Lincoln tavern – a former speakeasy – located at 1855 S. Madison St., across the street from
Chicago Stadium.
Supposedly, Sianis bought the Lincoln in 1934 “with a $200 check from someone who owed him and $5 of his own money.”2 Later that year, a baby goat fell off a truck nearby and wandered into Sianis’s establishment. A friend told him to keep the animal. “This will be worth a million dollars of free publicity,” he said.3 But Sianis didn’t just keep the goat. He formally adopted it. A local court paroled it “into the custody of William Sianis for life.”4 Sianis let his new pet chomp on a small patch of grass behind the Lincoln.
The goat often accompanied Sianis to local events. On this World Series day in 1945, Sianis handed the usher two tickets. The usher, though, cast a suspicious eye and called Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley. The chewing-gum magnate nixed any idea of allowing a barnyard beast into a major-league ballpark. (Supposedly, Wrigley said, “Let Billy in, but not the goat.” Sianis asked, “Why not the goat?” Wrigley: “Because the goat stinks.”)5 Well, that did it.
An indignant Sianis wheeled around and left, his goat in tow. The anger stirred inside him. Finally, he could take this embarrassment no longer. He cursed the Cubs forever. Sianis exclaimed, “You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to go to another World Series again! You are never going to win a World Series again because you insulted my goat!”6
“Billy Goat” Sianis and billy goat Murphy hustled back to the Lincoln (later renamed the Billy Goat Tavern). Reporters and photographers, eager for a colorful story, followed. One photographer asked if Murphy could, please, just eat the ticket. It would make for a great photo, the newsmen agreed. No, sir, Sianis said. He’d keep that ticket for himself and settle the humiliating episode in court.
“I am going to sue for $100,000!” Billy said.
No, that wasn’t enough. “I’m going to sue for $1 million!” he decided.7
Well, that’s one version of the story. According to another, Sianis and Murphy made it into the ballpark and were shown to their seats. The two even paraded on the Wrigley Field grass briefly during a rain delay. The goat acted like a real ham. Gene Kessler of the Chicago Daily Times explained: “The ushers led Bill to the head of the grandstand aisle, but Mr. Goat balked, turned around and insisted on going back on the field. He got his wish when photographers asked that he return for poses, and the goat wound up proudly roaming close to the visiting dugout while cameras snapped.”8
Now, the Daily Times did print a photo of Sianis doffing his cap alongside Murphy. The background, though, is grainy and doesn’t show the visiting dugout or anything else. Of note, years later, Cubs shortstop Lenny Merullo did not recall seeing a goat traipsing across Wrigley Field. Nor did Chicago outfielder Andy Pafko. Anyway, Sianis and Murphy made an early exit. The goat apparently did indeed smell bad; the rain just made the animal’s odor that much more pungent. Also, a goat has sharp horns, and it likes to munch on everyone else’s snacks, plus purses and pants legs. Fans complained, and ushers asked Sianis and Murphy to leave. They did, prompting Billy to pronounce his forever-hex upon the Cubs.
The Cubs lost Game Four by a 4-1 score. Dizzy Trout tossed a complete game and allowed five hits. The Tigers celebrated an 8-4 victory in Game Five, but the Cubs took Game Six in 12 innings, 8-7. Detroit scored five runs in the first inning of Game Seven and won 9-3 behind Hal Newhouser. Soon after that final out, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Irv Kupcinet asserted, Sianis fired off a simple, but direct, wire to P.K. Wrigley: “Who smells now?”9
What should baseball fans make of Sianis’s outcry? Did it really spell doom for the North Siders? Well, history shows that the once-mighty Cubs floundered for decades after that fall classic. Between 1876 and 1945, the Chicago franchise won 16 pennants and the World Series in 1907 and 1908. The 1946 Cubs went 82-71 and slipped to third place. Then, the problems really began. Over the next 20 years, only the 1963 club managed a winning record.
So maybe the Cubs really were cursed. But hardly anyone knew about it. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, did not report anything about a curse until December 26, 1967. By then, Sianis had moved the Billy Goat Tavern to 430 N. Michigan Ave. The eccentric businessman – he would formally apply to NASA for the first liquor license on the moon – claimed that he had lifted the bad-luck charm as a favor to Wrigley. The owner, though, apparently failed to notify anyone about this supposed exorcism.
In 1969, Tribune columnist David Condon wrote a couple of articles about a billy-goat curse. That was the year the Cubs looked like a sure thing. They were 74-43 and enjoyed a nine-game lead in the National League Eastern Division on August 13. But, Condon had warned in April, the curse was still in effect. Sianis had not lifted it; instead, he had placed “an eternal hex”10 on the North Siders.
And wouldn’t you know it, on September 9, 1969, at Shea Stadium, a black cat slinked past Cubs on-deck batter Ron Santo, hissed, and slipped into the Chicago dugout. The Cubs, already in full swoon and in first place by just 1½ games, ended the season eight games out of the top spot. The Cubs, already in a swoon and in first place by just 1½ games, ended the season eight games out of the top spot. New York’s Miracle Mets won the division, the National League pennant, and, ultimately, the World Series.
Soon after that latest chapter in Cubs despair, William Sianis died, on October 22, 1970. Sam Sianis, Billy’s nephew, took over the family business. Newspapers revved up talk about a curse. Fans pleaded for Sam Sianis to lift the hex. Sianis, mindful of history, refused. “The double-whammy will last forever,” he promised.11 Even so, on July 4, 1973, Sianis walked up to the front gate at Wrigley Field with a goat. The animal wore a painted sign: “All is Forgiven. Let me lead you to the pennant. Your Friend, Billy Goat.”12 Ushers turned them away.
Tsk, tsk, Condon wrote: “The Cubs had their golden opportunity to cast out the devil on July 4. … So, the hex still holds.”13 It took years for the Chicago front office to get the hint. Club officials finally invited Sam Sianis and his goat to the ballpark in 1984 and again in 1994. Sianis swore that he lifted the curse both times. Tom Trebelhorn, hired to manage the Cubs in 1994, didn’t believe it. “That goat’s got to go,” he said as his team faltered in the early going. “There’s all there is to it.”14 Three years later, one local TV show even summoned a witch to “cast a lucky spell on the Cubs.”15 Cubs general manager Andy MacPhail answered questions that year from fans at a Broadcast Advertising Club luncheon. MacPhail preached patience. One fan asked a question about the goat. Broadcaster Harry Caray spoke up: “Shoot him!”16 The goat, not MacPhail. The
crowd applauded.
Legendary newspaperman and Billy Goat Tavern regular Mike Royko wrote several columns surrounding the so-called curse. At last he grew fed up with the talk. “It’s about time that we stopped blaming the failing of the Cubs on a poor, dumb creature that is a billy goat,” he wrote. “It was Wrigley, not some goat, who cursed the Cubs.”17 Wrigley, Royko pointed out, did not sign a black baseball player until 1953, six years after Jackie Robinson played his first game for the
Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Cubs qualified for the playoffs seven times between 1984 and 2015 and still could not make it into the World Series. Fans even suffered through the infamous Steve Bartman incident during the 2003 playoffs.18 Finally, in 2016, the Cubs knocked off the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League pennant. They celebrated a World Series title 11 days later by beating the Cleveland Indians in seven games. Millions of fans attended the victory parade on November 4 in downtown Chicago.19
What would Billy “Goat” Sianis have thought?
GLEN SPARKS grew up in Santa Monica, California, and is a lifelong Dodgers fan. He has contributed to the SABR BioProject and the Games project. Among the projects he is working on now is a SABR book about the great Babe Ruth. Glen and his wife, Pam, live deep in the heart of Cardinals country.
Notes
1 Gil Bogen, The Billy Goat Curse: Losing and Superstition in Cubs Baseball Since World War 2 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2008).
2 Bogen.
3 Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson, The Cubs (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin: 2007).
4 Stout and Johnson.
5 “Let the Goat in!” billygoattavern.com, billygoattavern.com/legend/curse/.
6 Bogen.
7 Rick Kogan, A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, A Curse, and the American Dream (Illinois: Lake Claremont Press, 2006).
8 Gene Kessler, “World Series Highlights,” Chicago Times, October 7, 1945.
9 Irv Kupcinet, “Kup’s Column,” Chicago Times, October 9, 1945.
10 David Condon, “In the Wake of the News,” Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1969.
11 David Condon, “If the Cubs Blow It, Look for Goat,” Chicago Tribune, July 6, 1973.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Joseph A. Reaves, “Cubs’ Streak Starting to Get Manager’s Goat,” Chicago Tribune, April 30, 1994.
15 Fred Mitchell, Chicago Tribune. April 10, 1997.
16 Paul Sullivan, “Cubs’ MacPhail Preaches Patience,” Chicago Tribune, April 17, 1997.
17 Mike Royko, “It Was Wrigley, Not Some Goat, Who Cursed the Cubs,” Chicago Tribune, March 21, 1997.
18 The Cubs led the best-of-seven National League Championship Series against the Florida Marlins three games to two. The Cubs were ahead 3-0 in the eighth inning of Game Six. Luis Castillo hit a foul ball down the left-field line that Cubs outfielder Moises Alou tried to catch even as the ball headed into the stands. Steve Bartman, a lifelong Cubs fan, appeared to interfere with Alou, who failed to catch the ball. The Cubs ended up losing the game 8-3 and lost the series the following the day. Bartman was the subject of ridicule and went into hiding.
19 “Cubs World Series Celebration Ranks as 7th Largest Gathering in Human History,” Fox32chicago.com. fox32chicago.com/news/local/215601786-story.