Successful season wasted against Dodgers in NLDS

Heading into the playoffs with a National League best of 97 wins, the Chicago Cubs were a lock to make the World Series, right?

Wrong.

Many die-hard Cubs fans weren’t surprised at all when their team was swept in the first round of the playoffs this past weekend. In fact, anybody who has followed the team’s history since the mid ‘40s should have known that there was absolutely no way the Cubs would — or ever will — make the championship round again, and it’s all because of a billy goat.

The legend goes back to game four of the 1945 World Series when the Cubs’ Wrigley Field hosted the Detroit Tigers in a series that Chicago led two games to one. It was at this game that Billy Sianis, lifetime Cubs fan and owner of a local brewery, was rejected from entering the stadium.

As the story goes, Sianis brought his billy goat with him to the game, extra ticket and all, but officials at the stadium sent him home, citing that his pet’s odor was unacceptable.

“Them Cubs, they aren’t gonna win no more,” an outraged Sianis cursed.

The fan promised that Wrigley Field would never again host a World Series and so the “Curse of the Billy Goat” began. The Cubs went on to lose three of the next four games, losing the series.

Year after year, the Cubs continued to disappoint and cries of remorse began to ring. In an attempt to break the curse, the Cubs organization actually led a goat into the stadium in the 1984, 1989, 1994 and 1998 seasons. After each of these appearances, the Cubs enjoyed a brief amount of success before once again failing in the playoffs.

In 2003, fans attempted to redirect the curse by bringing a goat named Virgil Homer to the Houston Astros’ Minute Maid Park. When the goat was denied from the stadium the fans read from a scroll, declaring that the curse was hereby reversed. The Astros would slip that year, allowing the Cubs entry to the playoffs.

The attempt was futile, though. For even when the Cubs were within five outs of reaching the World Series for the first time in nearly 60 years, the curse struck again.

Steve Bartman — a name that is best not uttered in Chicago — stole a routine fly ball in the stands from then-Cubs outfielder Moises Alou. The Marlins capitalized on the fan error, winning the next two games to proceed to the World Series.

The Cubs’ disastrous fall this October was simply the next piece of the story.

The 2008 Cubs were truly a force to be reckoned with all season. Great hitting, dominating pitching and a fierce manager were the ingredients to their success throughout the entire year. At times, they were nearly unstoppable.

But the goat doesn’t care about the regular season. The goat makes its presence — or lack thereof — known in the playoffs, when things matter the most.

Will the Cubs ever reach the World Series again?

It’s up to the goat to decide.

Reach columnist Ben Foutz at sports@dailyuw.com.