I'm an unabashed Cubs' fan. I know, I know: We're on a 105 year long losing streak. Well, to paraphrase Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, my sports loyalties are not to be changed like a coat in the weather. One day -- hopefully -- we'll win it all. I just hope I'm around to see it.
I inherited my fandom from our Mother and Grandmother. Despite the fact that Mom grew up on the South Side, they were both Cubs' fans too. I think it had something to do with the fact that, when I was growing up at least, one couldn't see White Sox games on television. They were on channels that didn't come in clearly, and no baseball-crazed eight-year-old is going to watch baseball through snow in July.
The Cubs' pathetic history is well-known and ridiculed on a regular basis. There are myriad reasons for the century of ineptitude, mostly owing to bad ownership. The College of Coaches, day baseball, poor trades -- the list is endless. There are those who claim that the Cubs are cursed. We've had our unfair share of incidents, to be sure, but really, when one gets right down to it, we're just snakebitten, whatever the real reason.
That's why I got riled up a few years ago when some Boston Red Sox fans used their influence to have put together a documentary on the Curse of the Bambino. For those unaware of the elephant in the Bosox fans' rooms, after the 1919 season, the owner of the Red Sox cum theatrical agent sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees allegedly to finance the play No, No Nanette. The Red Sox, who had won the World Series in 1918, didn't win another title until the year after the documentary came out in 2003.
If it sounds interesting, the documentary can be bought, here:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Curse-Bambino-Ben-Affleck/dp/B0001I56LY
What really frosts my chaps is that the Red Sox fans have co-opted curses as if they've suffered the worst from their one curse. Sure, going eighty-six years without a title stinks. I'm not suggesting it's good. But let's examine some facts.
The Cubs, at the time of the 2004 Red Sox World Series title, were still ten years deeper into their own winless streak. So right away, Cubs' fans have suffered more than Red Sox fans. But it's much worse than having a ten-year head start.
The Cubs have a winning percentage .006 less than the Red Sox. In and of itself, that means nothing. But as of this writing, the Cubs are within twenty-four games of becoming the third MLB team with 10,000 losses all time. What's more, the two teams that have 10,000 losses -- the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies --have both won titles since the Cubs' last World Series victory, with the Braves winning in 1957 (when in Milwaukee) and 1996 and the Phillies winning in 1980 and 2008. Heck, the Florida Marlins, a team that didn't even exist until 1993, have won two titles. But not the Cubs.
It gets worse when Boston's futility is compared to the Cubs' futility. Sure, the Bosox didn't win from 1918 until 2004. The Cubs haven't won since 1908. But how many times has each team appeared in the World Series since 1918? The Red Sox appeared six times after 1918 -- 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986, 2004 and 2007. Since 1918, the Cubs appeared in six as well -- 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938 and 1945 -- all of which were losses. But notice that all of the Red Sox' appearances came after the Cubs' last appearance in 1945. In other words, the Curse of the Bambino was so horrific that the Red Sox not only made six appearances in the World Series, they made all of them since the last time the Cubs were in the Series, and they won two of the six. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The Curse of the Bambino is a media-created malady. The Cubs actually had one foisted on them by a local restaurateur. In 1945, Sam Sianis, the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern made famous by John Belushi and Dan Akroyd in a Saturday Night Live sketch, tried to bring a billy goat to Wrigley Field for a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers. He even bought the goat a ticket, but the goat was denied admission because the goat's odor offended other fans. When the goat was kicked out -- presumably with Mr. Sianis -- he infamously declared Them Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more...and they haven't.
There have been countless attempts to reverse the curse, but none has worked.
Thankfully, the Cubs' celebrities have better sense than to air our dirty laundry in public. Ben Affleck, Glen Ordway, Michael Chiklis, Steven Wright and Dennis Leary can cry crocodile tears all they want, but they don't know curses. If they want to see curses, let's see these:
The Cubs were in first place for 155 days until mid-September, holding an 8.5 game lead in mid August. They'd finish eight games behind the Mets after losing seventeen of twenty-five games in September.
In 1984, Leon Durham preceded Bill Buckner by letting a ball go through his legs in San Diego during the NLCS. It wouldn't have mattered had the Cubs made the Series, as no one was going to beat the Tigers that year, but it would have been nice to make it.
Then, this:
As we say in the law, res ipsa loquitur.
There have been other calamities in Cubs' history, but instead of making a documentary about it, we bear it and soldier on.
Affleck and his cronies don't know from curses.
(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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