REPRINT: originally as shown-- Two articles, and a bottom note:
The Curse of the "Billy Goat" SianisSteve Gatto (2004). Da Curse of the Billy Goat: The Chicago Cubs, Pennant Races, and Curses. Lansing: Protar House. ISBN 0-9720910-4-1.
The Curse of the Billy Goat is a curse on the Chicago Cubs that was started in 1945. As the story goes, Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant (from Paleopyrgos, Greece[1]), who owned a nearby tavern (the now-famous Billy Goat Tavern), had two $7.20 box seat tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, and decided to bring along his pet goat, Murphy (or Sinovia 
according to some references), which Sianis had restored to health when the goat had fallen off a truck and subsequently limped into his tavern.
according to some references), which Sianis had restored to health when the goat had fallen off a truck and subsequently limped into his tavern.
The goat wore a blanket with a sign pinned to it which read "We got Detroit's goat." Sianis and the goat were allowed into Wrigley Field and even paraded about on the playing field before the game before ushers intervened and led them off the field.
After a heated argument, both 
Sianis and the goat were permitted to stay in the stadium occupying the box seat for which he had tickets. At this point, Andy Frain (head of Wrigley Field's hired security company at the time), waved the goat's box-seat ticket in the air and proclaimed, "If he eats the ticket that would solve everything."
Sianis and the goat were permitted to stay in the stadium occupying the box seat for which he had tickets. At this point, Andy Frain (head of Wrigley Field's hired security company at the time), waved the goat's box-seat ticket in the air and proclaimed, "If he eats the ticket that would solve everything."However, the goat did not. Before the game was over, Sianis and the goat were ejected from the stadium at the command of Cubs owner Philip Knight Wrigley due to the animal's objectionable odor.
Sianis was outraged at the ejection and allegedly placed a curse upon the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in a World Series at Wrigley Field again because the Cubs organization had insulted his goat, and subsequently left the U.S. to vacation in his home in Greece.
The Cubs lost Game 4 and eventually the 1945 World Series, prompting Sianis to write to Wrigley from Greece, saying, "Who stinks now?" Following a third-place finish in the National League in 1946, the Cubs would finish in the league's second division for the next 20 consecutive years.This streak finally ended in 1967, the year after Leo Durocher became the club's manager. Since that time, the supposedly cursed Cubs have not won a National League pennant or played in a World Series – the longest pennant drought in Major League history. Sianis died in 1970.
Reference:
Why Iki Peed Ya, retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Billy_Goat , Jan 11, 2008 AM
This sporting life: The ball gets it 
Mar 4th 2004
Mar 4th 2004
From The Economist print edition
Lifting the curse on the Chicago Cubs
Lifting the curse on the Chicago Cubs
SPORT and superstition have always gone hand-in-hand, but probably nowhere more than in Chicago. In 1945 the Chicago Cubs baseball team banned William Sianis, owner of the local Billy Goat Tavern, from bringing his beloved goat into the Cubs' home stadium, Wrigley Field. Mr Sianis swore that the Cubs would never again win the National League championship, and the “curse of the goat” has haunted them ever since.
Last October, it looked as if the curse would at last be broken. The Cubs had a seemingly unassailable lead in the play-offs for the National League title against the Florida Marlins. But then a home fan, Steve Bartman, unwittingly deflected a vital catch out of the hand of a Cubs outfielder, Moises Alou. The Marlins rallied, winning not only the game but the league and, eventually, the World Series.Had the curse struck again? While Mr Bartman hid from furious fans, Grant DePorter, a local restaurateur, paid $113,000 for the infamous “foul ball”, vowing to destroy it and with it, he hoped, the Cubs' bad luck.
During its final days the condemned ball was guarded by a team of 1
3 security men. It was given a massage and a final meal of steak, lobster and a beer. An Oscar-winning special effects expert, Michael Lantieri, was drafted in as executioner to make the sure that ball went out with a bang.
3 security men. It was given a massage and a final meal of steak, lobster and a beer. An Oscar-winning special effects expert, Michael Lantieri, was drafted in as executioner to make the sure that ball went out with a bang.And on the night of February 26th, when a final reprieve failed to arrive from the governor, an explosive charge reduced the ball to a useless pile of string. Its demise was shown live on national television.
I'll let ~Pribek.net fill you in with the downlow on Harry Caray from St Louis... but remember Harry did it for love...
"Since you called me out, I'll tell you what I heard.
"Harry was a Bud man long before he was a Cub fan. The story goes that Harry had some type of tryst with the old man's old lady. The old man, in this case be Augie Busch. Guess that would make Harry a Busch man, instead. (please insert any of the possible Harry and Busch punch lines of your choosing, Pat_______________________________!"
: Uhh, errr... How about "Harry the wriggly bush-man" ? >pd"Anyway, it is said that Harry had "thing" for the lady of the house. This became fairly public knowledge and shortly after it did, our intrepid, beloved, slovenly broadcaster was liquored up, leaving a downtown bar. He was struck (purposely?) by a car driven by an unidentified man."Now, whether Harry took this as a karmic warning or a genuine threat from the front office is unknown to me. Either way, Harry hit the road. He spent the next year in Oakland, which he hated. Then he ended up with the Cubs.Retrieved by Pribek From the Baseball Reference 14 Jan 2008: (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/November_3) "1968 - St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray is struck by a car while crossing a street in St. Louis, and he suffers two broken legs, a broken shoulder, and a broken nose."The mystery continues."Obviously, this is all stuff I heard on the street. I don't know that there is any documentation.
"Urban legend? Well, one can only guess but, I have this same story from a lot of people in the Lou. Knowing Harry's penchant for the barley and the ladies, it seems, at the very least, plausible.
"So, I always found it the pinnacle of irony to see the old geezer dancing around in a Blues Brother suit pimping his former employer's hooch." >>Pribek.net"Jack, I agree with you; that is plausible irony. T'nks again.""Hey MooPiggers, see Pribek.net 'Trouble ain't Over' album in the sidebar above and BUY IT!... NO, BUY 13, a baker's dozen!"
"Hear Ye Hear Ye Hear Ye
As of October 3, 2007: Let it be known to the spirit of Sam Sianis and all powers that be …
I, Leon “Bill” Bartman, have sacrificed my goat life and thereby have reversed the curse and have blessed the Cubs with “The Holy Cow” and in the name of Harry, Santo, Woo, Mr. Cub, ”The Girls,” Sweet Lou, Hendry, WGN, Mr. Wrigley, Tribune Co, and The Billy Goats of the World, and the Best Fans in Baseball
I SAY
GO CUBS GO …. Go Cubs Go
Hey Chicago What Do You Say …
THE
CUBS ARE GONNA WIN TODAY!"Now for all us beloggers, how does this all percolate?
Retrieved today at: http://www.deadparrots.net/archives/2003/10/index.html
"Well, maybe not quite to Glenn Reynolds' normal traffic levels, but still ...
This is what it looks like when you're tooling along with 250-350 visitors a day, and then a perfect storm last Friday makes you Google's No. 1 search result for "Steve Bartman":
The Steve Bartman post that Google pointed to attracted well over 200 comments that day, and is up to 270 now. The final visitor tally for Friday was 12,017, nearly 10 times our previous daily high -- and the site was even down for an hour or so during peak time because of a server problem. Wild.
The traffic dropoff accompanies us completely dropping off Google's radar by the next morning. I dug 30 pages deep in the search results on Saturday and still couldn't find that post. I have no idea how that happened, and no idea why that post is now back on the second page of results.
Google works in mysterious -- and occasionally wonderful -- ways.
We all know it didn't go that way. The Cubs are still eatup with its share of bi-polar dumbasses. I guess this is where "restaurants" come in. >pd/eatup / revised Jan 14
4 comments:
Since you called me out, I'll tell you what I heard.
Harry was a Bud man long before he was a Cub fan.
The story goes that Harry had some type of tryst with the old man's old lady. The old man, in this case be Augie Busch. Guess that would make Harry a Busch man, instead. (please insert any of the possible Harry and Busch punch lines of your choosing, Pat)
Anyway, it is said that Harry had "thing" for the lady of the house. This became fairly public knowledge and shortly after it did, our intrepid, beloved, slovenly broadcaster was liquored up, leaving a downtown bar. He was struck (purposely?) by a car driven by an unidentified man.
Now, whether Harry took this as a karmic warning or a genuine threat from the front office is unknown to me.
Either way, Harry hit the road. He spent the next year in Oakland, which he hated. Then he ended up with the Cubs.
Obviously, this is all stuff I heard on the street. I don't know that there is any documentation.
Urban legend? Well, one can only guess but, I have this same story from a lot of people in the Lou. Knowing Harry's penchant for the barley and the ladies, it seems, at the very least, plausible.
So, I always found it the pinnacle of irony to see the old geezer dancing around in a Blues Brother suit pimping his former employer's hooch.
Slam dunk! >pd
Harry Caray
Harry Caray (Carabina) hit town in 1944 as an announcer at the St. Louis Star radio station, KXOK. While his strength was in sports broadcasting, which he put to good use that year doing play-by-play for the Cardinals/Browns World Series, he was a jack-of-all-trades back at the station. Caray would write his own copy, conduct news interviews, and write and present editorials on the station, and he had a regular sports talk program as well.
It was said he sought a job at KMOX in 1943 by sending a personal letter to the home of the station’s general manager, Merle Jones, who granted him an interview and then told him to get some experience and come back.
He did his first game as a Cardinals’ announcer April 17, 1945. Years later, in 1955, Caray would be teamed in the Cardinals’ broadcast booth with Jack Buck and Joe Garagiola, and the three were heard throughout the Midwest over the vast Cardinals’ radio network.
Harry Caray’s colorful announcing and antics endeared him to radio fans, whom Caray felt were the people to whom he was responsible. When players became perturbed at his description of their work, Caray swore he was telling it the way he saw it.
After 25 years in the St. Louis broadcast booth, Harry Caray was given his walking papers by his employer, Anheuser-Busch.
http://www.stlradio.com/hof-legacy-1.htm
From the Baseball Reference (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/November_3)
1968 - St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Harry Caray is struck by a car while crossing a street in St. Louis, and he suffers two broken legs, a broken shoulder, and a broken nose.
The mystery continues.
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