The Chicago Cubs are a franchise that has had a number of ups and downs, another major league team plagued by curses. The "lovable losers" enter the 2008 campaign with the possibility of celebrating their 100 year anniversary without a World Series title this October.
The Cubs are coming off of a fairly decent 2007 season, winning the National League Central Division. Chicago fell victim to the steaming hot Colorado Rockies and were swept in the divisional round. This season holds higher hopes and expectations for Cubs and their loyal group of fans. The roller coaster ride that is to be a Cubs fan has been attributed to moments like Steve Bartman, and of course the "Curse of the Goat". Chicago has had many seasons where they looked to be in place to makes things finally come together, but for 99 consecutive years they have remained to be the "lovable losers".
In 1998 baseball was still recovering from its strike in 1994, and the home run race between Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Ken Griffey Jr. was a key factor in saving baseball. The sport gained a lot of fan buzz because of the excitement surrounding those batters. Sosa finished off the season with 66 home runs, and Jon Leiber won 20 games for the Cubbies. Chicago had their hearts broken when it was swept by the Atlanta Braves.
The Cubs raised baseball energy again in Chicago when game 7 of the National League Championship was all but wrapped up. The Florida Marlins were in a position to lose and send the Cubs to the World Series, when a foul ball was sent down the third baseline into left field. A fan named Steve Bartman became famous that night for taking a foul ball from left fielder Moises Alou. The Cubs went from being 5 outs away from a chance at the title, to blowing a 3-0 lead and allowing 8 unanswered runs by the Marlins. The Bartman foul ball was destroyed the following season, in hope the foul ball curse would be also be no more. The Goat Curse however, still remained.
The success of the Cubs is related mostly to their early success in baseball, winning 4 Pennants, and 2 World Series titles in the span of 5 years. When the 1945 World Series came around, Chicago had an interesting fate fall upon the Cubs. A fan named Billy Sianis made the franchise curse famous when he bought a ticket for his pet goat Murphey to attend the game with him. The goat was admitted to the game and all was fine into rainy weather hit Wrigley Field. As the story goes the smell of wet goat displeased many fans and Sianis was ejected from the game with his goat. After kicking the goat out of the game the Cubs went on to lose to the Detroit Tigers. Since the goat fiasco Wrigley has brought a goat on field during the 1984, and 1989 opening day ceremonies. In both seasons the Cubs went on to win the division but were unsuccessful in post season play.
The Cubs sat idly as the Boston Red Sox, and cross city rivals, Chicago White Sox both reversed their own curses in the 2004 and 2005 campaigns. The Red Sox had been in turmoil for 86 years after trading away Babe Ruth, and the White Sox were able to was themselves clean of the confrontational 1919 Black Sox debacle. With backs against the wall the Cubs are in a position of setting a record no team wishes to achieve. The Cubs look loaded on offense with superstars like Alfonso Soriano, and Derek Lee swinging their bats well. The pitching always shows post season hope for the Cubbies with starter Carlos Zombrano, and closer Kerry Woods.
This is the most crucial year for the franchise, as no team would want 100 year party for failure. Every team in the majors set out each year with the focus of being the last team standing in October. The windy city comes closer and closer to judgement day as the regular seasons journey has just begun. The Cubs are currently in third place in the National League Central Division, sitting a game and a half away from first place. The season is still very earlier, and in the most unpredictable division in baseball anything could happen. Chicago fans pray that the years of the goat curse, and Bartmans bad luck don't follow the Cubs into this post season. Anything short of a World Series simply will not do, 100 years of being the "lovable losers" is more than enough.
