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The Spectacle Blog
In an op-ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Rich Cohen argues that Wrigley Field should be torn down in order to put a merciful end to the Chicago Cubs’ 104-year (and counting) World Series drought:
I’m a Roman, and to me, the expanse between Waveland and Addison on Chicago’s North Side is Carthage. The struts and concessions, the catwalk where the late broadcaster Harry Caray once greeted me with all the fluid liquidity of an animatronic Disneyland pirate - Hello, Cubs fan! - the ramps that ascend like a ziggurat to heaven - it’s a false heaven - the bases, trestles, ivy, wooden seats and bleachers, the towering center-field scoreboard - all of it must be ripped out and carried away like the holy artifacts were carried out of the temple in Jerusalem, heaped in a pile and burned. Then the ground itself must be salted, made barren, covered with a housing project, say, a Stalinist monolith, so never again will a shrine arise on that haunted block. As it was with Moses, the followers and fans, though they search, shall never find its bones.
Methinks Cohen is making a scapegoat of Wrigley. Now it’s true the Cubs have never won a World Series in all the years they have played at Wrigley. But the Cubs haven’t always been synonymous with futility and lovable losers. During their first thirty years at Wrigley, the Cubs were amongst the best teams in the National League. Between 1916 and 1945, the Cubs won six NL pennants. Only the New York Giants won more NL pennants during this period with seven. Of course, the Cubs went 0 for 6 in the Fall Classic during that period including The Called Shot by Babe Ruth during the 1932 World Series against the Yankees. Nevertheless, the Cubs were a perennial contender and had 14 consecutive winning seasons between 1926 and 1939.
So the Cubs trouble didn’t begin with Wrigley but rather with The Curse of the Billy Goat. Before Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, Billy Goat Tavern owner William “Billy Goat” Sianis and his pet goat, Murphy, were refused admittance into Wrigley because of the goat’s stench. Sianis appealed to Cubs owner Phil Wrigley to no avail. An enraged Sianis told Wrigley, “The Cubs ain’t gonna win no more. The Cubs will never win a World Series so long as the goat is not allowed in Wrigley Field.” The Cubs lost the ‘45 Series in seven games and haven’t been back since.
Between 1946 and 1983, the Cubs had only eight winning seasons and the bulk of those came between 1967 and 1972 when the club was managed by Leo Durocher. The Cubs led the NL East for most of the 1969 until along came a black cat which crossed Ron Santo’s path on the on deck circle. From that point forward, the New York Mets ascended to World Series glory.
Things have been better (or worse, depending on your point of view) since 1984 when the Cubs won the NL East only to lose to the San Diego Padres in the NLCS in five games after having a two games to none lead needing to win only one more. Before there was Bill Buckner, there was Leon Durham and a little spilled Gatorade. Since 1984, the Cubs have been to the post-season five times including 2003 when they were five outs away from winning their first NL pennant in 58 years. Who knew that a fly ball by Luis Castillo headed down the leftfield line would cause so much trouble?
So the next time the Cubs are in the post-season, for crying out loud, let in the Billy Goat, keep out the black cats, hide the Gatorade and publicly apologize to Steve Bartman. That would sure cost a lot less than to tear down Wrigley and build a stadium with a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money.
View all comments (28) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/05/16/dont-blame-wrigley-field
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Al Adab| 5.16.12 @ 12:47PM
I read the WSJ article yesterday as well. Heresy, I thought. Still, what if it is cursed? Of course as modern, science minded people we know that such things are not real. Perhaps best to have a cemetary for goats near the outfield wall.
Cpm| 5.16.12 @ 12:57PM
I'm amazed the goat wasn't let in, given the stench of the average Cub fan.
Al Adab| 5.16.12 @ 1:12PM
Cpm:
You must be from St Louis. BTW Cpm is an old, old system.
Cpm| 5.16.12 @ 2:01PM
Northwest suburbs of Chicago. My initials, no system. My comments are from decades of first-hand observation.
Al Adab| 5.16.12 @ 3:03PM
Don't tell me, McHenry County?
Cpm| 5.16.12 @ 3:47PM
That's a bingo!
Al Adab| 5.16.12 @ 7:39PM
I had family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins in Woodstock for many years. Used to visit them. Nice town. Loved Lake Geneva.
Ammo Guy| 5.17.12 @ 11:17AM
Ah yes, Woodstock, IL - where the movie "Groundhog Day" was filmed...which is rather apt considering how the Cubbies have been reenacting the same script for more than a century.
Occam's Tool| 5.16.12 @ 2:22PM
CPM: St. Louis is discussing Stench? At least "Escape from New York" wasn't shot in "Wrigleyville."
Paul McGrath| 5.16.12 @ 1:15PM
Great article, hilarious. The question is, why did the clown want to bring a goat into a baseball game to begin with? I wouldna let him in either.
JP| 5.16.12 @ 1:21PM
The 2003 season is what did it for me. I followed the Cubs daily from the mid-1970s to 2003. The Bartman thing was just a metaphor for the Northsiders. Many fans forget the next play, in which a routine ground ball to short went between the legs of shortstop Ramon Martinez. It was that play more than Barman that convinced me that the Cubs were finished.
My son, who is 17 follows the Cubs religiously. He will learn. And it hasn't anything to do with Wrigley. The Cubs could move to Schaumberg and they would still be the Cubs.
Aaron Goldstein| 5.16.12 @ 2:31PM
You mean Alex Gonzalez. (Not to be confused with the Alex Gonzalez who was at short for the Marlins and now toils with the Brewers). The ball didn't go through Gonzalez's legs. He just simply dropped the ball.
JP| 5.17.12 @ 8:41AM
Thanks Aaron for clearing that up. Obviously, I would rather forget.
Occam's Tool| 5.16.12 @ 2:22PM
The Cubs teach us that Life is Real, Life is earnest, and Life Contains pain.
Paul McGrath| 5.16.12 @ 8:59PM
Hi Occam,
Your comment regarding the Detroit Lions on another thread pertains here, as well.
JimH| 5.16.12 @ 2:23PM
I remember years ago when Marge Schott had the Reds. They were going through a real bad stretch and one of the fans put up a banner saying ‘Sacrifice Schotzy’, her dog.
Bob S| 5.16.12 @ 3:05PM
You know Cubs fans are crazy.
Bob K.| 5.16.12 @ 3:14PM
Tear it down! Fund a new one with taxpayer money! Get the land to build it on from condemnation proceedings of properties owned by small business owners.
Give the owners of the Cubs huge new private boxes to party in with the Chicago Elite. Make sure they can get tax writeoffs on the boxes too! Put huge new electronic signs on the roof so big money can be made selling advertising on them.
Model it after the new Yankee Stadium. Short porch and low fence in right field out to center field so lefthanded hitters with warning track power can hit home runs. Put a short high wall up in left field like they have in Boston. It will give the place character.
Pete| 5.16.12 @ 4:46PM
Growing up on the Southside, I am not much of a Cub fan, though I loved Ernie Banks, the one Cub in the last 50 years who actually deserved to be in the Hall of Fame.
The Cub fans have an irrational emotional attachment to Wrigley, no matter how crappy it is. Try to find parking some time. The place is old and decrepid. The seats are the most uncomfortable seats I have used. A double header will ruin your back. The brick wall is very dangerous. The ivy is brown for much of the season, and has a way of eating up baseballs. But the stadium is surrounded by taverns and is in an all-white neighborhood, so the Cub fans love the place.
Occam's Tool| 5.16.12 @ 5:47PM
Ernie Banks is a Great Man, whom I had the pleasure of shanking hands with when I was seven years old. A kind, wonderful man.
Pete: Sutter was inducted as a Cerdinal, but many of his best years were as a Cub. Ferguson Jenkins had SIX CONSECUTIVE 20 game win seasons, and a strike out to walk ratio of over 3:1. Ryne Sandberg was a 10 time all star and a 9 time Gold Glove winner, with the best fielding percentage for a second baseman in major league history, PLUS he hit over 280 homers.
C'mon. It's not just Banks. You notice I deliberately DID NOT mention The Hawk---300 homer/300 stolen base club, Billy Williams, the "Iron Man," who my Dad routinely teases (personally---they know each other), and Ron Santo, who is in the exact middle, SABR wise, of HOF 3rd basemen. C'mon.
Occam's Tool| 5.17.12 @ 11:43AM
"Jeez: "Shaking." Ernie commented to my father, when I was a very scrawny 7 year old, on what large wrists I had---and everyone knows about what the source of Ernie's incredible power was. I walked on air the whole day. I am 49 and remember Mr. Banks.
Pete| 5.17.12 @ 2:30PM
Ernie, also a Republican. If Ferguson Jenkins deserves to be in the HOF, then so does Jim Kaat. If Ryno, Williams, Santo and the Hawk deserve to be in the HOF, then so does Harold Baines and Ron Konerko.
Occam's Tool| 5.16.12 @ 5:47PM
Sorry: "Cardinal."
All American American| 5.16.12 @ 7:43PM
Guess they shoulda let the goat in.
Occam's Tool| 5.16.12 @ 8:42PM
Hey, I'll pay for a "goat box."
Donna Burke| 5.28.12 @ 12:51PM
If for no other reason than good PR, let the goat on Wrigley Field! It may lift the curse!