{"id":701312,"date":"2026-05-17T12:15:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/701312\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T12:15:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:15:36","slug":"column-sam-sianis-and-the-billy-goat-curse-reminds-chicago-fans-why-we-love-baseball-and-its-myths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/701312\/","title":{"rendered":"Column: Sam Sianis and the billy goat curse reminds Chicago fans why we love baseball and its myths"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City Series between the Cubs and White Sox is a time to celebrate all that\u2019s good about Chicago baseball.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s opening round at White Sox Park has managed to recapture the glow of the old days<\/a>, when characters such as A.J. Pierzynski and Carlos Zambrano fueled the crosstown rivalry and colorful managers such as Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella kept us in stitches with their pregame news conferences.<\/p>\n

Before the Cubs broke open a tense affair Friday with a 10-5 win<\/a> in the City Series opener, the city learned of the passing of legendary saloonkeeper Sam Sianis, who might have had more influence on the Cubs organization than any fan in history.<\/p>\n

Sam Sianis of the Billy Goat, Chicago\u2019s most famous saloonkeeper, dies at 91<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Sianis, who died Friday at Endeavor Swedish Hospital at age 91, was the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, which gained national fame for the \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d \u201ccheezborger, cheezborger\u201d skit starring Chicagoan John Belushi.<\/p>\n

It was there where Sianis inherited ownership of the famous \u201cBilly Goat Curse\u201d placed on the Cubs organization by his uncle William Sianis after the team refused to allow Williams to bring his pet goat into a 1945 World Series game at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

Originally there was no mention of a curse after the snub, but when newspapers kept making references to one, William Sianis played along, knowing good marketing when he saw it. Sam just took it to another level.<\/a><\/p>\n

The curse was a local legend that gained steam in the 1960s and \u201970s when the Cubs\u2019 World Series drought continued, especially following the 1969 collapse. Newspaper writers, including the Tribune\u2019s \u201cIn the Wake of the News\u201d columnist David Condon and the Daily News\u2019 Mike Royko, helped spread the legend in their columns. (Full disclosure: I knew Sam Sianis well from many trips to his establishment, and Royko hired me as his legman<\/a> while we were sitting at adjoining barstools at the Billy Goat one hazy night in 1985.)<\/p>\n

Before William Sianis died in 1970, he told Condon that he put the curse in his will for his heirs, saying \u201cno one will insult my goat.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Rick Kogan\u2019s book on the Goat, \u201cA Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a Curse and the American Dream,\u201d Sam Sianis first tried to remove the curse before a game at Wrigley on July 4, 1973, pulling up to the ballpark in a limo with the goat and Condon. But he was denied entrance, and even Fergie Jenkins was told \u201cno\u201d when the Cubs Hall of Fame pitcher tried to get the goat past security into the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

The curse was kept intact, but Sam added an amendment, saying Jenkins \u201cwas the only one to understand (the curse), so whenever he pitches, the curse will not be in effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OlafOlaf Logan, an Andy Frain usher, stops William Sianis, owner of the Billy Goat Tavern at 1855 W. Madison St., from entering the ballpark in a re-enactment on Oct. 12, 1945. Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley said Sianis could come in, but the goat had to stay out because he smelled. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)<\/p>\n

Sianis tried to buy two season tickets in 1974 \u2014 one for him and the other for his goat \u2014 but was denied by the Cubs, then owned by Philip K. Wrigley. After Tribune Co. bought the team in 1981, Chairman Andy McKenna vowed to welcome the goat to Wrigley to change their luck, which surprised incoming general manager Dallas Green. \u201cGoat? What (bleeping) goat?\u201d Green said. \u201cCan he play center field?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tribune executives invited Sianis for the home opener in 1982, and paraded the goat around the field as fans chanted \u201cGoat! Goat! Goat!\u201d In a Tribune column headlined \u201cCubs gain a goat, lose a good excuse,\u201d Sianis told Anne Keegan: \u201cThe goat, he lift the hex. Now they gonna win. All is forgiven. But it sure take \u2019em a long time to catch on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hex was lifted, but the Cubs remained the Cubs. They came close in 1984, and again in 2003, but fell short of a World Series both times, losing playoff games in heartbreaking fashion.<\/p>\n

Sianis made more overtures to the Cubs to end the curse over the years, but the legend only grew as the title drought continued. When the Ricketts family bought the team in 2009, Chairman Tom Ricketts said he didn\u2019t believe in the curse, adding: \u201cIf anybody on our team thinks he\u2019s cursed, we\u2019ll move him to a less accursed team.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a losing season in 2011, pitchers Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood had T-shirts made<\/a> for the team that read \u201cF\u2014 the goat\u201d on the back, and featured a cartoon billy goat on the front behind the international symbol for no.<\/p>\n

Were the Cubs players embracing the curse?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not Dr. Phil,\u201d manager Mike Quade replied. \u201cDo you embrace it? Do you want to laugh at it? Do you want to hide from it?\u201d Due to the profanity, Ricketts banned the Cubs from wearing the T-shirts on the field. One player then altered his to read \u201cSully\u2019s the goat,\u201d so I put my own curse on him. He was out of baseball the following year.<\/p>\n

Things got weird in 2013 when someone anonymously delivered a goat\u2019s head to Wrigley in a box, addressed to Ricketts.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune<\/p>\n

Former Cubs player Ben Zobrist wears his World Series ring from 2016 while speaking as part of a panel at the Cubs Convention on Jan. 13, 2024, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

A happy ending occurred on Nov. 2, 2016, when the Cubs won Game 7 of the World Series in Cleveland, ending the story once and for all. Team leaders, including Jon Lester, Jason Heyward and Anthony Rizzo, convinced Ricketts to include a billy goat logo inside the championship ring<\/a> as a nod to the breaking of the curse.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of get it all out there,\u201d Heyward said afterward. \u201cIt\u2019s cool that they recognized everything. There\u2019s some detail in it. I know they asked me and some of the guys what logo should be on there, to try to decide whether it should be the small bear or (the goat). I just said \u2018Do whatever logo the team won it in.\u2019 We broke the curse, so I felt like that logo deserves to be on there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Curse of the Billy Goat may have been a piece of newspaper fiction, but it added an aura to the Cubs that helped turn it into a beloved franchise, while also selling a lot of newspapers. And by embracing and promoting the curse, often with the aid of Royko\u2019s columns, Sianis inadvertently became one of the greatest marketers in Cubs\u2019 annals.<\/p>\n

Hopefully the Cubs will do the right thing and acknowledge Sianis\u2019 passing before Monday night\u2019s game at Wrigley, where the Cubs have a 15-game home win streak, their longest since an 18-game streak in 1935.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s raise a glass for a true Chicago original, and for a goat that once owned this town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City Series between the Cubs and White Sox is a time to celebrate all that\u2019s good about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[88268,5,88265,138,24,49,4245,161,31353,88267,873,88266,4,88264,6550],"class_list":["post-701312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-andrew-mckenna","tag-baseball","tag-billy-goat-tavern","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cubs","tag-dallas-green","tag-david-condon","tag-jason-heyward","tag-mike-royko","tag-mlb","tag-sam-sianis","tag-tom-ricketts"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116589869393574508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}