A severed goat’s head arrived at Wrigley Field on Wednesday for Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts.
The grisly package was delivered by an unidentified man driving an unmarked truck. While the delivery was certainly offensive, it is not unusual, given the club’s “curse.”
Local media have reported shenanigans involving goats as car back as 1945, when the infamous curse was placed on the Chicago Cubs. The majority of these ideas are thought to be attempts to remove the so-called curse .
Billy goats and the Chicago Cubs have had a contentious relationship since the 1945 World Series when Chicago tavern owner Bill “Billy Goat” Sianis pronounced a curse on the club.
The story goes that Sianis went to Wrigley Field to support the Cubs in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. He purchased two tickets for Game 4 — one for him and one for his goat, Murphy. He believed that bringing Murphy with him would give the Cubs good luck.
But ushers disagreed. They stopped Sianis from entering the stadium with his goat, according to the Billy Goat Tavern’s website. Sianis appealed to Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley, but the goat’s smell was apparently too much to bear. In response to the denial, Sianis cried, “The Cubs ain’t gonna win no more!”
When the team lost against the Tigers that day, Sianis sent Wrigley a telegraph, proclaiming, “Who stinks now?” The team’s record has never been the same since.
The severed goat’s head is likely one of several attempts over the years to put an end to the dreaded Cubs curse. Fans have gone to great lengths to try and lift it, including donating goats to impoverished communities and taking a goat named Wrigley on a cross-country trek. Unfortunately, none of these attempts have worked.
After the severed goat’s head was delivered to the ballpark, police were called to investigate. The deliveryman was caught on tape, along with his truck. The goat’s head was taken by the city’s animal control department. While Wednesday’s game against the Brewers was delayed, it was unrelated to the grisly package.
Do you think the curse on the Cubs is real, or did a goat lose its head for no apparent reason?
[Image via ShutterStock ]