Talk:Curse of the Billy Goat

Merge with Billy Sianis

The Billy Sianis article isn't strictly biographical and covers a lot of the same ground, I think it should be merged. BoojiBoy 21:54, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

• Gofer it. Wahkeenah 23:12, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Curse of Merkle

Does anyone want to discuss the possibility that the Chicago Cubs curse stems from the Merkle incident as much as it does from the Billy Goat curse of 1945? That the Cubs used trickery to steal the 1908 pennant away from the Giants, embarassing young Merkle in the process, and this is why they haven't won a World Series since that year? The curse of the Billy Goat, yes, but what about the Curse of Merkle? User:151.163.2.8 (Talk) 18:39, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

• The reason they don't win has nothing to do with curses, unless you consider bad management to be a curse. Wahkeenah 23:13, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
• The "Curse of Merkle" doesn't have quite the same ring to it I think. Anyway, Wikipedia isn't the place for speculation or original research and I've not really heard too many people talk about the "Merkle Curse". Of course if there's other research out there pointing or arguing about it, it's fair game. That said, the goat curse has enough notoriety in the baseball world that it should remain it's own article IMO. Bigjimleo (talk) 00:11, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Example of curse

The part in this article about the 1998 NLCS seems misleading. The Cubs actually had a six games to one lead in the series at one point. They were ahead three games to two in game 17, but the wording in that part of the article seems to say they were only one game ahead of the Marlins in the series at any time. It makes the evidence of a curse clearer since they were one game away from the World Series with 3 chances to clitch, but didn't win any of the games. I'm going to try and clarify this. 147.155.2.164 04:15, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• evidence of a curse? That's silly. The so-called "curse" is nothing more than continual incompetence. Shall we create a page about the monster under our beds and begin searching for evidence of that, too?
  • Go ahead. Wahkeenah 00:38, 17 January 2004 (UTC)

wrong information

The story in this article is not what i heard about the billygoat. the true story is the man went to every game of the regular season, and when it came to the world series they wouldnt let him in. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.148.72.130 (talk) 00:50, 7 April 2007 (UTC).

• As is the case with any urban legend, many forms of the story will appear. That your version differs from the version cited is not surprising. If you'd like to research the legend and provide quotable sources (like one of the Chicago Newspaper accounts of the game) that show that the goat was, or was not, in attendance, then go ahead. Until then, it does little good to challenge one version of an urban legend with another. --Nickmalik (talk) 07:57, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, the goat was originally going to be slaughtered, but was given a reprieve. This is a fragment of the story from the era, but I can't verify if this was about the same goat or a copycat incident, since the story I remember includes the goat coming onto the field, but it was definitely a version from the '40s or early '50s. I'm not sure how Sianis came into possession of the goat, however. I will see if I can find out more. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.69.194.194 (talk) 09:37, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

"Getting out of the dark ages?"

What is the point of this straggler sentence? I'll be removing in a moment, but just wanted to drop an FYI in case it is somehow relevant perhaps if better integrated into the article. aerotheque (talk) 19:24, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

clean-up

Just for the record, I've made a bunch of tidy-up edits on this article (sorry for using an IP address; long story -- though I'm not banned from WP or anything).

Not sure if this fulfills the clean-up tag posted above the article. Perhaps it can be removed now? 92.6.210.71 (talk) 17:00, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Ugh. This whole think is severely nonacademic. The "cures" section especially reads more like a high school oration class speech. I will leave it at this: sports fans are a superstitious lot. --72.215.154.250 (talk) 21:07, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Attempts to break the curse

The latest attempt: SunTimes article,April 13, 2009, by Maureen O'Donnell and Rose Sobol.

Section headers

I added section headers so the table of contents would list the topics. Pknkly (talk) 18:13, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

The Cubs have not broken the curse, right?

Even though this article goes on for several paragraphs, as far as I can tell it is lacking a vital piece of information: that the Cubs have still not won a World Series since 1945. I had to go to the Chicago Cubs main article to verify this fact. I think this should be included in the opening paragraph. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AlanSiegrist (talk • contribs) 23:08, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

It appears that the curse refers to the Cubs not winning a World Series game at Wrigley Field. As the Cleveland Indians have home field advantage in the World Series, it is possible that the Cubs could win the 2016 World Series and still not break the Curse. 47.137.190.123 (talk) 03:08, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

That's an incorrect interpretation as they won Game 6 at Wrigley in 1945. I always remember hearing the story as being there would be never be another World Series played at Wrigley.Froo (talk) 12:25, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

See the clarifying telegram mentioned on the page, the curse concerns never being World Champions again (their last was in 1908), so the "curse" is still in effect until... Randy Kryn 15:54, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

There, I've rewrote the first sentence to "The Curse of the Billy Goat is the name of a sports-related curse..." which seems like neutral language and does not commit Wikipedia. Randy Kryn 21:11, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Is this relevant?

Someone just sent Tom Ricketts a goat's severed head. http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9158055/goat-head-delivered-chicago-cubs-owner-tom-ricketts-wrigley-field Hitmonchan (talk) 00:36, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Billy Sianis

WP:ONEEVENT. Not notable outside the curse. JDDJS (talk) 22:46, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

Mets sweep additional info

Can we add to the last part of "Attempts to break the curse" and mention that Daniel Murphy was the NLCS MVP hitting a homerun every game of the Mets sweep and the name of the goat is also Murphy. Sources: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/155217948/daniel-murphy-wins-nlcs-mvp-hits-record-homer http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/10/chicago-cubs-daniel-murphy-new-york-mets-billy-goat-nlcs-mlb — Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.106.4.6 (talk) 15:48, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

1969 Black Cat Image

Can somebody post the iconic 1969 black cat image to alleged curse incidents sections ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.168.129.10 (talk) 12:19, 25 October 2016 (UTC)

Is the curse a myth?

There have been rumors that the goat story is true but also rumors that the story is false. Which is correct? On the fourth game of the 2016 world championships, the Cubs were playing against the Indians and there was a sign being held up saying " I ain't afraid of no goats!" This refered to the goat "myth"that you read about. So the question is, is it true? That's up to you. It's like saying, "is Santa real or not" it's totally up to you. Go Cubs. Later, in the seventh inning, the Cubs made a winning play to win the World Series for the second time. 1908 and 2016. The curse has been lifted. Or has it?

Semi-protected edit request on 3 November 2016

Ohio is misspelled in the caption of image "The Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians play Game 7 of the World Series at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohia, Nov. 2, 2016."

Rambler444 (talk) 14:15, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

Done JTP ^{(talk • contribs)} 14:25, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

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Lead sentence

I have again reverted the lead line of this article to remove the superfluous "was the name of" repeatedly added, without consensus, in March by Lln78933 and their sock puppet Do304304. As explained in my revert, the article is about the supposed "curse", not about the name of the supposed curse. It's a slim distinction, but one worth making when writing a clear and concise lead sentence. If any editor feels that adding "was the name of" was an improvement, I'm happy to discuss it here. Thanks. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 19:10, 3 September 2018 (UTC)