These infamous Chicago Cubs mysteries may never be solved

Chicago Cubs: The story of the Billy Goat curse scarcely told the same way twice

This topic pretty much became irrelevant on November 2, 2016, but for a longtime it was a major topic of conversation among Cubs fans. The tale of how Cubs futility was blamed on disgruntled Chicago businessman Bill Sianis, who said the team was not going to win anymore after his pet billy goat was denied entry to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series at Wrigley Field has been told many times. Yet, there are inconsistencies in the stories which talk about what actually happened.

Some state that he was denied entry at the gate and he angrily said the Cubs would not win anymore until he and his goat would be allowed in. Other stories say he said there would be no more World Series games played at Wrigley Field. There are versions of the story which say he got into the park, seeing as the goat had a ticket, but people around him complained about the goat’s stench resulting in their ejection from the game. Though, it is hard to imagine he was able to bring the goat in initially.

According to the Billy Goat Tavern website, owned by the family of the late Sianis, said that after Sianis and the goat were denied entry and even owner P.K. Wrigley himself got involved, that weeks later he telegrammed Wrigley saying, “Who stinks now?” According to that account, Wrigley said to Sianis at the park that he could enter but the goat could not.

Even the Billy Goat Tavern site uses words such as, “legend” when describing what happened. We will likely never know what exactly happened that day on October 6, 1945. There are no digital security camera archives to look at from 1945 and family stories have a tendency to fudge the truth a bit…so who knows. Plus the newspapers ate the story up so much that most people’s understandings of the event are based on what they read.

What is nice is that this story does not have much of an effect on Cubs fans any more thanks to the 2016 World Series win.

Any other Cubs mysteries that were left out? Certainly there is much we do not know about the franchise with secrets ready to be unveiled. Until then we can sit and owner.