Cubs fans demand new mascot for 100-year curse
 TNB Blog |
| Curse of the Wooly Mammoth sounds soooo much cooler. |
CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs fans are hoping a change in mascot might help their luck in breaking the 100-year drought in winning the World Series.
Calling the billy goat “outdated” and “kinda retarded,” hundreds of Cubs’ fans took their protest to the Wrigley Field on opening day.
Many of them said they hoped new owner Sam Zell would shift his sights from renaming Wrigley Field to finding a new “cooler” mascot for the curse.
“How lame is a goat?” asked annoyed Cubs fan John Dewey, who is from Florida and has never lived in Chicago. “Like, seriously, anything would be better. Even a tarantula.”
Suggestions from the crowd for replacing the billy goat include: a monkey, a kitten, a wooly mammoth and a white rhino.
The curse of the billy goat is a popular urban legend that began in 1945 after local tavern owner Billy Sianis brought his pet goat Murphy to Wrigley Field. The goat and its owner were ejected from the stadium, causing Sianis to place a “curse” on the Cubs. That year the Cubs lost to the Detroit Tigers in the World Series, the last year the team would make it that far.
Steve Gatto, author of the book “Da Curse of the Billy Goat” said a move by the Cubs to recast the curse’s mascot would be bold, but unwise.
“It’s been this way for 63 years - you can’t change history,” Gatto said. “For one thing, that might actually break the curse and nobody really wants that, do they?”
Some Cubs fans agree. They’d rather see the curse go on so they can perenially lament their team to friends, family and coworkers, wearing a hangdog look at the end of every baseball season as they talk about the ”season that could have been.”
“If I wanted to back a winning team, I’d be a Yankees fan,” said Drew Little from Naperville, Ill. “This is Chicago. The second city. We have a reputation to protect.”
When informed that Chicago’s other team - the South-Side based White Sox - won the 2005 World Series, Little broke down in sobs, exclaiming “say it ain’t so” and then “the Sox Suck!”
It is unclear at this time what will come first - the mascot change or the Cubs finally going to the World Series.
The Cubs lost their opening game to the Milwaukee Brewers 4 to 3 in 10 innings.
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