It's no secret that sports people are a superstitious lot. It is not possible that any team can simply suck for any number of years, it has to be attributed to a curse of some sort. Be it the Bambino or a goat, it has to be blamed on an outside, supernatural force of some sort. Usually I bash people who believe in this type of crap, but, as a sports fan (namely a Cubs, century-long losers, fan) I have to say that I am subscribing to this particular line of bullshit.
Of course, I am a realist by nature, and an engineer by design, so I can't believe in all of it without denouncing my being. But I will have to admit that certain trends tend to follow reality. The Madden curse is one of them. It has hit multiple football players. Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander, and Michael Vick to name a few. And I could rip all the Maddennites a new one on today's blog, but I am here to address a bigger, more subtle enemy. A curse that only few of you know about. I am speaking of the Sports Illustrated curse.
It seems that once you are deemed good enough to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated, your luck takes a violent turn for the worse. And, since the Cubs were the team of destiny this year, SI felt the need to talk about them just that much more often.
It all started in May, when the Cubs got off to a great start; the quickest start of any Cubs team since the 1900's. Many thought that the addition of outfielder Kosuke Fukodome was the spark that ignited Wrigleyville. So, naturally, he made the cover of SI in May. That was the end of his season. In March and April Fukodome batted .305 and seemed indestructible. After SI he went on a steady decline. His batting average went down an average of 30 points every month thereafter. In September (and October) he batted a dismal .178. In the postseason he went 1 for 10 with 4 strikeouts. But SI wouldn't be gracious enough to leave well enough alone after ruining just one guy's season. They had to go for the whole sha-bang.
After the Cubs clinched the division SI decided to put them on the cover again. Much to the dismay of all the fans.
During the season, the Cubs were undoubtedly the best team in the National League. They finished 2nd in team batting average (.278), 1st in runs (855 that's 5.5 runs per game!), and 3rd in team ERA (3.87). Then came the postseason against the Dodgers. The Cubs had beaten the Dodgers in 5 of their 7 regular season games and had never lost a game to them at home. It seemed a sure bet. But the SI curse reared its ugly head. Against the Dodgers, the mighty Cubs batted only .240, only scored 6 runs in 3 games, and had a team ERA of 5.19. Those stats were good enough to take last place in all of the polls. The only stat they finished first in was errors, in which a team that had a .987 fielding percentage during the year committed 6 errors in 3 games. Furthermore, Aramis Ramirez, who was featured on the first page and was the premiere offensive leader on the team, was limited to 2 hits and only 3 total bases. Really pathetic after hitting 27 homers during the regular season.
So, next year when the Cubs go for their first World Series win in 101 years, do me a favor, SI, and don't mention it!