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Billy SianisWilliam Sianis (dead in 1970), better known as Billy Sianis, was a Chicago, Illinois tavern owner, who went on to become part of baseball's lore because of the famed Billy the Goat curse he supposedly put on the Chicago Cubs after he was tossed out of game four (some say it was game 7) of the 1945 World Series. Because of the alleged curse he is said to have imposed on the Cubs, people nicknamed him "Billy the Goat". Brief biography Billy Sianis was not fully American: he was born in Greece to a Greek family. Looking for a better economic future, he moved to the United States, where he became a prominent Chicago bar owner. His tavern was visited by many of Chicago's personalities of the 1940s, and Sianis appears to have been a charismatic business man. Sianis was a big Cubs fan, and he enjoyed going to Cubs games along with his beloved goat. On October 16 of that year, he bought two tickets worth seven and a half dollars. One of the tickets was for him; the other one was for his goat. He was allowed to parade with the goat on the baseball field before the game started, and he watched the game until the seventh inning. It was then that security personnel told Sianis that he and his goat had to leave, apparently because the goat's presence bothered either a person or a group of persons. Sianis, according to believers of the curse, was enraged that such action was taken against him and his goat, and he then cursed the team, hoping that they would never again win the World Series. Not much was known about Sianis after that incident, except that his bar was passed on to Sam Sianis and that Billy Sianis led a quiet life after this event, until his death in 1970. There is a famous portrait of Sam Sianis in the city of Chicago. Cursed or not? Probably no one can say for sure that the Cubs are cursed or not. But the fact remains that they have not won a World Series since 1908 and have not returned to the World Series after the 1945 event. They have been close to winning world championships, but because of different – perhaps strange – circumstances, they have not been able to do it in almost a century. These include the 1969 debacle towards the end of the season, losing at the 1984 NLCS to the San Diego Padres after being one game away from the Series, and the 2003 Steve Bartman incident. The Billy the Goat curse was often compared to The Curse of the Bambino, but talk of the latter disappeared once the Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. Sianis, Billy Sianis, Billy Sianis, Billy
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