Chicago - Day One

This is a repost from August 4, 2006.

Chicago - Day One

So here I am... in the most beautiful city in the world... Chicago. My SO won tickets from 93X to go to Lalapalooza, and we were whisked on a plane and down to the House of Blues Hotel. After getting settled in, we decided to take a walk and see what we would find.

The first thing we found was Harry Caray's Restaurant, which I have always wanted to go to, being the Chicago baseball fan that I am. We had a marvelous lunch... everything was simply perfect. And when we were done, we looked at all the memorabilia in the place. Harry certainly had a long career, and was well loved! One of the items of note in the restaurant was a shattered baseball, touted as the Bartman Baseball. This ball was intentionally shattered, as it was the ball that a fan (Steve Bartman) grabbed out of the hands of Moises Alou, during a game that would have brought the Cubs to the World Series in 2003. That catch would have been the last out of the game. Everything went downhill from there. By the end of the inning, the Florida Marlins had put 8 runs on the board, forcing Game 7. The poor schmuck had to be escorted from the stadium by 3 security officers when fans started chanting "ass-HOLE, ass-HOLE" and pelting him with cups. Ah yes, only in Chicago. The ball was bought at auction by the managing partner of the Harry Caray restaurants with the intent purpose of destroying it. And what did he pay for this honor? A whopping $106,600!!! Ugh... makes me sick to think about it, but hey... REVERSE THE CURSE!!! (We'll come back to this later.)

After lunch, we decided to stroll around downtown and take some pictures of the wonderful architecture that engulfs the city that I call home. I stood at the exact spot where Fort Dearborn once stood, at the Chicago River. I felt a little like Mary Tyler Moore at the beginning of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, wanting to throw my hands open wide, twirl around, and throw my hat in the air. I'm HOME!!! Downtown Chicago has always been my home, even though I grew up in the suburbs. It was in downtown Chicago that I had my first real taste of independence, and it was here that I felt I had a real life. Ah yessssssssss... to be young again and have all that ahead of me yet.

So back to my story about the curse...

We decided to find the world famous Billy Goat Tavern, which I had never been to. (The world MUST be coming to an end, because I'm getting to do things I've always wanted to do, and some of my deepest wishes are coming true.) Anyway... the Billy Goat Tavern was made famous by John Belushi and Bill Murray on Saturday Night Live, as the home of the "Cheezborger Cheezborger". We went into this little place, which really isn't any bigger than the Poplar Lounge in Memphis, and were having a great time with the guys who were working that shift, with them teasing us, and we, teasing them right back. We took some pictures and read up a little on the lore associated with the Billy Goat. This is where the curse comes in. As Wikipedia tells it: "The Curse of the Billy Goat, or Billy Goat Curse (curse supposedly began in 1945) is the name of an urban myth, superstition, used to explain the World Series drought that Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs have had to endure since their last appearance in the 1945 World Series, and their last World Series championship in 1908. The curse is a classic example of a scapegoat.

As the story goes, Vasili "Billy Goat" Sianis, a Greek immigrant who owned a nearby tavern (the now-famous Billy Goat Tavern), had two 7.20 USD box seat tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, and decided to bring his pet goat, Murphy (or Sinovia according to some references), with him. Sianis and the goat were allowed into Wrigley Field and even paraded about on the playing field before the game before ushers intervened. They were led off the field. After a heated argument, both Sianis and the goat were permitted to stay in the stadium occupying the box seat for which he had tickets. However, before the game was over, Sianis and the goat were ejected from the stadium at the command of Cubs owner Philip Knight Wrigley due to the animal's objectionable odor. Sianis was outraged at the ejection and allegedly placed a curse upon the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in a World Series at Wrigley Field again and left the States to vacation in his home in Greece.

The Cubs lost Game 4 and eventually the 1945 World Series, prompting Sianis to write to Wrigley from Greece, saying, "Who stinks now?" Following a third-place finish in the National League in 1946, the Cubs would finish in the league's second division for the next 20 consecutive years, this streak finally ending in 1967, the year after Leo Durocher became the club's manager. Since that time, the cursed Cubs have not won a National League pennant or played in a World Series --the longest pennantless drought in Major League history. Sianis died in 1970."

We were having a great time with everything there, when nature called and while in the restroom, I started having a conversation with this lady I recognized from my flight into Chicago. I couldn't believe it when I heard the things she was saying... she is on the PARROTHEAD PORKERS Barbecue Team for Memphis in May!!! And not only that, I've gotten drunk in their booth more than once! We have been invited to the booth several times, by friends of ours, who no longer live in Memphis. Anyway, she told me that the whole group was RIGHT THERE in the Billy Goat!!! They are in town for a Jimmy Buffett concert taking place in Tinley Park tomorrow night. Needless to say, I grabbed my SO and we spent the next 3 hours with some of the most fun people I've ever enjoyed! The stories they told!!! I think it's safe to say that we will be more than welcome in their booth from now on... in fact, we have been invited to their booth at the barbecue fest in Arlington in October.

So... all that said... enjoy the pics we took today!

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