Different baseball teams are famous for different things. The Chicago Cubs are famous for losing. A harsh way to put it, you think? Well, what MLB team has the longest record of not going to the World Series? The Chicago Cubs. They haven’t been there since 1945. And what MLB team has the longest record of not winning a World Series? The Chicago Cubs. They haven’t won a World Series since 1908. That’s 100 years. A full century.

Some people have a ready explanation for the Chicago Cubs’ consistent record. The Cubs, according to them, are cursed. They were cursed by a tavern owner during the 1945 World Series because of disrespect shown to his billy goat. And they’ve been paying the price ever since.

The tavern owner, a Chicago Cubs fan, was an immigrant from Greece. He bought a tavern in 1934, paying $205 for it with a check that bounced. He made good on the check from cash proceeds from the bar after he was operating it. He was a man who knew that a little controversy could create publicity. So when the Republicans held their convention in Chicago in 1944, Sianis put up a sign in his bar claiming, “No Republicans allowed.” Members of the GOP flocked to his restaurant, daring him to serve them, and he did good business.

Later, when a billy goat fell off a truck and wandered into his tavern, Sianis adopted the goat as his pet. He named the goat Murphy. He started referring to himself as Billy the Goat. He grew a goatee. He had pictures taken of himself with the goat sitting at the bar drinking a bottle of beer.

Sianis even bought two Chicago Cubs tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. He attended, escorting his goat. It looks to me as though the Philip Knight Wrigley, the owner of the Cubs, had a certain fondness himself for publicity. It must have been with his agreement that Sianis and Murphy paraded on the playing field before the game began. When play started, Billy the Goat and his billy goat retired to their box seats to enjoy the game. It started to rain. The goat started to smell. Fans started to complain. Directed by Mr. Wrigley, the ushers asked the pair to leave. Sianis objected but Wrigley insisted.

Sianis took umbrage at the way his goat was treated. Leaving Wrigley Field, he invoked a curse. “The Cubs will win here no more,” he predicted. And it turns out that he was right. The Chicago Cubs lost that game, lost the 1945 World Series and, in the years since, have won there no more.

It isn’t that the Cubs have never had a chance. There have been some years that looked like they would be the year for the Cubs. For instance, in 1969, the team was doing really well. Leo Durocher, since elected to the Hall of Fame, was the manager that year. Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins, all since elected to the Hall of Fame, each wore a Chicago Cubs jersey that year. And Ron Santo, who hasn’t been elected to the Hall of Fame but may yet be, was a star of the team. In 1969, when there were only two divisions in the league and the Cubs played in the East, Chicago led the second-place Mets by as much as 8 ½ games. Things started to slip out of their reach toward the end of the season, however, and by the time the Cubs played the Mets at Shea Stadium in September, the Mets had shaved the Cubs’ lead to 1 ½ games.

Was it the Curse of the Billy Goat that sent the black cat onto the field? Somehow the cat got there, slinking past Ron Santo in the on-deck circle, taking note of the team as they were assembled in the dug-out during the game, then slinking away again. The guys in the Chicago jerseys lost that game and went on to post a 7-18 record for the month. The National League East Division title slipped through their fingers as they finished eight games behind the Mets. The Mets beat the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series in five games.

In 1984, the Chicago Cubs won the National League East Division title and played the San Diego Padres in the five-game National League Championship Series. The series was tied two-to-two and the Cubs were leading 3-2 in the seventh inning. With the tying run on second, Tim Flannery hit a line drive. Was it the Curse of the Billy Goat that whipped the ball through the legs of Cubs first baseman allowing the tying run to score? Somehow, the two-time All-Star and Silver Slugger Award winner committed an error. The error allowed only the single run, which was a tying, not a winning run. But it took the wind out of the Cubs’ sails and the Cubs lost the game and the National League pennant.

The Chicago Cubs were on their way to the World Series again in 2003. They were playing the Florida Marlins in the National League Championship Series, which was now seven games long. In the eighth inning of Game 6 of the series, the Cubs were five outs away from the National League pennant when, once again, it slipped through their fingers. Or, rather, was knocked out of their glove. Was it the Curse of the Billy Goat that caused a lifelong adoring Cubs fan to knock a foul ball out of the grasp of Moises Alou, preventing a possible out? Somehow, it happened. With one out in the eighth inning, Luis Castillo hit a foul ball along the left field line into the stands. If left fielder Alou had caught it, the Cubs would have been only four outs away from the World Series. But the fans in the stands reached for the ball. This is a common event when a ball is hit into the stands. And one fan actually knocked the ball off course and away from Alou’s glove. That’s all he did, that poor fan, Steve Bartman. He didn’t cause the error that Alex Rodriguez committed on the next play or the two earned and six unearned runs that the Marlins scored before the game was over.

But once things started to go wrong, they kept going wrong. The Chicago Cubs lost Game 7 by a score of 9-3 and, with it, their chance to get to the World Series.

The ball that was hit foul became a boogeyman. It was retrieved and destroyed in a ceremony attending by members of the local media. Chefs at Harry Carey’s Restaurant, an eating place that had been owned by the late Chicago Cubs announcer, boiled the ball and somehow used the steam to create a spaghetti sauce. And there have been other attempts to reverse the curse. Goats have often had something to do with it.

The current question is: What now? The 2008 Chicago Cubs are heading out of the All-Star break in first place in the National League Central Division. They have been division leaders for most of the season. They have held the best record in baseball for a large part of the season and, at .600 as the second half of the season is about to start out, they are tied for first with the Los Angeles Angels. They sent eight men to the All-Star Game. That hasn’t happened since the Pittsburgh Pirates did it in 1960. They are at the top of the power rankings of a number of sports writers. Is this the year that the Cubs will hit the Curse of the Billy Goat out of the park? Or is it yet another year when they will let it pass between their feet or drop out of their glove?

We won’t know for sure until they pass out the World Series rings.