Friday the 13th a good time to go over local lore
Few cities believe their sports fields, arenas and stadiums have a dark cloud of bad karma on them like Chicago.
From black cats to billy goats, hexing cheerleaders to angry coaches, the sports Bears, Blackhawks, Cubs and White Sox have a storied history when it comes to superstitions.
On Friday the 13th, Chicago fans can cross their fingers, avoid walking under ladders, close umbrellas indoors and celebrate some of their most superstitious athletes and cursed sports franchises.
1. Has to be the shorts. Michael Jordan and the Bulls didn't run into much negative karma during his days with the Bulls. Maybe it's because he was one of the most superstitious players ever to compete in the city, wearing his North Carolina Tar Heels college shorts under his uniform every game.
2. Fire and ice. Stan Mikita, the Hall-of-Fame Blackhawks center, flicked a lit cigarette butt over his left shoulder as he took the ice as a pregame ritual. That probably would break a few fire code laws today but it worked for Mikita in the 1960s.
3. Who smells now? Don't call yourself a Chicagoan unless you can recite to out-of-town visitors the tale of the Billy Goat Curse. Tavern owner William Sianis was asked to leave the fourth game of the World Series between the Cubs and Tigers in 1945 because of the smelly pet billy goat he brought into Wrigley Field. Outraged, Sianis left putting a hex on the team, stating the World Series never would be played in Wrigley Field again. Obviously, his curse lives on.
4. Mr. Clean. All-Star Minnie Minoso found a cure for going hitless in a game for the White Sox. He blamed his uniform and decided the best way to achieve a clean slate was to shower with it on. The next day, he had three hits and his teammates jumped in the shower with their uniforms on as well after the game.
5. Bad News Bears. The Curse of the Honey Bears sounds like a Disney movie but Bears fans might consider it a serious curse on their team. The club hired a cheerleading squad in 1977 that became known as the Honey Bears. While there was talk of disbanding them earlier, their contract ran through 1985 — the season the Bears suffered only one loss and won the Super Bowl. Their contract was not renewed and the Bears have not won a Super Bowl since.
6. No. 13. Ozzie Guillen doesn't care what anyone thinks about what he has to say. Why would he care what implications come with wearing supposedly unlucky uniform No. 13? The former White Sox player and manager has worn the cursed number throughout his career, but it wasn't meant to thumb his nose at luck. He wore it to honor another Venezuelan shortstop, Dave Concepcion. When Omar Vizquel joined the White Sox, he deferred to Guillen and switched to No. 11.
7. Don't touch. The Blackhawks honored tradition and avoided touching the Campbell Cup after winning the Western Conference finals in 2010. Captain Jonathan Toews would barely look at it. The Flyers, however, defied superstition and embraced the Prince of Wales Trophy. Did it wind up costing the Flyers and helping the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in six games?
8. Nine lives. The Cubs' 1969 collapse is pinned on the most cursed creature. At Shea Stadium on Sept. 9, a black cat sauntered behind the Cubs on-deck circle where Ron Santo was taking swings. The Cubs lost 7-1 to complete a two-game losing streak to the Mets, who pulled to within a half game of the division lead. The Cubs soon fell out of first place and lost 17 of their last 25 games as the Mets went on to win the World Series.
9. Cookie Monster of the Midway. Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher defines the team's old-school toughness. But his pregame ritual is more like that of a preschooler. He eats two chocolate chip cookies before every game.
10. Do crime, do time. The White Sox went 86 years without a World Series and some blame the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Shoeless Joe Jackson and teammates allegedly threw games for money, prompting speculation the team was under a bad spell until 2005's championship season.
11. Bad luck Bartman. As famous as the Billy Goat Curse is now, the legend of Steve Bartman has grown. The unsuspecting Cubs fan in a green turtleneck and headphones who unwittingly reached out for a foul ball in the 2003 playoff game against the Marlins is considered a pariah to some. If Moises Alou had caught the deflected ball, the Cubs would have been four outs away from winning the National League pennant. Instead, they lost the game and were eliminated in the next game. It confirmed to many that the Cubs are indeed still a cursed organization.
12. Another Chicago curse. The Curse of Muldoon is considered one of the earliest and most publicized hexes in sports and was blamed for the Blackhawks not finishing in first place in league play from 1938 to 1967. After losing in the first round of the 1927 playoffs, owner Frederic McLaughlin fired coach Pete Muldoon, who was written to have said, "Fire me, Major, and you'll never finish first. I'll put a curse on this team that will hoodoo it until the end of time." Despite winning the Stanley Cup in 1934, '38 and '61, the Hawks did not finish first in the standings.
13. Cover jinx. Before the Bears faced the Packers in the NFC championship game in 2011, quarterback Jay Cutler appeared on the Sports Illustrated cover. That decided the outcome for many superstitious Bears fans. Cutler injured his knee, left the game and the Packers won.
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