Sports Curses and Why Bill Murray Won the World Series

Every week I'll be here to reveal and review some of my favorite moments from the internet. Whether it be binge-ing television shows, streaming sports or simply getting lost in a YouTube rabbit hole, I'm here to give you my top picks every Friday, as well as the perfect pairing to get into an optimal headspace for them. 

This week, we're exploring the sports world and its history, full of heartbreak, unbridled celebration, curses and redemption. We'll also talk a little bit about Bill Murray, America's cool, fun uncle.

The Cursed Cubs of Chicago

Recommended Pairing: A deep dish pizza chased with polish sausage and Goose Island Bourbon Barrel Stout.

The last time we talked sports in this column LeBron and his Cavaliers of Cleveland had just upset the historically dominant Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, rallying back from being down three games to one in an epic comeback. Up to that point, Cleveland was a cursed city (at least in regards to sports) — a perpetual punching bag and punch line.

 

The Browns gave us "The Fumble":

 

Michael Jordan skied over Craig Ehlo, crushed their dreams and gave us "The Shot":

 

The Indians and Chief Wahoo gave us, well, not much besides Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn and a ragtag tribe of outcasts:

 

 

The only team with a richer tradition of losing was the Cubs of Chicago and their curse of the billy goat. But wouldn't you know it, 2016 gave us an epic comeback in the NBA to break the curse in Cleveland and now it's given us an epic comeback in the World Series to make the perennial lovable losers the champions — over Cleveland no less.

 

Amazing right?

 

 

Let's recap this fucked up year. 2016 took Prince, David Bowie, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, Alan Rickman, Gary Shandling, amongst others — and gave us the World Champion Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Cavaliers. Now it's teasing us about a potential Donald Trump presidency or a "historic" Hilary Clinton presidency. 

 

I think the world is broken.

 

 

Bill "FUCKING" Murray

Recommended Pairing: Cannonballs: Alternating pulls from a bottle and a joint.

Despite what ESPN says, I firmly believe Bill Murray won the World Series. Chicago Cub fans deserved every bit of jubilation they have exercised over the few dozen hours, sure. But despite all of the footage of drunken Cubs fans celebrating in the streets and all of the highlights from the game(s), the one thing we'll remember about this World Series is how much we love Bill Murray. He's a goddamn national treasure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember when the Red Sox broke their curse a few years back and randomly Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore were spotted making out on the field while the entire city of Boston flipping bananas? I'm not surprised. It was for a scene in a terrible movie. The best thing that came from it was when she gets beaned in the dome. 

 

 

They shouldn't have been allowed within ten feet of the grass at Fenway, that was a historic night sullied by some lame ass guerilla film-making. 

 

Bill Murray was essentially catapulted out onto the field in the moments after the Cubs recorded the last out.

 

With the absence of Harry Caray and "Mr. Cub" Ernie Banks, Bill Murray has inherited the weight of being the face of a franchise over a century removed from a championship. He's achieved the rare air of fame where you don't just get away with anything you want, you're actively celebrated for just being in the vicinity.

With any other celebrity, being on the field, doing interviews and celebrating in the locker room would be met with at least some aggressive eye-rolling. Yet, here we are in an age of unfiltered snark, an age of dissenting opinions just for the hell of it, and we have an overwhelming cavalcade of praise for a single man celebrating a team's achievement.

This is my favorite:

 

So I checked the calendar and we have roughly 65 days left in this terribly weird year, but I just want to say one thing: I swear to god, 2016, if you hurt Bill Murray I will beat you to death with an old VHS copy of Ghostbusters.

 

 

 

Championship Celebration Etiquette 

Recommended Pairing: Random bits of confetti and looted malt liquor.

I was genuinely surprised to wake up the morning after the Cubs won the pennant to find no news of an entire city again ablaze. In fact, it's been a while since we had one of those bizarre "I'm so happy my city won the championship I'm going to destroy it" celebrations.

 

The last real smash 'em up job I can remember wasn't a celebration or even in America. It was a bunch of Canadians freaking out after losing the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins.

 

 

The Cubs fans did it right. They drank and danced and did trust falls and all sorts of other fantastic displays of pure shared bliss.

 

Here's to hoping the Dodgers, Lakers, or Rams can win a chip sometime soon — I'm really pumped to try one of those trust falls.

 

'Til next week.


Wanna see more of my favorite innerwebs finds? You can read the full "Mike's Favorite Things on the Innerwebs" series right here.

 

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