Warmed Up for the World Series ⚾
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Season 2: Episode 24 Description
In today’s episode: 🧢 It's a special episode to kick off Major League Baseballs' World Series. 🎉 Before the Astros and the Braves hit the field, hear from our sports correspondent Kenny Curtis about baseball's creepiest curses! 👻 And test your MLB post-season knowledge in today's Trivia on the Ten. ✅
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TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:02
From baseball road trips to dangerous goats, we've got the World Series on our minds. Today we're throwing strikes and talking baseball. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's October 26th. And this is The Ten News.
Various Voices 0:21
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 0:29
With Halloween so close, there's a spine-tingling chill in the air. But did you know that some horrible hexes and spooky spells don't come from witches or goblins, but from baseball? No way. That's right. Baseball. Foul Ball. Before the National League champions, the Atlanta Braves get ready to play the American League champions, the Houston Astros in tonight's World Series game, our sports correspondent Kenny Curtis is here to share some of baseball's creepiest curses.
Kenny Curtis 1:06
Okay, by a show of hands, who here is ready for Halloween? Yeah, okay, so this is a podcast and I can't exactly see your hands. But I'm gonna guess that almost everybody's arm is waving around like crazy right now because Halloween is obviously one of the greatest holidays of the year. I mean, there's costumes and candy, and tons of spooky stuff everywhere. And if that's not enough, there's also a baseball label, the World Series is starting. And while there might not appear to be much of an overlap between Halloween and baseball, both of these areas are familiar with the supernatural. You see, while it might not look like it, the sport of baseball is actually steeped in superstition. And yes, you heard me right. curses, as in those weird spell things that witches cast on you? Yeah, well, for decades, baseball fans have been blaming losses and poor performance on curses outside of their control. So what exactly are these curses? Well, I'm glad you asked. Without further ado, here are the top five curses in baseball history. Number one. Now, this is one of the most famous baseball curses of all time, every baseball fan knows about Babe Ruth, one of the greatest athletes to ever play the game right? Well, Babe Ruth made a name for himself while playing for the Boston Red Sox. But in 1919, he was traded to the New York Yankees, a move that outraged Red Sox fans. After the trade occurred, the Red Sox went 84 long years without ever winning a World Series title. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees became one of the best teams in baseball history. This period of time was known as The Curse of the Bambino, aka Babe Ruth's revenge for being traded. Luckily, the curse was broken in 2004 when the Sox finally won a World Series. Number two. The curse of the billy goat.
Kenny Curtis 3:25
Is there anything better than baseball and farm animals? I think not. This famous curse happened in 1945 when Billy Sianas the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern brought his pet goat with him to a Chicago Cubs World Series game. No one's exactly sure why he brought the goat with him in the first place. But he was causing quite the disturbance. Sianas was forced to leave the game and let's just say he wasn't very happy about it. Before he left he declared that the Cubs would never win a World Series. And apparently, goats have magical powers because Sianas' words came true. The Chicago Cubs didn't win a World Series for a long, long time. Attempts were made to rectify the situation. Sianas' nephew even brought another go to the stadium, but nothing seemed to stick. The curse was finally broken in 2016 when the Cubs went on to win the World Series Nice. Curse number three. If you take anything away from today's podcast, it's that one should never underestimate the power of a goat. The Curse of the billy goat wasn't enough of a vengeance for Billy's Sianas and his furry farmyard friend. And since that event occurred in 1945, fans began to notice that any team with three or more ex Cubs players on its roster would go on to lose the World Series. While this might sound like a bunch of superstitious nonsense? It's proven to be surprisingly accurate. Since the 1945 Billy Goat curse almost every team to play in the World Series with three or more ex-Cub players has lost. This occurred recently in 2019, when the Astros, a dominant team with three ex-Cubs on their roster lost to the Washington Nationals curse or coincidence, you decide. Whatever. Number four. The curse of the world. Did you know baseball curses extend beyond the United States? They do. The Hanshin Tigers are one of Japan's most popular baseball teams. They even won the Japan World Series in 1985. Now, here's where the curse comes into play. Apparently, as an act of celebration, Tigers fans gathered on a bridge and called out the name of every player on the team. Whichever fan looked the most like that player would jump into the river below. But when they called out Randy Bass, a bearded American who started on the team, no one looked like him enough to jump. The fans decided to throw a statue of the KFC mascot Colonel Sanders into the river instead. This was apparently very offensive to the fried chicken gods. The team hasn't won a championship since and the curse of the colonel is still very much in force. Number five. Well, come on who doesn't love bobbleheads? Well, Mets fans for one. The curse is fairly straightforward. Every Mets player who is commemorated with a bobblehead ultimately ends up struggling or getting injured now, this first occurred to Mike Piazza in 2002. He finished the year with 33 home runs and 98 runs respectively. His bobblehead was created, and the next year he only hit 11 home runs in 68 games. In 2003, John Franco was turned into a bobblehead. He never fully recovered from his injury and was off the team the next season. This curse is still alive and well with Mets players avoiding bobbleheads to this day. So, as Halloween approaches, enjoy the spooky stuff. But whatever you do, don't call in any curses, especially if you're a baseball fan. And don't forget to tune into the World Series games this week to cheer your favorite team on to victory. Knock on wood.
Bethany Van Delft 7:43
Did you know that at major league baseball games the umpires are required to wear black underwear just in case they split their pants? Note to self make sure your underwear matches your pants. Coming up next.
Various Voices 8:00
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 8:03
Trivia on The Ten. What is the longest World Series game ever played in the postseason? Was it a) five hours long? b) twelve hours and ten minutes long? Or, c) seven hours and twenty minutes long?
Bethany Van Delft 8:27
Did you guess it? The answer is C. The longest game by time was in game three of the 2018 World Series. The Red Sox and the Dodgers battled it out for seven hours and played 18 innings. It was a late night for anyone watching that game and everybody playing it. Times up but before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is talking to magic goats and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, and Nathalie Alonso. Kenny Curtis contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News.
