Any animal lover, especially any cat lover, will tell you that you don't mess with cats.
Like, ever. Cats have their own unique ways of penalizing disrespect.
Nobody in the world knows that quite as well right now as the coaches and players for the Brazilian national team in the World Cup. On Sunday, Brazil was eliminated from the Round of 16 by Norway in a 2-1 result, and that's just the most recent thing that has gone wrong for Brazil — usually a soccer superpower — since the Cat Incident occurred in the previous World Cup tournament in Qatar.
On December 7, 2022, before Brazil's quarterfinal match, Real Madrid star Vinícius Júnior was answering media questions when a cute cat jumped on the table where Junior sat. A Brazil team press officer (known as "the jerk" for our purposes) unceremoniously grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck. Then, the jerk threw the poor cat off the table.
Since then, Brazil's luck with the beautiful game has been quite ugly.
It was Game 4 of the 2011 National League Division Series, and the St. Louis Cardinals were hosting the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium. As Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt was delivering a pitch to outfielder/second baseman Skip Schumaker, a squirrel ran across home plate.
Umpire Angel Hernandez called the pitch a ball, and both Oswalt and Phillies manager Charlie Manuel argued that the squirrel presented an illegal distraction. Thus, no pitch should be called. Hernandez disagreed, and the game resumed. Manuel later said that if he'd had a firearm handy, he would have taken matters into his own hands.
"Being from the South and being a squirrel hunter, if I had a gun there, I might have did [sic] something," Manuel joked. "I'm a pretty good shot."
Big mistake, Charlie. As Wikipedia tells us, things were about to get a lot weirder.
Before Game 5 of the NLDS in Philadelphia, Oswalt was again accosted by a squirrel near the warning track at Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia fans taunted the Cardinals by throwing a stuffed squirrel into the team's bullpen. Cardinals pitcher Octavio Dotel retrieved it, and kept it in his locker. The Cardinals defeated the Phillies in five games, and Dotel said he would keep the squirrel through the World Series. "They didn't know that it's our good luck; they gave us good luck to our bullpen, and that's why the bullpen has been so great lately", commented Dotel about the Philadelphia fans.
On October 16 in Milwaukee, Dotel and teammates toasted the stuffed squirrel and sprayed it with champagne and beer while celebrating their NLCS victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, which sent them to the World Series against the Texas Rangers.
It is unknown whether the squirrel actually traveled from St. Louis to Philly to finish the job, but we do know that the Cardinals — the team that respected the animal as opposed to threatening to extinguish its life — won the World Series.
Let that be a lesson for all of us.
2. The 7 Dead Cats of Racing Club
Speaking of cats and soccer curses... well, this one is a doozy, and it hit Racing Club, formerly a powerhouse in Argentine football, really hard for decades. The fans of rival club Independiente started this one off (allegedly).
From the Buenos Aires Herald:
Legend has it that some Independiente fans didn’t settle for cheering from the stands and decided to try their hand at esoteric solutions.
Allegedly encouraged by a local witch, they took advantage of the fact that the night watchman who worked at Racing Stadium was an Independiente supporter. The fans broke in to bury seven dead black cats to jinx Racing. Six of them were buried under one of the goals, with the final cat being placed in a secret location suggested by the night watchman.
Scoff all you want, but come December 1967, Independiente beat Racing 4-0 in the last game of the season and won the Primera Division title. That might sound like a minor consequence of a gruesome rite, but for things were about to get a lot worse for La Academia.
Indeed. From there on, Racing Club was doomed to relegation, while Independiente entered a golden game. In 1980, Racing Club coach Juan Carlos Lorenzo called for the seven cats to be dug up. Only six were found, so Racing Club resorted to burying frogs — associated with cleaning and rebirth — where the cats were, but this did not work.
On February 14, 1998, Racing Club went a different way.
A procession was called, with 15,000 fans led by the Virgin of Luján walking from the Plaza de Mayo Cathedral to the Presidente Perón Stadium, where Father Jorge Della Barca threw holy water onto the pitch.
“This is not an exorcism but an act of faith,” said then-Racing Club president Daniel Lalín. “The Racing fans deserve all the good times that they have not received for a long time.”
Admittedly, the event concluded with an act by comedian Alfredo Casero and a rock concert by the band Vox Dei, composers of an album called (and inspired by) the Bible, with famous fans and former legends invited.
That act of faith, which reportedly cost over US $30,000, was rewarded with Racing losing the next game 2-0. This sort of spending may explain why, just a year later, the club filed for bankruptcy on March 4, 1999.
The seventh cat was never found, as far as anybody knows. In the end, it was the hire of coach Reinaldo “Mostaza” Merlo that turned Racing Club's fortunes around, and there are conflicting reports as to the accuracy of the tale of the seven buried cats to this day.
As Mark Twain once quipped, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”
1. The Curse of the Billy Goat
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
For a very long time, it was natural to assume that the Chicago Cubs were a cursed franchise. They didn't do anything dramatically stupid like selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, which of course started the Boston Red Sox' Curse of the Bambino. No, this particular Cubs curse happened over... the love of a goat.
It was Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, and William Sianis, the owner of Chicago's Billy Goat Tavern, was the offended party. Sianis brought his pet goat Murphy to Wrigley Field for the game and both Sianis and Murphy were asked to leave after other fans complained about the goat's odor.
For those wondering how the goat got in, Sianis reportedly had a ticket for Murphy. As one does.
Anyway, after the ejection, Sianis sent Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley a telegram which said, "You are going to lose this World Series... You are never going to win the World Series again, because you insulted my goat."
Again, as one does.
The Cubs lost the 1945 World Series, and that was the last Fall Classic they were able to attend without their own tickets until 2016, when Joe Maddon's Cubs beat Terry Francona's Cleveland Indians in seven games. By then, Sam Sianis, son of William, had broken the curse with a far more goat-friendly Cubs franchise.
As we have learned, disrespecting animals can only bring you trouble. Especially if you're a sports team of any stripe.
