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Did This Downstate Goat Reverse The Cubs Curse?

By Stephanie Lulay | November 4, 2016 8:01pm
 Frageeleeee the goat at Charlene Walsh of downstate Cantrall, Ill. celebrated the historic Chicago Cubs victory at the Cubs rally in Grant Park Friday.
Frageeleeee the goat at Charlene Walsh of downstate Cantrall, Ill. celebrated the historic Chicago Cubs victory at the Cubs rally in Grant Park Friday.
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Charlene Walsh

DOWNTOWN — Is a downstate goat responsible for reversing the Chicago Cubs' 71 year curse? 

Charlene Walsh, from the tiny village of Cantrall, Ill., sure seems to think so. 

"She was put on this earth to reverse the curse," Walsh said with her goat Frageeleeee at the rally celebrating the Cubs historic World Series win Friday at Grant Park. 

"She had to come and celebrate with millions of Chicagoans," Walsh said, walking the goat on a Chicago Cubs leash, adorned with a 'W' Cubs flag and a baseball on each horn. 

Walsh first became a Cubs fan when she married into a Cubs family, she said. 

"My mother-in-law was probably one of the biggest Cubs fans," Walsh said, but she sadly died in August 2015 at age 83 before the Cubs' stellar 2016 season. 

In an effort to bring the Cubs out of a slump, Charlene bought her husband Michael a goat for Christmas two years ago. They named her Frageeleeee, a nod to the leg lamp scene in "A Christmas Story." 

"He wasn't happy about it at all. He didn't know what the heck he was going to do with a goat," Walsh remembered. "But I told him: 'She's been put on this earth to reverse the curse.' I told him: 'The Cubs are going to win the World Series.'" 

Brenda Anderson and Charlene Walsh brought Frageeleeee the goat to Grant Park to celebrate with the champion Chicago Cubs Friday. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]

The Curse of the Billy Goat originated in 1945 when Billy Goat Tavern owner William Sianis cursed the Cubs after his pet goat Murphy was kicked out of Wrigley Field. 

Frageeleee the goat didn't fulfill the prophecy in her first year of life, but the team's luck soon began to turn. During the Cubs-Cards series in September, Walsh brought the goat to Wrigleyvillle, where she was well-loved by fans at Murphy's Bleachers and Irish Oak and took a photo with the Wrigley marquee.  

Frageeleeee the goat of downstate Cantrall, Ill. has visited the Wrigley Field marquee and celebrated the historic Chicago Cubs victory at Grant Park Friday. [Charlene Walsh; DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]

Now that the Cubs have "won it all," bringing a goat to celebrate the Cubs championship in crowded Grant Park was "madness," Walsh said. 

"If I had a nickel for every time we got a picture taken, I probably would have paid my house off," Walsh said. 

While Walsh's goat was the only goat spotted in Grant Park Friday, another kid was spotted at Billy Goat Tavern on Michigan Avenue, too. 

 

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