The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx, The Cubs, And The Cardinals

Let me preface this, before you get all excited one way or the other, by saying that this article is just for fun, while we await tonight's game against the Tigers.

The Sports Illustrated cover jinx, whether you believe in it or not, is definitely a thing, and has been so for decades. Here are four examples of Cubs appearing on the SI cover which were followed by bad things happening to our team.

The very first Cub to appear on an SI cover was Ron Santo:

Within 10 days after that appeared, Santo had gotten bad PR by reaming out teammate Don Young in the clubhouse after Young dropped a fly ball that gave the Mets a win over the Cubs at Shea Stadium. Santo was forced to call a press conference to apologize. Later that summer, the September 8, 1969 issue featured the Reds' Pete Rose and the Cubs' Ernie Banks on a cover headlined "The Frantic National League."

That was the week the Cubs fell out of first place for the first time all year with an eight-game losing streak, never to return. Not only that, the cover jinxed the Reds, too; on the cover date the Reds swept a doubleheader from the Giants to go half a game up in the NL West -- but then lost nine of 13 to fall to fourth place. They finished third.

Then there was this 2004 cover:

Don't think I need to remind you what happened that year.

Close to the end of the 2008 season, SI featured Aramis Ramirez and the Cubs in a cover story:

The cover date of that issue was September 29, 2008. The Cubs did not win a single game in 2008 after that date, after going 97-64 to have their best regular season in 73 years.

I had been thinking about writing a tongue-in-cheek article sometime soon imploring SI to keep the Cubs off the cover this late summer and early fall. You know, because you can't be too careful. But SI beat me to the punch and has apparently done the Cubs a huge favor. Here's the current edition of SI, released today:

All I can say is: Thank you, Sports Illustrated. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

SI cover jinx, do your thing.