CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs have won the pennant for the first time since 1945, and now they'll endeavor to win the World Series for the first time since way, way back yonder in 1908. What's behind that? Cruel randomness, serialized misfortune, and occasional lousiness. Mythos, though, would have it that something darker has prevented the Cubs from reaching the pinnacle of the sport for lo these many years.

As you're surely aware and has been amply chronicled every time the Cubs do anything of note, William "Billy Goat" Sianis, a Greek immigrant to Chicago and tavern owner of some local renown, cursed the Cubs when he and his pet goat were refused admittance to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series at Wrigley Field ...

The story goes that Sianis was so miffed by this treatment that he declared the Cubs would never again win the World Series. In one of the great causation-correlation errors in history, that has indeed been the case.

As long as we're indulging in the nonexistent and the supernatural, let's point out something -- two things, actually. On Oct. 22, 2016, the Cubs clinched their first pennant since around the time of Sianis' legendary tantrum. As for the other thing, take it away, internet ...

screen-shot-2016-10-22-at-11-38-03-pm.png

Yep, Billy Sianis, author of the curse, passed away 46 years ago Saturday night -- the night the Cubs won the pennant. And forty-six? Hills be shaken:

That's Pedro Strop's number!

People, go forth and believe what you cannot believe. Pedro Strop, 2016 World Series MVP.