I’ve never been one to be superstitious. Thanks to a World Series that features perhaps the two most-talked about sports franchises involving curses in the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians, talk of superstition is at an all-time high in the sports world (not like it’s ever NOT at an all-time high). Fans and pundits alike are always quick to assume the reason for fluke plays or a team’s poor performance on the field, court or ice is a curse or the result of divine intervention. 

The fact of the matter is, those teams are just unbelievably mediocre. Take the Cubs: Since winning their last championship in 1908, the Cubs, or the “Lovable Losers” as they’re affectionately named, have made seven World Series appearances, not including this postseason. Albeit, all seven of those came between 1908 and 1945, but that isn’t the issue here. In those seven appearances, the series went to seven games only one time, in 1945.

Since that Game 7 loss in the ‘45 World Series, the Cubs made the playoffs a mere seven times over the next 70 years, the first of those seven occurring in 1984. So to put it frankly, the Cubs were just bad for a long time, and fans blamed the “Curse of the Billy Goat” as the source of the team’s woes.

There are countless teams all across the sporting world whose on-the-field performance is attributed to curses and superstitious means (don’t even get me started on the Detroit Lions), but what’s the point in blaming curses? Does it solve anything? I understand the first step in solving a problem is acknowledging there is one, but is this really the problem? Why not look to the actual problem, like the coaching staff, team management or even the players? It’s all systemic and it starts with ownership in the team. If a team doesn’t have great ownership willing to invest in quality staff to run the team, the team will probably suck.

As for those infamous plays that doom a team’s chances (see “Bill Buckner 1986 World Series” or “Steve Bartman 2003 NLCS”) it happens. Players screw up sometimes and yes, it is hard to deal with, but you need to get over it and move on. There’s no point in scrutinizing one individual player or play to try to figure out what went wrong.

As for Buckner in ‘86 and Bartman in ‘03, both of those incidents had no impact on the result of the series. In each situation, a Game 7 had still yet to be played, so the fate of those respective series wasn’t tied to those specific plays. Fans like to believe they were, but to follow that toxic line of thinking only makes the situation worse.

While it’s fun to believe in superstition, especially in sports, it’s ludicrous to think that is has any real effect on your team. I’ve found myself many times praying for some ninth-inning magic or fourth-quarter heroics, but 97 percent of the time what I pray for never happens. Ever. Sure, poor team performance is frustrating, but it is why we love sports. Besides, I think divine intervention has bigger problems to deal with than your team’s awful performance.

So unless a mystical shaman, witch doctor, death eater or Madame Zeroni from the movie “Holes” had anything to do with cursing your team, then your team is most likely not cursed: it just sucks.