It’s more of a curse than a blessing.
Sports Illustrated just released their National League and American League champion predictions, so condolences in advance to long-suffering Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros die-hards.
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Despite being one of the country’s leading sports publications since the 1950’s, some fans shiver at the thought of their favorite team or athlete being featured on the magazine’s cover.
Over the years (starting in 1954 with MLB legend Eddie Matthews), an uncanny amount of sports figures who appeared on the front of the magazine have come down with injuries, lost big games or suffered some other unfortunate misfortune.
In the realm of baseball alone, Sports Illustrated’s last five World Series picks have either missed the playoffs entirely or been kicked out in the Divisional Series.
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While the publication used to only release one national cover, the curse has transferred over to the many regional covers SI now boasts.
Here’s further proof the that some press actually is bad press.
October 24, 2011: Nelson Cruz
He helped the Texas Rangers cruise all the way to within one out of the world championship — then the curse intervened.
Nelson Cruz graced the front of SI for one of its World Series issues, but the biggest issue the right fielder had was botching a fly ball and ending up on the wrong side of baseball history.
With the St. Louis Cardinals down to their final strike of the season, David Freese hit a game-tying triple, which missed Cruz’s flailing gloves by a very short measure, to send the game to extra innings.
Freese went on to hit a walk-off home run, and the Cardinals were crowned when they won game seven a day later.
September 2008: Tom Brady
Tom Brady actually had a reason to cry over this.
The quarterback was the cover boy of the NFL season preview, in an ironic photo that showed Brady stretching, with the knee on his skin exposed.
Well, much more of his knee was exposed in week one, when he tore his ACL and MCL against the Chiefs.
They beat Kansas City, but Brady missed the entire season and the Patriots didn’t qualify for the playoffs.
October 13, 2003: Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs
Would the SI curse be a curse at all if the Red Sox and Cubs didn’t fall victim to it?
In 2003, both teams were in their respective league’s championships series.
Both also collapsed in miserable fashion.
The Red Sox were poised to reverse the curse of the Bambino, but manager Grady Little’s choice to not pull ace Pedro Martinez (whose face was on the SI cover) in the midst of a surging Yankees comeback spelled trouble in game seven.
The Bombers, down 6-1 in the eighth inning, forced extras, where Aaron Boone eventually etched his name into MLB lore with a series-winning walk-off home run.
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Meanwhile, the NLCS was a dead heat between the Cubs and Marlins.
Chicago was six outs away from making their first World Series since 1945, but then Steve Bartman, a fan in the third base stands, interfered in the eighth inning of game six.
The Marlins then erased the three-run deficit to win the game and eventually the series.
November 17, 2003: Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs were marching towards the playoffs, and home field advantage, before they got the SI cover treatment.
Starting 9-0, Kansas City was the most talked about team in the NFL.
But after quarterback Trent Green graced the front of the magazine, the team went 4-3, missed out on hosting playoffs games at Arrowhead Stadium and lost to the Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the postseason.
June 20, 1988: Michael Spinks
Seriously, maybe the editors are in on this.
Four years after the ominous Lambert headline, the magazine gave boxer Michael Spinks the cover treatment leading up to his heavyweight bout against Mike Tyson.
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The words on the cover next to Spinks? “Don’t Count Me Out.”
Anyone counting to 91 could watch the entire fight, because that’s how many seconds it took for Tyson to knock Spinks out.
July 30, 1984: Jack Lambert
Even the headline foreshadowed this curse case.
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert appeared on the cover along with the headline “The Man of Steel.”
That season, “The Man of Steel” was plagued by turf toe injury, which led him to retire in 1985.
August 7, 1978: Pete Rose
Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak is a baseball record many think will never be broken.
Sports Illustrated helped the Yankee Clipper’s mark stay safe in 1978.
That summer, Pete Rose, in the midst of a 44-game hitting streak, appeared on the magazine’s cover.
Naturally, the week it hit news stands, Rose’s streak ended.
