263. Fried Chicken Curses the World of Baseball

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Very spooky. Hello, should we start the episode with a little kitty ASMR? Sure. Leia perched herself here. She wants it. Give it to us. What if I just like left the microphone and gave her the show for the day? That would be incredible. It's just a show produced for cats where it's just cats only. Kittens inspired by kittens. I'm her mom. No, she's not. If anyone didn't know we were millennials, they will know now. It's

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very obvious now. And if you don't know what we're talking about, just YouTube kittens inspired by kittens and enjoy yourself for a quick 2 minutes. It's lovely. I uh sent my mom Do you remember the woman who it was like her match.com video or something like that? And it was the woman who was like obsessed with cats and she's talking about how sad she is that not like all the cats can't have homes and she just wants to give all of them homes and she's like by the end of the video bawling her eyes out. I don't know if I've ever I've ever seen this. Okay, I'll send that one to you. But I My mom every time I talk to her cuz she does a lot of fostering and she's where I get it from. But every time I talk to her, she's just like, "It's so upsetting. Like there's so many cats all And it like it is. I can get that." that woman. But she is that woman and Yeah. Well, and my mom goes, "I have no problem getting dates. Don't worry." I was like, "Okay." We know what we're at. We've seen your

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dating history. We see your past. We know you pull. mother's dating history. I don't need I don't need anything. Yeah. Oh my gosh. What? Do I Do I out my mom for this? I'm not going to This is your choice. I I'm not going to encourage you or dissuade you. This is No, I won't because I think some of them like I think she like met someone through like a business thing that was like, "Oh, I listen to that podcast." Or she like talks about the podcast and like they listen so Oh. I won't out my mother. All I will say, maybe you know what? I'll do it on a Patreon episode. For $5 a month, you can get some gossip on Sabrina's family and a whole lot of other things like ad-free and one week early episodes and bonus episodes. There's our plug for Patreon. Go on right in. That's hilarious. Honestly, why do I think it's safer behind a paywall? I don't know, but for my mother's sake Same. There's some sort of security with our Patreon where I feel

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like I am way more open there, too. I know. I was going to out people for something that they did recently on our campfire stories. Oh, I was like someone on our Patreon? I don't know if they're on our Patreon, but I was going to out some of our listeners cuz they You know who you are and you know what you did. They're outting you. They're outting me, but I see. I see. I'm not oblivious. Listen, if I had answers We see the inquiring minds. And I'm just sitting here sipping my tea waiting for the same things you guys are, too. Well, you know everything. Okay, here's the thing. If I had the ability to concisely say anything about anything, I would. I don't. Here's the best way to think of it. It's like there's a big stew and it's being stirred around and you haven't scooped up the helping that you want yet. Does that even make

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sense? I put the bay leaf in for a little bit of soaking and I haven't gotten to the point where you remove it and enjoy the soup. You're still in the middle of things. I'm in the thick of it, yeah. Into the thick of it. Backyardigans. What's in the news? No wife. Quoting Backyardigans. Anyhow, that was like I feel like saying everything and nothing at the same time. Which is what we just did. So, I'm going to read a quote that is on my tea bag leaf to you you. transition us away from this conversation. What is in the tea leaves today? It's an Emily Dickinson quote and it says, "How strange that nature does not knock and yet does not intrude." Why can't I understand this? How strange that nature does not knock and yet does not intrude? Oh, okay. Well, nature I guess enters our lives without knocking, but it does It's not a nuisance. It is a beautiful part of our life. I guess, yeah.

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Yeah. All right. Anyhow, this is Two Girls, One Ghost. Two Girls, One Ghost. And we are your ghostesses. That is Corinne. I am Sabrina. I'm wearing my new sweatshirt that my sister gave me that says godmother and then it has Noemi's name on the sleeve embroidered. god, so cute. Wait, I had a dream about you and Noemi last night. Wait, I had dreams about you last night. Were we together? Where were we? What time of day it was at? I think you were mean to me. Oh, sorry. Wait, oh my gosh, I'm so mad at myself. I literally I think So, I when my alarm first went off this morning, I woke up from a one of those dreams and I was like, "Oh, like I should write this down right now so I don't forget." But then I was so tired. I was like, "I'm going to sleep." Like I woke up at like 5:00 and my alarm was for like 5:30. I was like, "I'm going to sleep my extra 30 minutes." So, I forget. What was your dream? So Wait, so you don't know if I was mean to you or not? I feel like we were doing something interesting and exciting. It was definitely a

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notable dream about you that I was like, "Oh, I should definitely talk about this when we record." And now it's forgotten. Now it's gone. Well, so in my dream, we were kind of a little bit on an adventure, too. I don't know where we were, but it was dark, it was rainy, and we were driving in this black Escalade except we weren't the drivers, we were the passengers. And you got out and you had to do something and I was like I feel like I was along for the ride and I didn't actually know really what we were doing. Like you were very much leading the path and I was just kind of like going with the flow. Mhm. You were babysitting Noemi. And in the car as the car was just like sitting there, you put her kind of like it's hard to describe, but the Escalade had these cup holders that would like fit a baby. And you put Noemi in them and I was like, "I don't think Sabrina will be that mad if I like take her out and just hold her in the car while the car is parked." And so I just kind of laid her down on my legs with my legs together and she was like looking up at me and I

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was just like, "Hi, Noemi. Hi, Noemi." And then you came back and you opened the car door and she looks over and you couldn't hear her yet cuz you were like very distracted and still talking and she was like, "Mama. Mama." And I had this panic where I was like, "Do I tell Sabrina that Noemi called her mama? Would this upset her sister to know that Noemi called her mama?" And it was like this thing where I was like she said something. What if it's her first word? Like What do I do? And that was my dream. Wow, I'm curious now if she's going to say mama cuz she hasn't really said any word full words yet. Mhm. She squeals, which is really cute, but Oh. I wonder if she'll say mama when we're FaceTiming and I I'm going to tell my sister that she thinks I'm her mom. Cuz I had a dream about it and I'm a witch, so. And you are. I was trying to think like what witchy thing I should do start doing. Well, you've already been doing tarot. I've been doing my tarot in the mornings. in in oracle deck. Specifically. I need to go on more walks to the ocean.

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It's been raining a lot though, so that's in the way. One interesting fact for you that I learned through my friend Allison who lives in Marblehead Mhm. is that hundred some years ago, there was this it was an asylum and it was for women who were, you know, having some issues were quote unquote like hysterical or whatever and they would be sent away. Sorry, there's so much construction and it's going to be loud in the background. But they were sent away to this asylum in Marblehead and it was kind of like the treatment was just being by the seaside and getting to read all day and do pottery and walk along the ocean and it sounds like the best retreat ever, but it was like basically medically what they were sent to do. They would create this pottery. It's Marblehead Pottery and it's actually pottery created by all of these women who were at this like institution a hundred some years ago. And now you can find pieces. They're like I think minimum $400 online. You

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can find some of them. But there is some that has been like broken up and is in the sea and they wash up still on the beaches in Marblehead. It's a very beautiful thing. That's so beautiful. Yeah. Maybe you should start pottery. I was going to say maybe I should become hysterical and travel through time. Wait, there's Oh my gosh. I can't remember the exact quote, but there's this woman that I follow on TikTok. Her name is like Peaches PCR or something like that. She's a singer from Australia and she's very hilarious. And she's also part of her personality is like being very heavily medicated. She's got a lot going on and she speaks very openly about it. But she was talking about how someone had like another hallucination about her being in a place that she wasn't in. But it took her a while to understand that like she had never actually met this person and it wasn't a true story about her cuz she was like, "Here's the thing. I've been in the psych ward and who's to say a girl can't be a little psychotic when she's in the psych ward? And she was just talking

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about how like she's let herself really feel whatever she wants in there sometimes. You know what? If you are in a place where you are dealing with the hard stuff, whether it's a psych ward or trauma treatment or whatever, it gets worse before it gets better is all I'll say. This is a horrible transition uh from that conversation into the episode

Lacrosse memories

today, but we're not going to be talking about any of what we previously talked about. Well, we'll talk about madness in a different way. There's a madness in the paranormal. Yeah, and also in a fanaticism of a type of thing which you're going to start talking about. That is so true. And who better to talk about this topic than me? Because we're talking about sports, and everyone knows I'm a huge sports girl. I understand all the rules. I know more than five players' names. What's your favorite sport? To an actual legit answer, I do really enjoy watching hockey. I get very into

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it. Mhm. Every time someone fights, I scream, "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" They never do. It will happen one day, though. I love watching hockey, but I can't name a single player. That's okay. We also this is a great opportunity to bring up our lacrosse years. Yeah, we were lax girls. We lax girls. We played lacrosse together at LMU. Uh-huh. And I feel like we were pretty good. Well, here's the thing. Lacrosse is huge in the Northeast. And so when we went to Southern California and just played club lacrosse, we had the advantage of It was like putting someone who was in middle school with someone who was playing in college a lot of the time. Yeah. Because club anyone can join, right? Like you don't have to have played ever before. And also our training was a lot more intense than any of the people who'd played on the West Coast and grew up playing in middle school and high school. break we would go to Florida and play for the full spring break.

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Yeah. for the season. Yeah. I played year-round and on my like year-round club team in high school, our coach would sign us up for college tournaments to make us better. We would mostly lose, Right. so much better. But I think one of the interesting facts my dad loves to talk about this, he like brags about it. I'm like, "Dad, I don't think it it's that much of a brag." But you and I, if you actually look at the years that we played lacrosse in the like division we were in, we were like in the top 10 players on the whole West Coast. Did you know that? known that fact. I didn't know that either. My dad I think googles our names. In club Wow, look at us. Yeah, we were good, guys. We actually were pretty good. I'll toot my own horn for us or our own horns. I actually miss lacrosse. I would love to just go lax it up. Me, too. Do you want to play lacrosse when you're out here? You and I just in the backyard. Bring your stick next time you come. Yeah, let's just play catch.

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Okay. Let's just throw the ball around. Okay. I probably have two sticks at my parents' house. I can bring my stick. I still have my stick. All right. I probably still have my mouth guard somewhere. All right, but we're not talking about lacrosse, but we are talking about sports because there was a lot of talk this year during the Super Bowl that happened just a few weeks prior about

Taylor Swift effect

Taylor Swift. And I know there's two camps where some people are very frustrated that Taylor Swift has gotten some extra limelight and has taken over taken over, quote unquote, was shown for like 30 seconds per game on the screen. And then there's other people that are like, "Oh my god, she's bringing in so much more money, so many more fans. How great is this?" All of these young teenage girls are like bonding with their dads watching the game together. How magical. And so really Taylor Swift has been talked about as being a good luck charm for the Kansas City Chiefs because she's dating Travis Kelce, who

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plays on the Kansas City Chiefs. I feel like I have to explain this even though I don't because I think the majority of the world Of people know that. everything about Taylor Swift, but just in case people don't and people don't know who Travis Kelce is. Travis Kelce is Taylor Swift's boyfriend. So And we also have international listeners who potentially don't follow football, so. Right. Okay, so yeah, this footballer who is a big name on the team dates international pop country superstar Taylor Swift, and they're the team is doing fantastic. And in fact, they go on and they win the Super Bowl. So everyone's like, "Wow, Taylor Swift and all of her friendship bracelets really are the best luck ever." Although they did win last year, too. We're going to pretend they didn't. Okay. to pretend only Taylor Swift is the reason for all of this, perhaps Blake Lively or Ice Spice. Are you trying to tell us that we need to date Taylor Swift to become successful? Because if that's the case, fine, sign me up. Yeah. Although I feel like the people that she dates, they're great. I think

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she dates people like either before their peak or at their peak. And then after the breakup, I feel like what are those people doing? Well, I guess Joe Jonas is successful. And Taylor Lautner. Everyone loves Taylor. Yeah. Never mind. I'm not even a Swiftie. I know very minimal facts. I can't argue about anything. I think that's a good point to say is that neither of us are Swifties, but we love Taylor Swift and respect her. So like I think she's a brilliant businesswoman. Incredible businesswoman, yeah. I agree. Yeah. And I'll consume her music, but I'm not a Swiftie. Yeah, don't ask me about any of the lore cuz I know absolutely nothing, nor am I interested enough to look it up, but I do appreciate every time I see interviews of her interacting with people how kind she is and whatnot. Anyhow, I was thinking about the luck side of the conversation, and then it got me thinking about the curses involved in sporting teams, especially because there was some gossip online about Ice Spice being up in the box, and people were like she's throwing up satanic hand

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symbols and trying to throw the game. Oh my gosh. I don't know anything about sports or any of that, so we're going to cruise past that, but I was like, "Oh, that is interesting thinking about individuals trying to curse games or just the curses that exist and the superstitions that exist within sports." There's so many superstitions. I always think of What's that Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence something playbook? And how like that whole family has all their superstitions. Like the remote has to be in the exact spot. Everyone has to sit in their seat. Like all those little things. Well, Breonna, one of my best friends and my roommate for almost all of college and after college, she was extremely superstitious. I think about her almost every day because if I'm walking outside, there's inevitably like a stop sign or like something like a pole that will divide me and another person I'm walking with. Not allowed if you're with Breonna. Breonna would stand side of the pole. Oh, interesting. Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of things like that. Well, in

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looking into some of the sports curses, I did also see an email in our inbox

Chicago billy goat

from our listener Rebecca Solomon, and she had written basically just like a synopsis of Chicago's Curse of the Billy Goat. So I'm going to talk about a few different curses, I guess three sports curses and superstitions total, but I want to start with Rebecca's email because I feel like Rebecca wrote it perfectly. Rebecca, thanks for doing our work for us. Yeah, you did the first part of my research for me. Part of me was like, "Should I like do my own research and reword this?" And then I was like, "She nailed it." So why fix what's not broken? Exactly. Yeah. Thank you, Rebecca. Unless you say you don't want us to read your email in your email, we'll read it verbatim. Yes, we will. And here we go. Rebecca says, "Before Chicago was the big bustling city it is today, it was once a growing town filled with cottage-style homes, wooden buildings, and early industrial shops all along cramped streets. The

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wooden buildings were erected in close proximity, filled with people who lived and worked in the growing community looking to raise their families where jobs and food were plentiful and easy to access. In 1871, the city was thriving and the community was full of hardworking people who were infiltrating the once empty farming town with new life. The city setup led to one of the worst disasters in Chicago history, the Great Chicago Fire. Legend has it that a farmer was working late in his barn when his cow, Bessie, around 8:30 p.m. on October 8th, 1871, knocked over a lantern and caught the neighbor's shed on fire. The city had been dry from a drought that summer, and the wood and the hay provided a perfect kindling for the fire to spread quickly. Bessie. And it did spread. It spread to other structures. The blaze roared for 2 days consuming 3.3 square miles in central Chicago and the North Side. And by the time the fire was extinguished, 300 people had lost their lives and 17,500

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buildings had burned to the ground. Was Bessie okay? I'm going to guess not. Sorry, Bessie. In the next 5 years, the remaining residents had rebuilt, returned to work, and the city had a new life. The Chicago White Stockings were gracing the field of the local ballpark, and fans came out to enjoy their games and relax. In 1876, the White Stockings would win the National League Championship. And they won 10 more championship titles before a new Chicago baseball team came on the scene. In 1903, the Chicago Cubs were born, and fans delighted to have a new team in town. America's game, baseball, was bringing families together, and fans flocked to the stadium to see them play. A local tavern owner was finding success with the fans flooding into his establishment before and after the games. William Sianis ran the Billy Goat Tavern near the Cub stadium and he reveled in the Cub's success. October 6th, 1945, the Cubs hosted game four of the World Series against the

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Detroit Tigers and William, nicknamed Billygoat, Sianis decided to bring his goat named Murphy. Wait. Okay, I'm so interested in the name of his bar because Billy is a nickname for William. Did he get a goat after naming this bar? Yeah, did the people call was Billygoat like his nickname as a child? How did this come about? Like the greatest of all time William and then Billygoat and then he was like, well, I'm going to open a bar Billygoat and I'm going to get a goat. Like how people would call someone like the kid. Yeah. Which is a baby. Billygoat. Interesting. I don't know. But Murphy is brought along to the game to bring the Cubs good luck. All right, Murphy. probably also felt that by having the goat by his side, it would bring attention to the Billygoat Tavern. Smart marketing. When the usher taking tickets saw the goat, he refused to let Murphy in. Sianis appealed the Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley to let Murphy into the stadium

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and Wrigley agreed that Sianis could come in but not the goat. So, when William Sianis asked why his goat was not allowed, Wrigley replied, because the goat stinks. William Billygoat Sianis was angered and he replied, the Cubs ain't going to win no more World Series so long as the goat is not allowed in Wrigley Field. And from that day on, the Cubs were cursed. Oh my god, I love this so much. It's so good. All over a goat. All over a goat. They lost game four that day and they went on to be known as the lovable losers. At least they're lovable. William was quoted as saying, who stinks now? So much sass. This is gold. As the losing streak continued, the Chicago Cubs were officially a franchise with the curse of the Billygoat keeping them from winning for 71

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years. Several attempts were planned to remove the curse but none were successful. The Chicago Cubs wouldn't win a World Series until September 2016 and during the series playoffs, fans wore t-shirts saying, I ain't afraid of no goat. A nod to the famous Cubs fan, Bill Murray, who starred as one of the original Ghostbusters. Of course, the streets of Chicago erupted with fans partying for days after the 2016 World Series win and the break from the Billygoat curse. And then she wrote, I hope you enjoyed this little bit of Chicago lore and the goat curse passed on by a Chicago Cubs phantom. So, thank you Rebecca. Bill Murray is a a big baseball he invests in like the Saints in Minnesota. Oh. There's a whole documentary about Mike Veeck who's like known for creating all like the fun games and stuff that occur at baseball games now. I love that. Okay, well, safe to say Rebecca had me very intrigued with this

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and so I was like, I love curses now that involve animals and oddities and so the next two are going to be within that category. Hell yeah, I'm so excited. Yeah, we're talking odd curses here.

Argentinian cat curse

This is fun. Okay. Next up, the curse of the seven cats. It's a legend for sure because people do argue that with this story, it changes a little bit every single time it's published or re-said, re-told. So, the details are blurry but regardless there's a curse of the seven black cats and I also find it interesting that so many people are like, this it can't be true, this is a legend cuz I'm like, since when did sports fans ever forget a single detail about anything? I feel like they memorize Right. Maybe maybe it's legend, maybe it's lore. Sure. It also could just be passed down through people and just as with most stories, they do change as they're told.

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True. Well, whether it's completely factual or it's been embellished over time there were seven cats said to be haunting the world of soccer. Oh. Football. We're going football and we're going to South America. I was a soccer girl, too. My dad always loves to tell me that he's disappointed that I didn't play soccer in college and I was like, I wasn't that good. Maybe if you went to the West Coast you would Well, actually I feel like the West Coast is Well, I don't know. I feel like soccer's huge everywhere. Yeah. I mean, I was I loved soccer but I liked doing the school plays more. She was a theater kid at heart. Yeah. Look at me now, Dad. All right, so we're going to South America for this legend. Okay. And we're going to Argentina. In in Argentina, they live and they breathe soccer. Their soccer team is ranked number one and when they play, the world tunes in. I certainly remember multiple times when Argentina would be

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playing in the World Cup and people would take off like take sick days and just do whatever they could to actually That's what the Sabrina, did your door just open on its own? Yes. Do we have an Argentinian soccer fan in the house? Hello. What the Duh, has that ever happened? I mean, to be honest, this door is like this is a my bathroom door and like this thing sometimes gets stuck in and you have to like finagle it to get it out. Okay. Yeah, see like even closing it right now. Oh, there we go. If there's a ghost here, open the door again and we'll say hello and pause and try to communicate. We'll try to talk to you. All right, so Argentina, they have an amazing soccer team. They pretty much it feels like they always have but it wasn't always the case because the legend and the curse pertains to one of their most popular soccer clubs, Racing Club de Avellaneda. Okay. Early in the

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20th century, these guys, they were on fire. This team was sick. And the team was nicknamed La Academia just for how excellent and superior they were. So, like people literally called them the academy cuz they were like superior, the best of the best. They won the first division title 18 times. Seven of them were consecutive and five of which were completely undefeated. So, they just beat everybody. That's crazy. Consistently. But their winnings didn't last forever because for the next few decades, La Academia slipped back to just being the Racing Club struggling to win like they once had. But then it happened. In 1996, they blew other teams out of the water and then in 1967, more victory in the Intercontinental Cup. But not everyone was happy for the Racing Club. They had their moments but then other teams came to shine and some of those fans were upset. And some of those fans were of a rival club Club

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Atlético Independiente and they were livid. Despite both teams being from the same area. So, they were like literally basically from the same city or town or region. For sure. They did not like that the Racing Club was winning over their team, Club Atlético Independiente. That's the worst part about sports is that someone's always upset. Exactly. And so it's also wild to think that like this area I know I'm butchering all of these Spanish words by the way, so I'm so sorry. Avellaneda that it just like splits in two with this extreme rivalry. It seems a bit ludicrous but they were they were pissed. Two things that I know nothing about like music and sports, so I will shut up now. I mean, I feel like you're within the same music genre of where we first started which was the Super Bowl 2024 when we got to see the best of the best

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of 2004. Great. You're right. So, you're there with Luda. Thank you. So, what do people do when they wish others worse luck? They curse them. Of course. And so legend says a small group of Club Atlético Independiente fans went and met with a local witch and this local witch advised them to bring seven dead black cats into the Racing stadium to curse that soccer team. Oh, that makes me really sad. I know. I hope the cats were already dead. Me, too. So, they were like, okay, easy enough. And they go to the stadium. The night watchman who worked there was not even a Racing fan. He was an Independiente fan and so he was like, oh yeah, I'll let you in to try to like curse this team. Screw my employer, I don't care. I care more about my soccer team. So, the watchman allowed the group to pass and he even suggested that they bury the seventh dead cat somewhere else away from the other cluster of six dead cats

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to make the curse harder to lift and they were like, great idea. And that's exactly what they did. They buried seven dead cats under the stadium entrance and some say it was under the goals, other people say it was under the stadium entrance but regardless, the seventh was not buried with the rest of them and over the next couple decades, the Racing Club seemed to have a string of bad luck. And it's like, is this because of the curse? I don't know. They've had moments and blips in time where they haven't been so great as well, so like kind of a toss-up but this was the very first year after the cats were buried and so everyone was like, no, this is the curse. We're extremely superstitious now, this definitely is not the fault of the soccer players. So, Independiente, the team whose fans buried these cats, that team beat Racing Club 4-0 in the last game of the season, which led them to win the Primera Division title. My

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question is, like, how do people know about the the buried cats? How do they know that there was a curse put upon them? I'm sure people brag about it, right? It feels like something Ow. Is it time for the REM pod? I really want to think it's just, like, the air. Yeah. It's interesting though, cuz, you know, we have had past year of you sitting in front of that door recording episodes. That hasn't happened. What's the the name of the spirit that sometimes hangs out there? Um was it Hank? Harold? I can't remember. It was an H name. Should I grab the spirit box real quick? Yeah, let's just see. Let's take a moment. Okay. We'll test it out. I heard you. That was to the spirit. Please hold. Okay. We have our equipment. I'm going to do I'll put the REM pod out. I have little Sven with me for support.

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Are there any spirits here that opened the door? It sounded like something, did I thought it said Harold. Harold, are you here with us? I really can't hear it. Ask what their name is. What's your name? It sounds like a bunch of different voices, to be honest. All right. Just keep the door open a crack, and then if it starts to actually, like, slowly open, then you run out screaming. Well, I don't feel bad vibes right now,

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but I'll also leave the REM pod on if you would like. All right. Uh all the spirits in Sabrina's place, buckle up, cuz this story is about to continue. It is interesting that both times the door opened, it was during this story specifically. Yeah, soccer fan in the house. Yeah. So, Racing, this team, Racing Club, they went from winning to losing. Mhm. And in 1980, the coach was like, I've had enough. Whether this is a dumb superstition or not, we need to dig up these freaking black cats, because it does feel like we're being cursed. And if this helps, then great, this helps. Why not? And so, yeah, totally. That's what they did. And during the removal, they only found six cats, because the seventh cat was put somewhere else, and they had no idea where it was. Mhm. So, knowing that the seventh cat was somewhere in the stadium, the club decided to try to reverse the curse in

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other ways. They buried frogs on the field in a sort of cleansing and rebirth ritual, but that didn't work. And then, in 1983, Racing was relegated after yet another loss. And this is the first time in history that this soccer team was demoted out of their division. Wow. Very like Ted Lasso. Yeah, it feels like such a blow. Yeah. Eventually, the team did declare for bankruptcy in 1999. Sad. So, the bad luck was just, like, across the board with this team. And you may wonder, was there even a seventh black cat, or was the cruelest part of all of this that there were actually only six cats, and the bad luck was self-inflicted? Is that a theory? No, but that was my question, cuz it's like, you go so long. Like, what if what if there just wasn't one? You know, it's like the senior prank when everyone brings, like, pigs into the they label them, like, 1 2 3 4 6. Right. So, my head's thinking that there's another one, yeah, that you didn't get. Right. Mhm. Apparently,

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there was a seventh cat. So, Okay. they were being truthful in what happened to create this curse. But, the process of lifting the black cat's jinx was far from easy. A procession took place where 15,000 fans, led by the Virgin of Luján, walked from the Plaza de Mayo Cathedral to the Presidente Perón Stadium. Apologies for butchering all these words. And Father Jorge de la Barca, he threw holy water onto the pitch. And it appeared that he was basically exorcising this stadium. Mhm. And like, people call it an exorcism. But, the Racing Club's president was like, "No, no, no, this is not an exorcism. This is an act of faith." Okay, sure. Call it what you want. I think there was a bit of an exorcism in the stadium. It's a cleansing. An exorcism isn't always, like, a to remove possessions necessarily. It's to cleanse, yeah. Well, there was some evil in that stadium and some bad luck, they thought. So, perhaps, you know, we don't

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know. This event with the priest, I think, was a very big event, because I did read that there was, like, a comedian, and then there was a concert after, like, it was a big it was a big thing. You know what? There's no better way to cover up an exorcism than, like, throw a comedy show right after. Right? Yeah, cut the tension. Forget everything you guys saw here. This was just an act of faith. What do you mean? This was just us putting water on the ground. You saw nothing else. Now laugh, you fools. So, the the Racing Club president, he was adamant that this was nothing more than just them trying to bring some good energy into the stadium. But, it didn't really work, at least not right away. During the 2001 stadium redevelopment, legend has it that they did finally unearth the seventh skeleton of the cursed black cats. It was found, and it was removed. And they also, the same year, hired a coach who was very superstitious, a new coach for the team.

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And he would often do these rituals for good luck, and sometimes he would also do things to, like, jinx and hex other teams. So, it was like he should have just only been doing the good. Anyhow. You got to do what you got to do, but As long as no one's getting hurt. Hopefully, that's fine. I know. So, people were asking, like, were these seven black cats bad luck? And it's not really certain, but what we can say is that once the seventh was uncovered, it was in that very year that the Racing Club was crowned champion of Argentine football after 35 years of losing. So, who knows? Interesting. Who knows? They also got a new coach, you know, like, there's different things that happened, there's different players. But, that was a 35-year drought. It is just the timing is very fascinating. It is one of those things where it's like, you kind of brought this up, but like, when you feel like there's, or if you've been told that there's a curse on you, do you subconsciously start to, like,

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curse yourself, because you fully believe it? It's like the placebo effect. Right. And there are people who, like, will say, like, a curse was passed on through family line, and this is what happens to every single person, and it's like, how much of that is real, and how much of that is just psychologically created? We'll never know. It's hard too, because, especially when it's such a big group of people, like, sports fans, you can't necessarily just try to get to the bottom of the psyche of one individual person and them feeling cursed. It's an entire group, and so it kind of creates this group delusion or mania or or belief, like, whatever you consider it to be. I don't know. But, the last curse I'm

Colonel Sanders curse

going to tell you about is what I would consider the oddest of them all. This is the curse of Colonel Sanders. The Kentucky Fried Chicken guy. And this has to do with sports? Yep. Yeah, it has to do with baseball in

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Japan. What? So, in 1985, a Japanese Kansai-based baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, believed that they were cursed by the ghost of the KFC founder, Colonel Sanders. In I'm I'm so intrigued. In 1985, the Hanshin Tigers won the Central League pennant, which they hadn't won in 21 years. And to celebrate, fans who looked like the players, like, basically the players' doppelgangers, the team members' doppelgangers, they all went down to Osaka's Dotonbori River to celebrate. And basically, what they would do to celebrate is, like, this whole group of people down at the river would call out each individual person's name, a baseball player's name, and their doppelganger, or someone who resembled them enough, would jump into the river. So, they were like, all being represented by someone jumping into the river until they had an entire team. But, there was one player that they really struggled to find someone to

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resemble, and that was Randy Bass, who was a white American on this Japanese baseball team. Randy was their star slugger, and he had done some great work to basically get them where they were. And so, they were like, Well, we He slugs so good. He's slugging slugging all day long. And so, they're like, "Well, we have to include Randy in the celebration." Of course. But, when it came to calling out Randy, like, they look around, and there's no one that looks like him. And so, someone has an idea, and they run to a nearby KFC, and there was a Colonel Sanders statue outside, and they took the statue of Colonel Sanders, they ran to the river, and when Randy's name was called they threw the white person or statue, Colonel Sanders, into the river dressed in a tiger's uniform. I love this so much because one, it feels like you know that this is your tradition. You know that you do this. You would think that they do the

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work beforehand to figure out who the doppelganger is for each player. So the fact that they did they might have it's a little blurry about like when Colonel Sanders was plucked. Plucked. But then the effort it takes to one, steal a statue, Mhm. carry it to the river, dress it in a uniform, and then toss it over. And I I'm just going to go out on a whim here and say they probably didn't really look that similar. No, they didn't. But I mean, Colonel Sanders is a very clear, very unique looking man. He is. I guess he just seemed they just needed someone who was white. You know, they they were trying to be creative. Got to give them that. So at first, the celebration didn't seem to have any effect on the team, and the Tigers were playing better than ever, and they went on to win the Japan Series. But every year after that, the team struggled to get many wins at all, finding themselves consistently at the bottom of the standings. And it's here

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that the urban legend of being cursed by Colonel Sanders' ghost was born because fans soon associated the drowned statue with their losing streak. Mhm. And so it was said that the Hanshin Tigers would not win another championship until the statue was recovered because they pissed off Colonel Sanders, and they had to make right by his ghost. So basically it's still in the water, and they had to get it out. Yep. Okay. KFC owners all over were moving their Colonel Sanders statues inside, and they were also bolting them to the ground because they were fearful of their property just being stolen. And then the bad luck for the Tigers just wasn't subject either. There were freak injuries, there were bad drafts, there were even Oh. Oh, this is so sad. There was in one of the river celebrations where they all went and jumped in, there was a fan who drowned. And it wasn't very clear like how they drowned, but it was thought that they got, you know, kind of hit and maybe knocked unconscious by someone else in the water, which is just horrible.

42:00

That's really sad. Horrible. Yeah. Jeez. So there was just so many horrible, horrible things happening surrounding this team. And there were several attempts to retrieve the statue over the years, but all of those attempts failed, and the curse of the Colonel grew. Eventually in 2009, the Colonel was saved from the river, and he was brought to a nearby shrine where they cleaned the statue, and they also had this ceremonial cleansing of Colonel Sanders, and the fried chicken curse they thought might be broken. But it wasn't. It wasn't broken until 2023 when the Tigers won game seven of the 2023 Japan Series, which was their first NPB championship since 1985. And once again, the fans wanted to celebrate, and they ran to the river, and Colonel Sanders once again found himself in the river. No. Only this time You guys. it wasn't a statue. It was someone cosplaying as the

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chicken king. Thank goodness. I got so nervous. Yeah, I mean, granted it's only been one year, and like baseball season hasn't really started, right? Or I guess maybe preseason's started. But seemingly, it's okay. So but how did it get broken in 2023? Cuz that's a really long time. Here's the thing, they just won. Like they just were better. Yeah, okay. It There's no like association with like, yeah, as soon as he rose from the river, they started winning again. It was many years later, but it's still you know, they still associate it as like this is the curse that it was finally lifted, and then the team got to finally be better. So to wrap this up, what have we learned? In the realm of sports, curses often weave themselves into the fabric of teams and franchises, haunting them with inexplicable misfortunes and dashed hopes. So are these curses real, or are they a welcomed excuse for poorly performing teams?

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That sounds so mean of me to write. Like, do they just suck? Are they trying their best, but they're not enough? So rude. We have a lot of things to back up our belief of this, but we were like, did someone curse us? Because we were having so many issues. We now know it's because we're haunted. But for a while we were like, is all of this that we're dealing with a curse? That's true. And it wasn't just we were kind of saying it on the podcast like, "Oh my god, we've been cursed." Like people could maybe take it as a joke, but behind the scenes you and I were very much like, "What happened?" We truly feel like something was like we had an extra invisible obstacle that wasn't there before. I agree. Sometimes I still think it, you know? Yeah, same. We blame things on the ghost and on the curse. Just like these Wait, see, we are big sports gals. We're just like sports. Did you say we're just like sports? Yeah.

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Oh my gosh. JLS, just like sports. Well, for those who suffered at the hands of Chicago's Billy Goat and the black cats of Argentina, and Colonel Sanders in Japan, I'm going to guess that they're going to say this isn't made up. This isn't just a bad year for our teams. These curses are real cuz they feel very, very real. And I think the only thing we can say with certainty from our experience with the podcast is that when there are so many energies in one place, and some of them wishing for luck and fortune, and some of them wishing harm, another team is bound to fall victim of some sort of curse, some sort of manifested energy soon enough. Which team it will be, who will suffer, we will have to wait and see. Hopefully it's not us anymore. Well, we're not sports. I don't know. I've worked up a sweat a couple times while recording this

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podcast. We own lacrosse sticks, so we are sports. I'm wearing a Yankees jacket, so I am sports. No, I do really think this is fascinating, and and these are like such fun, odd curses, but there's also so many like it is interesting to me because William the Billy Goat bar owner, for example, he kind of out loud said the sentiment of as long as my goat can't enter your stadium, like you're going to lose, whatever. That's like a sentiment that he yes, he meant it, and he was angry, but I wouldn't and and I don't know him, but maybe I don't think he's like a practicing curser. I don't think he curses people all the time. Is that just like a he specifically has a ton of power? Because I think about how many viewers there are, and how many fans there are I'll go back to football. Most sports though, like sitting on their couch or even at the stadium watching a game, the people who are like, "I curse the other team. I want

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them to lose." Why do those not make as much of an impact? Right. I don't know. Well, who knows the popularity with like William the Billy Goat? He had so many people going to his tavern, so I wonder if it was more of something where like he openly talked about it after like, "Oh, they wouldn't let my goat in. I said they won't win this." Like, you know, had a lot of attitude and was sharing his opinions, and maybe that sort of swirl did manifested, and more and more people thought about it, more and more people have that nervousness, and are projecting that energy onto their team who they're in the stadium. Like they're in the seats watching play. Right. Like you do respond to the energy around you. Like we felt even on tour. There were certain venues, you know, certain groups were like you're more serious or you're more silly like based on kind of the energy that you're picking up around you. I guess it's just to me then it means that there are so many curses put onto sports teams that are like constantly being combatted by like love and the support of the fans

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of that team and vice versa, back and forth, that we will literally never know about, but they exist. It's a balance. It's just sometimes that balance becomes unequal, and maybe curses are created. I promise I only curse people if they do wrong, and if they're mean to my friends and family. So I have two

Super Bowl miracle

shorter stories. Basically, I picked one that's sports, and one that's a curse. Perfect. The best of both worlds. Why did I say that? Sports are the best of both worlds. My two loves coming together. This is when you like reveal to people that you've like low-key even like wanting to start a sports podcast. I'm actually semi-pro professional athlete on the side. That's my real gig. This is just for fun, guys. All that talk about your like watermelon like crushing thighs, or thigh crusher, that you actually are the thigh crusher. Like that is your side gig. I'm almost Olympic level shot put.

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Shot putter? What do you even call them? I was picturing I don't know that the name, but like WWE. Oh. Like the wrestling? Yeah. If I had to do the wrestling, I would want to do the libre What are they called? Like libre noches or whatever. know what you're talking about. Yeah, with the masks. I That's not the right word. But where they wear the masks, and they like have a whole thing in the ring, and go wear a cape if you want. I support you. You do you. Okay, so this is from our listener Anna, and it is called ghost turned off Super Bowl lights. Howdy Karolina and Sabrina. Thank you for having such an amazing podcast. I had no idea there were people out there just as fascinated with paranormal activity as I am. Long story short, my mother and I have a sixth sense, which is a blessing and a curse sometimes, but I consider myself blessed because my sixth sense has helped me through difficult time of grief. I have

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so many stories I can tell you, but the one I want to share with you took place my freshman year of high school and is one that I pray can give comfort to those who may need it. February 3rd, 2013 was a 49ers versus Ravens Super Bowl game. My cousin Sergio was a huge 9ers fan and had hopes of going to a Super Bowl game where his beloved 9ers were competing in one day. My family is sports oriented, so we were going to throw a huge Super Bowl party because Sergio's 9ers made it to the Super Bowl. It was 11:27 p.m. on February 2nd, 2013, which is the night before the game, when suddenly I was awoken by the voice of my cousin Charlie telling me, "Nana, wake up. Wake up. Wake up." But here's the thing, my cousin Charlie lived hundreds of miles away. His voice What? could not be in my room in San Antonio, Texas. I opened my eyes, sure enough, no one was there. But as soon as I lay my head back down, I heard my dad's phone ring from across

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the room. The phone rang. My dad picked it up and immediately began to sob. No. No. I ran to my parents' room and I looked at their faces and it was sadness and heartbreak. I knew the news that I was about to get was horrible. I hate that the first thing I asked was, "Who died?" Because I definitely wasn't ready to be told that my cousin Sergio, Charlie, and my uncle Ephraim were murdered in the family store just 20 minutes before the call. I was speechless. god, my entire body just covered with chills. That is horrific. I was speechless because I realized then that it was Charlie waking me up after he died. Going back to bed that night was really hard. Yet, this was the first time I had experienced sleep paralysis. The following morning while trying to make lunch, I broke down in tears and prayed out loudly next to my mother. "Sergio, your 9ers made it to the bowl. Go see your 9ers play in the Super Bowl and do something at the game to let me know you are all just fine. Make a crazy play happen. Force a Raven field goal to

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not make it or I don't know, turn off the stadium lights." Do you guys remember what happened during the 9er and Ravens Super Bowl game? The stadium lights turned off causing a blackout. Oh my god. Okay, cuz if it were any of the other two, I'd be like, well, you know, it's a game, it could happen, but the stadium lights going out? That's Yeah. undoubtedly. Her mom was also right next to her, okay. As soon as I saw this on live TV, my mother and I turned to look at each other and she and I start sobbing uncontrollably. Wow. But I felt in that moment that my grief was healed, knowing that what I prayed for was answered and knowing that my boys were okay gave me comfort. Right after the funerals, the family gathered at my sister's house and my cousins were messing around with the iPads and making stupid videos. And when they replayed their videos, they swore they saw our uncle standing behind my aunt, his wife, looking at the family. We went frame by frame and you can faintly see my uncle's glasses in silhouette behind her.

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The family was brought to tears and rejoiced knowing my uncle was looking out for us. I firmly believe my cousin Charlie is my guardian angel because it is his voice I hear when I need it the most. From problem solving to words of encouragement or even warnings. More often than not, I always find the combination of letters S E C, Sergio, Ephraim, Charlie everywhere. Keep up the great work. M. Wow. What a terrible, terrible thing to happen to so many people that you love all at the same time. I can't even imagine the horror of facing that, but to have his voice with you so often and to have his voice with you immediately after his passing and all of those signs that like, yes, they're they're together, they're watching the game they wanted to watch. I think that that is really beautiful and that does feel a bit comforting Yeah. especially given that it was so soon after what happened to them. So horrific, too.

54:00

Like Yeah. Cuz when I first read it, the like Nana, wake up. Nana, wake up. I don't know if that was her nickname, when I first read that, I thought it was like mother or, you know, grandma or something like that, wake up. That she was like overhearing and I was like, oh, is it going to be the grandmother who passed away, but it was I think it was Charlie trying to wake her up, like calling her. Like if Anna, but Nana. Right. My gosh. But the stadium lights Did you read the book if I stay? No, but I think is there a movie? Did I see that movie? I think they did make it into a movie, yeah. Yeah, but it I think it's like a YA novel, if I stay. Okay. But it's basically like about a girl whose family gets in a car accident, her whole family or Mhm. some of her family passes and then she's just kind of like wandering in the astral plane trying to decide if she stays Oh. or if she moves on with the family members who also passed. Mhm. It's Oh god, I cried so much in that book. But it does make me think a little bit of of this situation, too, that he

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was like running to her a bit right after it happened for help or just to alert her of it happening and kind of like being in this in between. But yeah, the stadium lights is there's so much power and energy Literally. Yeah. Wild. he wanted to give his family a sign. He found a way to do it.

Magician paranormal attack

Okay, I have another one. This is from our listener Kate. It's called encounter story, dead magicians tried to curse me. I guess this is. Hi, love your podcast. I listen to it all day while I work. I usually work alone doing molecular testing all day. So, when I listen to you two ghouls, I feel like I'm just hanging out with my friends. Also, my lab is haunted and the ghost, I call him ghosty, loves the podcast, too. So, anyway, I've always been sensitive to the other side and I occasionally saw ghosts as a kid and I communicated with dead family members and friends through dreams and I've been very sensitive to energy. A few years ago, I was dead asleep in my bed when I

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was jolted awake. There was a strong feeling of terror and dread in my room and I could sense three entities next to me. I opened my eyes, but I couldn't focus and it looked like everything in my room was blurry and kind of bouncing around. Mhm. I then felt something grab my arm and hiss into my ear. "I'm going to tell you something." Ew, no. Don't. I tried to say no, but only could whimper. And I could not pull my arm away. Then suddenly, I saw a blue swirl of light and energy in the corner of my room and everything stopped. I could again. I could move and the entities were gone. And that blue energy in the corner dissipated, too. It was about 11:15 at this point. I was terrified out of my mind. Also, Kate wrote, "I go to bed early because I have to leave for work at 6:00 a.m." I was like, 11:15's not early. Uh no, that's super late. Like that's what I wake up to have my first pee in the middle of the night. Yes. I was terrified out of my mind and had no clue what happened. So, I turned

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all the lights on in my house and I called my best friend sobbing. I was crying so hard that he thought someone had died. I told him I wasn't sure what happened to me or if it was even real, but I was too scared to sleep. I didn't tell him exactly what happened because he has anxiety and ghosts scare him. So, he stayed on the phone with me for a few hours until I was calmer and he went to bed. I did not sleep at all. I still felt terrible the next day. I felt that there's black cloud hanging over me and I randomly kept crying. One of my other friends texted me and I told him everything that happened. He's sensitive like me, so I thought maybe he might be able to help me sort out what happened. He contacted one of his friends who is a psychic to get her opinion. And she, the psychic, said that I had been attacked by three dead magicians who tried to put curses on my third eye chakra to limit my oversight of the world and my own life and to impede my thinking and make me feel powerless. She said that old dead magicians sometimes refuse to cross over and try to take part in life by influencing someone with a lot of

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potential by driving them crazy or making them sick. She said she removed the curses and gave me a meditation to make my aura stronger and to protect myself from negative entities. She said fear had made my aura thin because I was going through a lot of things at the time that allowed them to attack my third eye. Truly, it took me months to recover emotionally and mentally from what happened. I slept with my lights on for months. I had to carry protective crystals everywhere and did the meditation she prescribed every day. The attack had unintentional consequences. It opened me up even more because my third eye had been cleansed out. I could now see and communicate with ghosts and spirits more easily and was much more sensitive to energy. I ended up an apprentice to a Reiki master / medium who taught me how to use and control my abilities. I'm now a Reiki master and have the ability to bring through messages from angels and other people's guardian angels. My teacher told me she could see Archangel Michael with me protecting me and helping me through this difficult time in my life. Blue is the color of his energy. I later realized that he had been there

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that night. The blue swirl of light in the corner. He had stopped the attack. Stay spooky ladies. Keep up the great work. Kate. I have so many thoughts. One, I feel like the dead magicians club should be a book. 100%. Is it not? We can try to make something DM. Add it to the scroll. Also, Kate, for Kate to be a target and for it to like truly affect her this much, to me means that there was so much potential and so much power within Kate that was like right there. Either Kate knew or was about to like fully unlock that felt like a threat to these magicians or entities or however these spirits beings are that they felt like they had to do something right away right now to try to I guess like diminish. Yeah, like blow out her light. from her. Yeah, they wanted to take her power. And then who did you It was Archangel Michael you said? Yeah, who protected her. It is fascinating to me too when

1:00:00

cuz I feel like so many times I often associate protection with loved ones or or like guardian angels, but it it is so interesting when they are like biblically known angels that are said to come through. Did you know that the reference of feet in the Bible is actually penis? What? Not me wanting to read the Bible for the first time. So I took a Bible class in high school and I retained zero information except for that. Oh man. Not in every reference, but I actually looked this up the other day. I was trying to prove it. Is the Bible a lot more steamy than I thought it was? Am I going to have to start reading it? Let's see. Feet symbolize in the Old Testament as a euphemism for genitals and so forth. Well, look at that. Yeah. Also, I saw someone the other day that

1:01:00

was like if Adam didn't eat the apple, if Eve ate the apple, then why do we call it an Adam's apple? Like it stuck in his throat. Interesting. I can get on like Bible conspiracies. I like that stuff. And this is where we get into trouble. Yeah, we won't talk about it on the podcast, but I don't have time to be a Swifty because I also am going to be spending my time looking up all of these things. Did you know this passage actually means that? Oh, wow. Well, I never even heard of that passage in the first place, but now I'm intrigued. I think like to know someone biblically is to like have had sex with someone. Oh, it's like an Avatar where you like put your tails together. I'm just going to start saying like if I've had sex with someone I'm going to say like, oh yeah, I know them biblically. I've seen their feet. Wow. Wow. Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm going to go get some uh confession cuz I've just sinned so many times and I'm literally wearing a

1:02:00

religious item that says godmother. So That's literally exactly what I was thinking when I went silent. I was like, we need to do something to repent. Pray for me. Pray for everyone out there. Let's all just have good vibes, no curses. Yeah. But if you've been cursed or if you've cursed someone, please let us know. And if you have like family superstitions, like that would be really fun episode to do like superstitions that families have. Email them to us at twogirlsoneghostpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear them. We'd love to hear all of your stories. Please join us on Patreon if you want to hear my mom's dirty little secrets and and if you want ad-free episodes one week early, extra episodes, and all the fun campfire stories that happen every Tuesday night, book club, all of the fun things that are happening over there. Thank you to all of you who come back every single week. Thank you to Jamie, our editor, who also comes back every single week edit our audio and video. We couldn't do it without you.

1:03:00

And we wish you all the best of luck. Yes, we love you all very much. We will see you on the other side. Very spooky.