The 2016 Major League Baseball World Series started Tuesday and students are ready to watch a historical game between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. Both teams have gone the longest without winning a World Series in Major League Baseball history.

This game will change everything for one of the two teams, especially because both teams are allegedly cursed.  The Chicago Cubs have reportedly been cursed since 1945, when they kicked Billy Sianis, the owner of Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago and his goat Murphy out of Wrigley Field.

“Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more,” Sianis said, according to CBS Sports.

The Indian’s curse, beginning in 1948, comes from their symbol, Chief Wahoo, which is the cartooned depiction of a real Native American chief. The team’s mascot left many people outraged at what was called blatant racism.  According to Cleveland Scene, the curse is more of a superstition that acts like karma, preventing the Indians from winning.

Mary Blair, a senior applied engineering and technology major said she does not believe in the Cub’s curse.

Instead, Blair said the Cub’s management has never pushed the baseball players to do well since their fans will remain loyal to the team no matter what.

Brandon Winner, a senior public relations major, said he does not believe in the curses, but if the Cubs still do not win this year, he might start believing in them.

“I don’t think one man can be responsible for a whole curse,” Winner said.

Winner said he thinks the Cleveland pitching staff is so good they are going to be able to shut the Cubs down a few times, but the Cubs have such a good lineup that it is going to take up at least six or seven of the games.

Frank Monier, a junior theatre arts major, predicts there will be a good, solid five games and the Cubs will win the sixth game.

However; Blair said the Cubs will be able to finish the series early, considering how well they played in the playoffs.

Some necessities students want when watching the games are a group of friends, family and good food.

Amanda Aguilar, a junior communication disorders and sciences major, said she plans on watching the games from home. “If the Cubs are getting close to winning, I might go back to Chicago and sit outside Wrigley Field,” Aguilar said.

Winner said he is going to go out with his friends and watch a few innings at their apartment before trying to watch the games over at Marty’s afterwards.

As for who people are rooting for, students are divided.  “Definitely not the Cubs,” Winner said. “I’m a Cardinals fan, so I refuse to root for the Cubs.”

However, Winner still admitted it could be nice to see the Cubs win, since it has been so long and “they deserve a bone once in a while.”  If the Indians win, Winner will celebrate by trash-talking his friends who rooted for the Cubs.

Aguilar said she will be very happy if the Cubs win this year.  “When I found out they were going to the World Series, I actually cried,” she said.

Monier said he hopes the Cubs will win this year.  “I am actually a White Sox fan, but I have enough respect for the Cubs that I prefer them,” he said.

Winner said winning the World Series would do wonders for the Cubs and that ratings for baseball in general would go up just from these two teams alone. “Winning could change the next fifty years of that team’s future,” he said.

Amanda said the Cubs winning will give Chicago its sense of pride back. “Every time a team wins something, The Blackhawks, The White Sox, the city goes into a frenzy and with the Cubs, everybody is going to go crazy,” Aguilar said.

Marisa Foglia can be reached at 581-2812 or mjfolgia@eiu.edu.