Bad time for Cubs’ goat shirts

Team unity is a wonderful thing. It really is. Put me down as being all for it.

It seems to me, though, the Cubs have picked an odd time to break out some new T-shirts with an old theme and one the Cubs organization (well, most of it) has tried to distance itself from.

We got a sneak preview of it after Monday night’s 1-0 victory over the Brewers, when pitcher Ryan Dempster entered the interview room wearing a shirt with the likeness of a goat on the front with a line through it.

The back of the shirt had something not fit for family newspaper. Think Cee Lo Green for a moment when we say the back of the shirt might have said, “Forget the Goat.”

Yeah, that goat. The goat of “curse” infamy.

Woe betide any media member for mentioning the so-called Curse of the Billy Goat in Cubs company, but Cubs players came out en masse during early workouts Tuesday wearing the shirts.

Funny thing is, no player would own up to being author of this idea. That was a closely guarded clubhouse secret.

What’s not so secret is that the Cubs have been mired in fifth place for much of the year, and that has nothing to do with curses. It has a lot to do with bad baseball.

But the way the players and manager Mike Quade see it, anything that can help bring a team together is a good thing.

“I think it’s just kind of a loose, fun thing that kind of came up,” catcher Koyie Hill said. “Basically, that’s all it was. It was an awesome joke. Everybody laughed.”

Hill repeated what outfielder Reed Johnson said the previous day, that the Cubs don’t feel it’s too late to get back into the race even though numbers and common sense say otherwise.

“Teams have come back from deficits like that,” said Johnson, who came off the disabled list Tuesday. “If we could do that, if there was a team out there that could do it, I really and truly believe it could be us.”

Quade said he knew nothing of the shirt scheme but was all for its unifying purpose.

“Whatever,” he said. “I’m not involved with that, but whatever it takes. I’m involved with trying to have a club get better. Whatever it takes. Have some fun with it and stay loose and let’s try to figure out a way to win some ballgames.”

Quade acted surprised that media members were asking about it. But those same media members mentioned to the manager and to the players that they’ve been chastised in the past for mentioning the goat curse. Of course, team president Crane Kenney broke with precedent in 2008, when he had a Greek priest bless the dugout with holy water to break the curse before the playoffs.

The Cubs are nowhere near the playoffs now, and it might take a 55-gallon drum of holy water to help the Cubs, who entered Tuesday last in the National League in ERA, last in team fielding and last in walks taken by their batters.

“Do you embrace this, or do you go, ‘We don’t want to talk about that?’” Quade said. “Really, I don’t care. I find the whole conversation comical, I guess. What’s the best way? I’m not Dr. Phil. Do you want to embrace it? Do you want to laugh at it? Do you want to hide from it?

“Everybody has their own way. Somebody like Woody (Kerry Wood) or Demp guys that have been around a long time, OK, they come up with a slogan. This is how we’re going to do this. I got news for you, when you take the field, nobody’s thinking about goat. I don’t care whether you’re wearing a T-shirt or not. I’m sure it makes for interesting conversation around town.”