Everybody's heard about the "Curse of the Bambino" in Boston and the "Curse of the Billy Goat" in Chicago, which was supposedly the basis for those long championship droughts. Very few, if anyone outside of Visalia, Calif., has heard about the "Curse of the Alligator" though, but apparently it has had the same impact on the*Visalia Rawhide of the California League.
According to MiLB.com, Visalia —*the current Class A Advanced affliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks —has not won the California League championship since 1978 when former American League Rookie of the Year*Joe Charboneau was on the team. During that season Charboneau acquired a pet alligator named Chopper, which lived in his bathtub until he returned home for the offseason. Unfortunately, Chopper died later that year while under the watch of a teammate, and for reasons we're not sure can be explained, Chopper's spirit is now viewed as the force behind their misfortune.*
Well, actually, the Rawhide do have an explanation. Here's what broadcaster Donny Baarns had to say:
We haven't made the playoffs since 2007, in a league where six out of 10 teams make the playoffs every year. Calculating the odds of that, it's literally one in a hundred. We blew a four-game lead with six to play in 2010, missed the playoffs. This year we've had crazy injuries to our best players. At the end of the first half we were battling for a playoff championship, which we subsequently lost by two games.
Something felt off. We knew we hadn't won a Cal League championship for 35 years and that we'd lost all seven Finals series we'd been in since then. We've been around since 1946 and we've had two championships in a league that usually has between eight and 10 teams. The odds of that are truly staggering, so we figured there must be something behind that,*
And the conclusion was Chopper's spirit haunting them.*
Hey, it's a stretch, but we've seen teams grasp beyond these levels.*
What's most interesting is now that Visalia has finally worked its way back to the championship series against the*Lancaster Jethawks, they've called on Charboneau to help break the curse. Prior to Game 2 on Friday, he was on hand to throw out the first pitch.
But that wasn't quite enough. The team also brought in a 5-foot living alligator to symbolize the curse being challenged and hopefully broken.**
Yep, that's a live, 5-ft alligator...on a baseball field...before Game 2. Because why not? @MiLB pic.twitter.com/J8mlmmKXRl
— Donny Baarns (@DonnyBaarns) September 13, 2014
Why not indeed. *
Unfortunately, the alligator's appearance didn't lead to the results Visalia had hoped for. In fact, they didn't even score a run, falling 3-0 to Lancaster.
The good news, though, is that they won Game 1, so the series in now evened up. On the downside, Lancaster will host the next two, so they'll have to win at least one on the road to end the drought. And chances are Lancaster won't be interested in entertaining an alligator. If this curse is to be broken, it's all on the Rawhide.

BLS H/N: Eye on Baseball
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813