Theo Epstein actually ate a goat, because of course he did

Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, is a magic man right now. He broke the curse of the Boston Red Sox in 2004, and then went to the Cubs and broke their curse 12 years later. He may not have paid close attention to curses, like the infamous curse of the billy goat, but he broke them anyway. And now he’s taking his curse-breaking to new levels: he actually ate a goat.

He didn’t eat it live or slaughter it himself, of course. (But would that be weirder than anything that’s happened in the past week?) According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Theo had Cubs GM Jed Hoyer call Kevin Boehm, who is co-owner of the Boka Restaurant group along with fellow Cubs fan Rob Katz. Epstein and Hoyer had an unusual request: they wanted roasted goat. And so Boehm called in one of the foremost experts in cooking goat.

That expert’s name is Stephanie Izard, and after winning the fourth season of Top Chef, she opened a Chicago restaurant called The Girl and the Goat. She serves a number of goat-focused dishes there, like goat empanadas and goat carpaccio, and she also offers entire goat legs for pre-order. There’s no one better they could have found to roast a whole goat for them in Chicago.

Izard roasted a 9 1/2 pound goat for Epstein, Hoyer, and their crew. Then Boehm, Katz, and Boka vice president Ian Goldberg delivered it to them in actual Wrigley Field.

“They were all sitting in the left-field bleachers in an empty Wrigley Field. They ate it right there,” said Boehm, who described the lunch as one of last week’s many moments of wonder.

Is that the weirdest thing that’s ever been eaten at Wrigley Field? The stadium has been around since 1914, so probably not. (Though I’m not going to imagine what weirder things could have been eaten there.) The feast resulted in this great photo of the goat crew, with Theo on the left holding up what looks like piece of partially devoured goat.

Now we can say it: the curse of the billy goat is officially dead. Because Theo Epstein ate it.

Theo Epstein, top left (clockwise), Rob Katz, Kevin Boehm, Jed Hoyer and Ian Goldberg. (Boka Restaurant Group)