Priest who blessed dugout says Cubs chairman threw him ‘under the bus’

And in Sports news…! I believe Fr James Greanias. Because the Cubs got swept, they are calling it a curse. And this is what you get for blessing stadiums.

Rev. James L. Greanias, the Greek Orthodox priest brought in to Wrigley Field to remove a curse before Game 1 of last year’s playoffs, has accused Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney of throwing him “under the bus” at last weekend’s Cubs Convention.

When a fan asked about the ritual, Kenney took the blame, calling it “one of the dumbest things” he had done. Kenney said Greanias had initially approached him.

“An e-mail comes in, and this was a huge Cubs fan who wants to get tickets to the game and has a cell phone with a Cubs ring tone on it, and I said, ‘Let him go,’ ” Kenney said.

Greanias took issue with that account. The priest from Valparaiso said he never asked for tickets and that the Cubs had called him out of the blue to ask him to remove the Billy Goat curse.

“Kenney told me he wanted a Greek Orthodox priest because [William] Sianis was Greek,” said Greanias, referring to the tavern owner who placed a hex on the Cubs during the 1945 World Series. “The last thing on my mind was calling the Cubs to ask them to bless the field. In fact, I thought it was a joke at first.”

Greanias said he wasn’t angry but “disappointed” in Kenney. He said he had written Kenney a three-page letter Monday and had approached Cubs coach Matt Sinatro during a Cubs Caravan stop last week in Valparaiso to offer an apology to manager Lou Piniella.

“Coach Sinatro told me Lou wasn’t upset,” Greanias said. “But I defended Kenney after it happened, and now he’s thrown me under the bus.”