Cubs have stumbled since appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated

The official date on the regional Sports Illustrated cover showing the Cubs in full glory was Aug. 31.

But those cover numbers always are more like the expiration newsstand date rather than the publication date.

So that issue, showing Kris Bryant ready to be greeted at home plate at Wrigley Field by his ecstatic teammates after hitting a home run actually came out or was available online late on Aug. 25.

You know about the SI cover jinx, right, hilarious fiction though it may be?

Well, since that cover appearance, starting the following day, the Cubs have won only two of eight.

Yes, there was a no-hitter in there, against the Dodgers, by amazingly re-born Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta. But since that L.A. event, the Cubs lost two out of three to the last-place Reds at Wrigley, getting outscored 24-15 in the process.

Moreover, after wearing those cute onesies home from the West Coast, they have played pretty dumb ball, in general. Errors, blown opportunities, bad throws, baserunning blunders — they’ve done it all.

Of course, there’s no such thing as a magazine cover curse. Or a goat curse, cat curse, Mets curse, reaching-fan curse or anything else.

But there is such a thing as forgetting what got you where you are. And why success is such a hard, hard thing.