Doug Hardin takes no chances where this potato's concerned.
Working in a BP plant dominated by White Sox fans, it's a dangerous endeavor to keep the "Cubs curse" frozen, so the potato -- uncannily shaped like the winning Chicago Cubs' iconic "Cubbie Bear" -- goes with Hardin everywhere in a locked cooler.
For the times he doesn't want to haul the talisman back to his Rensselaer home, he has several "undisclosed locations" where he hides the frozen spud.
"BP is overrun with Sox fans, so I definitely have to keep him secure," said Hardin, who took a lunch break at Dino's Pizza in Whiting to show off the one thing that may be helping the Cubs do well this season.
Hardin found the Cub tater in late May or early June. A friend came over to make dinner, and Hardin volunteered to peel the potatoes. Then he picked up the Cub-shaped tuber and showed his friend.
"I told her we're not peeling this one because it looks like the Cubbie Bear," Hardin said. "She agreed with me."
At first Hardin kept the potato on the TV, an act he's sure led his favorite team to its first hot streak.
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But then he noticed a little wrinkly spot on top of its head, so Cubbie was relegated to the fridge.
"He was a lot younger then," he said. "Now, you can really see the spot, so I'm keeping him on ice."
Jackie Frabotta and Misty Percianoff, who work at Dino's, looked at a picture and thought it looked more like a pig.
"Seeing it in person, it had the two ears and two little eyeballs, and a scar that looked like the smile," Frabotta said. "It really does look like him."
"And he walked in with a cooler -- that's hilarious," Percianoff added. "He's not rotten, but you can see the wilty spot on the top."
For now, the Cub-shaped potato isn't leaving Hardin's clutches because it's his sworn duty as a Cubs' fan to keep the curse away.
Should the Cubs win the series?
That might be a different bag of chips altogether.
"For the right price, anything's for sale," Hardin said, laughing.
