“I moved to Chicago for Major League Baseball, I might leave for the same reason.” – Jethro Burns
I skimmed The Original Curse: Did the Cubs Inspire the Black Sox by throwing the 1918 World Series against Babe Ruth’s Red Sox? by Sean Deveney in the library and it’s fabulous, a well told sports story about which I’d never heard anything despite being reared a Cub fan on Chicago’s north side. (Cub fans are always being reared on the north side. A new one is born every minute.)
The Cubs played their 1918 home World Series games in Comiskey Park, Old Comiskey, because of a lack of seating at Wrigley Field. This was a surprise. Another was that even though Babe Ruth was on the other side, the Cubs were favored to beat the Red Sox…
But, big but, they lost the series.
No surprise there.
Sporting News writer Sean Deveney presents tantalizing evidence in The Original Curse that the 1918 World Series was fixed, and while it shouldn’t surprise anyone that vice and crime were out of control in Chicago, and Chicago baseball, even before the 1919 Black Sox scandal, the fact that anyone might have bothered to pay the Cubs to lose, ever, is a pleasant surprise and even cause for pride of franchise at Clark and Addison. The logical next question is, “Who was paying them to lose all the other times?”
The website for this book is informative and well-designed, presenting factlets from the book in a curiosity rousing way, such that even if you weren’t reared a Cub fan, or aren’t interested in the topic enough to head to the library and borrow this book, it’s worthwhile to checkout the website: http://originalcurse1918.com/.
A previous, and somewhat related, post – New Book Alleges “The Fix Is In”: All Sports Outcomes Decided in Advance to Maximize League Revenue Streams
Other Chicago baseball Ephemera:
Disco Demolition at Comiskey Park
(The history of Chicago baseball is dominated by demolitions and explosions.)
Steve Goodman – A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request
And, appropos of nothing, here’s a compelling video of a reporter being attacked by a husband and wife while conducting an interview.
