The Original Curse: Did the Cubs Throw the 1918 World Series to Babe Ruth's Red Sox and Incite the Black Sox Scandal? [Hardcover]

Sean Deveney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2009

IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF EIGHT MEN OUT . . .
the untold story of baseball’s ORIGINAL SCANDAL

Did the Chicago Cubs throw the World Series in 1918—and get away with it?

Who were the players involved—and why did they do it?

Were gambling and corruption more widespread across the leagues than previously believed?

Were the players and teams “cursed” by their actions?

Finally, is it time to rewrite baseball history?

With exclusive access to surprising new evidence, Sporting News reporter Sean Deveney details a scandal at the core of baseball’s greatest folklore—in a golden era as exciting and controversial as our sports world today. This inside look at the pivotal year of 1918 proves that baseball has always been a game overrun with colorful characters, intense human drama, and explosive controversy.

"The Original Curse is not just about baseball. It is a sweeping portrait of America at war in 1918. . . . In the end, the proper question is not, ‘How could a player from that era fix the World Series?’ It’s, ‘How could he not?’”
—Ken Rosenthal, FOX Sports, from the Introduction

"Sean Deveney plays connect-the-dots in this intriguing account of a possible conspiracy to throw the 1918 World Series. Thoroughly researched and well written, The Original Curse is a must-read for baseball fans and anyone who loves a good mystery. Is Max Flack the Shoeless Joe of the 1918 Cubs? Deveney lays out the case and let's readers decide if the fix was in."
—Paul Sullivan, Cubs beat writer, Chicago Tribune

"This book gives the reader a fun and honest look at baseball as it used to be-- the good guys, the gamblers, the cheaters, the drunks, the inept leaders. But, more than that, it puts those characters into the context of Chicago, Boston and America at the time of World War I, and you wind up with a unique way to explain the motivations of those characters."
—David Kaplan, host, Chicago Tribune Live and WGN's Sports Central

“Deveney’s painstaking study of the 1918 World Series between the Cubs and Red Sox argues that the Black Sox scandal was not an aberration and might have had an antecedent. Deveney’s scholarship does not detract from his ability to spin a good tale: his tendency to imagine players’ conversations will remind readers of Leigh Montville’s The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth…. A welcome companion to Susan Dellinger’s Red Legs and Black Sox: Edd Roush and the Untold Story of the 1919 World Series, Deveney’s book contributes greatly to our understanding of this decisive period in baseball and American morals."
—Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sean Deveney has been with The Sporting News since 1999, covering all major sports. Deveney has covered dozens of major championships: the NBA Finals, World Series, Super Bowl, the NCAA Tournament, college football's championship game and the PGA championship. He has written about icons such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, and less-than-iconic topics including Roger Clemens and the inside world of sports agents. He is the Sporting News' baseball insider. After graduation from Northwestern University in 1997, Deveney worked as the sports editor for The Sentry-News in Slidell, LA, where he won a Louisiana Press Association award for best feature story. A native of Lynn, Mass., who grew up with a passion for the Red Sox and limited talent as a second baseman, Deveney also has been honored in The Best American Sports Writing anthology for a story about Pedro Martinez. He has been a regular guest on ESPN2's First Take, ESPN Classic, Comcast Sports Chicago Tribune Live, with appearances on Fox News, CNN, CBS and MSNBC. He appears on numerous radio shows around the country each week.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071629971
• ISBN-13: 978-0071629973
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I live less than two miles from Wrigley Field, so I know a little something about the Chicago Cubs and their fanatic fans. I grew up in Lynn, Mass., so I also know a little something about the Boston Red Sox and their fanatic fans. When I heard that the 1918 World Series --- featuring the Red Sox and Cubs --- might have been fixed, it immediately registered that this could be a pretty interesting thing.

Here's how it started: In February of 2008, I was at the Chicago History Museum waiting to do a television interview for CBS news. The producer, though, was late, and I began chatting with the museum's curator, Peter Alter, who had just been part of a large purchase of documents related to the 1919 Black Sox scandal. He showed me one of particular interest, in which pitcher Eddie Cicotte was quoted in a deposition saying this:

"The way it started, we were going east on the train. The ball players were talking about somebody trying to fix the National League ball players or something like that in the World's Series of 1918. Well anyway there was some talk about them offering $10,000 or something to throw the Cubs in the Boston Series. There was talk that somebody offered this player $10,000 or anyway the bunch of players were offered $10,000. This was on the train going over. Somebody made a crack about getting money, if we got into the series."

I began my research there, and discovered that 1918 was one of the most fascinating years in baseball (as well as in Chicago's, Boston's and America's) history. The U.S. was not a superpower yet, but was beginning to become one with its entry into World War I. On the homefront, the country was riddled with problems --- drafting an army, dealing with violence against German citizens, grappling with difficult questions on morality, facing staggering inflation, appeasing a bustling labor movement and combating domestic terrorism.

Often, those problems in American society trickled onto the baseball field, changing teams wholesale and affecting the politics of the game. By the end of the season, which was cut short by the war, beat writers were pronouncing the death of baseball as it was then known. If there were ever a season in which a fixed World Series made sense, it was 1918.

That's the core of The Original Curse, my first book. It's a lot of baseball, but it's also a lot of nitty-gritty U.S. history.

As for me, I am still living in the shadow of Wrigley Field with my wife, Robbie, and my stepson, Brice Klein. I have been writing for Sporting News since 1999, covering the NBA for the magazine, the website and the digital version, Sporting News Today. I'm a proud graduate of Northwestern University and Lynn English High.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and educational account of the year baseball almost died and two curses may have begun, December 6, 2009

By 

cs211 "cs211" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Original Curse: Did the Cubs Throw the 1918 World Series to Babe Ruth's Red Sox and Incite the Black Sox Scandal? (Hardcover)

"The Original Curse" dives deep into the 1918 baseball season, the year before the Black Sox World Series-throwing scandal, and poses the provocative question: is it possible that the White Sox were not the first and only team to throw a World Series - and could their crosstown rivals, the Cubs, have done so the previous year? What sounds, at first blush, like a White Sox fan's fantasy, appears to be plausible or even likely after reading Sean Deveny's book. There's not nearly enough evidence to conclusively prove Deveny's hypothesis, but if the case Deveny assembles were to be heard by a grand jury, they would certainly call for further investigation. Unfortunately, too much time has passed and there is no smoking gun (such as a deathbed confession) to conclusively prove Deveny's case.

A good history book shatters myths and provides a much more detailed, nuanced, complex picture of a particular situation. Deveny certainly achieves this in "The Original Curse". Almost all baseball fans know of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and think of that White Sox team as committing the biggest possible sin against the game, for purely selfish reasons. 1918 is also wistfully known by Red Sox fans as the last World Series won by their dominant early-twentieth century team before an 86-year drought. However, what Deveny shows is that 1918 was one of the strangest, most dysfunctional years in all of major league baseball history. Yes, the Red Sox did win the World Series that year, but it was anything but a competition between the best, most talented teams and players. Because of the ramp-up of the United States' participation in World War I, the war cast a huge cloud over the entire season, continually pulling (or threatening to pull) players out of the game, shortening the season, and almost cancelling the Series itself. Fans lost interest, players did too, and due to severe financial shortcomings, and the threat of never earning another decent baseball paycheck, some players likely were tempted to take money from gamblers to throw one or more World Series games.

Besides telling the story of the 1918 baseball season, Deveny also details the underlying causes of baseball's early twentieth century gambling problem and the inaction and cover-ups of baseball's powers that be when presented with evidence of the problem. Gamblers and players mingled freely, and gamblers openly conducted their business in major league parks. Should a player desire to make some illicit money from gamblers, there were plenty of opportunities to do so. Deveny also describes multiple acts of suspicious in-game behavior, and multiple cases of players developing bad reputations after being suspected by their managers for having thrown games. With this strong gambling culture as background, it is certainly true that the amount of gambling in baseball far exceeded the amount that has been publicized, investigated and punished.

Deveny writes in an entertaining style, and the book progresses at a fast pace. I actually wish it had been longer and provided even more detail. And, of course, if Deveny had been able to unearth a smoking gun, it would have made the book a must-read by all baseball fans. I definitely do recommend it for serious baseball fans with an interest in the history of the game, and especially fans of the three teams featured most prominently: the Red Sox, the Cubs, and the White Sox. Red Sox and Cubs fans may not like what they learn about their teams, but it is more important to know the facts than the myths.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original Curse, September 30, 2009

By 

Queen Mother (Boston,. MA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Original Curse: Did the Cubs Throw the 1918 World Series to Babe Ruth's Red Sox and Incite the Black Sox Scandal? (Hardcover)

A wonderfully conceived and written book about throwing the 1918 World Series. As an avid Red Sox fan, I didn't want to believe it. Yet the case is presented so convincingly by the author, we may have to take down the 1918 pennant at Fenway. A great read;I couldn't put it down.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So much for Yankees fanChanting 1918, October 1, 2009

By 

Henry Arthur "Hank" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Original Curse: Did the Cubs Throw the 1918 World Series to Babe Ruth's Red Sox and Incite the Black Sox Scandal? (Hardcover)

Up until 2004, a favorite chant of Yankees fans was "1918", reminding Red Sox fans about the last year they had won the Series. Now, we learn that even the 1918 series win was probably bogus! Here's a most convincing tale - a great blend of sports and U.S. /world history and coming at a perfect time when the stars are once again aligned ... with the Yankees taking the East, the questionable Red SAWX heading to the post season as the Wild Card. The Cubs end up in 2nd place and the Wrigley faithful are sadly licking their season ending wounds! All is not lost, because we have books like THE ORIGINAL CURSE to get fans through the long winter months. But, first an exciting postseason that the serious fan - despite not having a team in the running - will embrace,but with a more objective, less frenetic point of view.