Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

Author Sean Deveney raises some interesting questions about whether the 1918 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs was played on the up-and-up.

Although the circumstances were right for crookedness in baseball and some regular season games were definitely fixed in 1918, according to Deveney, he admits that it's debatable if the World Series was fixed.

Given the circumstances, however, no one should be shocked if the World Series was fixed. Gambling was one of baseball's greatest negatives and rumors persisted about players throwing games. Gamblers were active and open at the ballparks. But baseball refused to confront the problem, choosing instead to sweep it under the rug. If a player was suspected of throwing games, he most likely was quietly traded.

The Cubs had a number of players with shady pasts, including Lee Magee, Claude Hendrix, Fred Merkle and Phil Douglass.

Uncertainty dominated baseball and the World Series in 1918. The advent of World War I siphoned the talent from many teams. Secretary of War Newton Baker declared the season would end on Sept. 1. The World Series was scheduled to begin Sept. 5, yet no one was quite sure if it would be allowed to be played.

The 1918 World Series suffered from reduced fan interest and limited projected revenues, based on lower ticket prices and 10 percent of the gate receipts slated to go to charity. For the first time, players in the World Series were to split 60 percent of the revenue from the first four games (with a $2,000 per man cap for the winners and $1,400 per man for the losers), while the remainder was to be split among the teams that finished second, third and fourth in the two leagues. When the players were informed that the winners would receive $1,200 per man and the losers would receive $800, they were understandably angry.

The first three games were poorly attended in Chicago and the quality of play slipped afterwards when the players found out they would be receiving considerably less money. The players threatened to strike before Game 5, demanding more money.

In addition to the players named above, Deveney points fingers at infielder Charlie Hollocher and outfielder Max Flack for their suspicious play.

Although there's no smoking gun of evidence, Deveney raises enough questions to make one doubt that the Series was played on the level.

The Original Curse is a great book! It paints a vivid picture of the time and fascinates even non-sports fans. I loved the personal touches weaved in with the history. I would highly recommend The Original Curse to anyone looking for a good read. I couldn't put it down.

As a lifelong Cub fan I've always scoffed at the whole curse-of-the-billy-goat thing. And now, thanks to the prodigious research of Sean Deveney, I can be relatively sure that there are much darker and long-standing forces at work behind the Cubs' prolonged absence from the World Series. The greater contribution made by Deveney's work is to set the game of baseball circa WWI in its fuller historical context. The finished product is what must have been a pile of archives and footnotes mulched into an absorbing what-if account of the 'something's fishy here' 1918 series between the Cubs and Red Sox. Deveney's rock solid reporting provides a vivid contrast to the florid prose used by sportswriters of a bygone era that he quotes throughout his book, and his character sketches of the principal players are compelling. He also draws readers' attentions to some interesting parallels between baseball then & now that would never occur to contemporary fans since the game appears, at a glance, to have changed so profoundly since the Black Sox era. Ultimately, The Original Curse makes clear that baseball has never been the pristine national pastime that some of us imagined has only fairly recently been corrupted by greed and self-interest. Deveney's revealing book stains the game's history like tobacco juice spat upon the woolen blouses worn by the 1918 Cubs. I wish he could have struck a blow for the defense instead of the prosecution, but he is certainly to be commended for compiling a strong case.

As a student of the game, the 1918 World Series story really got to me. I really enjoyed the set-up put in place by the author. What was it like to live in those times, how players dealt with the Great War, what was the moribond athmosphere surrounding baseball?

Once you smell the scent of 1918, you realize everything was in place for a fix to happen.

I've got the know more about many players, such like Charley Hollocher, Les Mann, Bill Killefer, Max Flack and Hippo Vaughn.

I won't say too much, and let you discover and make your own mind about those 1918 Chicago Cubs.

Sean Deveney weaves a poignant and nostalgia-inducing yarn via a collection of vignettes about sundry characters from the glory days of baseball and America. The juxtaposition of history and sport is an effective tool when wielded by Deveney, striking the right mix of erudition and entertainment for fans of all feathers.

A great read from one of our great sportswriters--read the book!