Everyone knows that this year marks the 100th anniversary since the Chicago Cubs last World Series Championship. However, there is a possibility that it should only be 90, yes 90 years not 100. According to the newly-found sworn affidavit by 1919 White Sox Pitcher Eddie Cicotte the Cubs had given the “Black Sox” the inspiration to throw their own World Series a year after the Cubs did it. Even though there is no smoking gun to prove if that there was actually a fix that caused the Red Sox to win the World Series in ‘18, but it does raise a lot of suspicions about that series.
According to Cicotte’s testimony the White Sox first thought of throwing the World Series on a train to New York where the team discussed the 1918 series, which they believed to be fixed. Though looking at the box scores of the World Series it is hard to imagine that a team that was heavily favored to beat the Red Sox as well as finished the season with a 84-45 record would fall easily to the Bo Sox.
Bleacher Report wrote:
The right-hand man of Charles Comiskey, Harry Grabiner, also wrote in his diary that he believes the Cubs were paid off in the 1918 fall classic. Columnist Hugh Fullerton reported at the time that something seemed wrong.
Fullerton blew the whistle on baseball’s gambling problem after the 1919 World Series.
Box scores from the 1918 World Series seem to back up Cicotte, Grabiner, and Fullerton’s assertions.
Fullerton’s accounts of the games between the Cubs and Red Sox indicate several baserunning mistakes, and defensive errors by a Cubs team that went 84-45, and was favored to defeat Babe Ruth’s Red Sox.
Cubs baserunners were picked off three times, twice in the decisive game six, and a two-base error by Cubs right fielder Max Flack allowed the Series-winning run to score in a 2-1 Red Sox win.
So as it seems Cubs nation has probably been suffering for 10 more years then they should have.
