The 1919 Chicago White Sox have become synonymous with cheating in baseball.  The story is well known.  The White Sox players conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.  The scandal was even immortalized in the film Eight Men Out. 

But did the Cubs do exactly the same thing a year earlier?  Sporting News writer Sean Deveney thinks so and he’s written all about it in The Original Curse.

The story starts when a box of old documents relating to the 1919 Black Sox scandal is discovered and eventually sold to the Chicago History Museum.  Deveney was at the museum one day in 2008 when a curator pointed out an interesting document.  The document was a deposition from former White Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte.  Cicotte was one of the players who was banned from baseball for his role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.  In his deposition, Cicotte said that he and other White Sox players knew there was money to be made by purposely losing the World Series because the Cubs had done it the year before.

This was news to Deveney, who had never heard the story before.  Deveney wasn’t alone.  The backstory to the Cubs 1918 lose in the World Series wasn’t known to many.  For years, it had been kept quiet.  Most baseball fans had heard of the Black Sox scandal and assumed it was a one-time affair.  That’s exactly how baseball wanted it.  But the truth is, as Deveney was finding out,  that the World Series had been fixed on at least one other occasion.

In The Original Curse, Deveney lays out the story in a way that is both believable and credible.  The world was a very different place in 1918, and baseball was a very different game.  Players were not particularly well paid; owners were not particularly ethical; and baseball was teetering on the brink of financial collapse.  The future of baseball was not looking promising.  And for many players, the end of baseball meant a quick enlistment in the army and a front row seat to the war in Germany.  Players were desperate to make money any way they could. 

In the early 1900′s, a player could double his annual salary by playing in the World Series.  But in 1918, for various reasons, it was looking like the owners were not going to pay the players their full World Series share.  In fact, the players would be lucky to get a fraction of what they were supposed to get.  This became apparent to the players just before the World Series got underway.  The players met with the owners to try to work out a compromise, but the owners rebuffed the players proposal.  The owners hoped that by stalling the players they could hold them off until after the World Series. 

When it became apparent that the owners were not going to budge, the players turned to local gamblers.  If the players couldn’t get their money from the owners, they knew they could cut a deal with the gamblers. 

Several Cubs made fielding errors and base running gaffs to eventually hand the World Series to Babe Ruth and the Red Sox.  But as Deveney points out, there was no joy in the victory for the Red Sox.  After the final out, there was no celebrating.  The players simply went to the locker room, cleaned up, and went home. 

We like to think of anyone who cheats in baseball as the lowest of the low.  If gambling on a game, as Pete Rose did, is unforgivable, what should the penalty be for players who purposely lose?  Before you answer that question, read The Original Curse.  Not only does Deveney build a compelling case that the Cubs threw the 1918 World Series, but he also tells the story in a way that just may have you siding with the players.

Pick up The Original Curse for yourself.  Also, be sure to visit The Original Curse website.  They both make for good reading.