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

Description

EDITORIAL REVIEW: **IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF *EIGHT MEN OUT* . . . the untold story of baseballs ORIGINAL SCANDAL** Did the Chicago Cubs throw the World Series in 1918and get away with it? Who were the players involvedand 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 baseballs greatest folklorein 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? Its, 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* Deveneys 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. Deveneys scholarship does not detract from his ability to spin a good tale: his tendency to imagine players conversations will remind readers of Leigh Montvilles *The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth*. A welcome companion to Susan Dellingers *Red Legs and Black Sox: Edd Roush and the Untold Story of the 1919 World Series*, Deveneys book contributes greatly to our understanding of this decisive period in baseball and American morals." *Library Journal* 1.Undeniable Popularity, Unmatched Futility2.Baseball 3.Gambling 4.The Cubs 5.World War I and Ballplayers 6.The Perfect Backdrop 7.Looking Up 8.Cheats and Drunks 9.The Curious Case of Charlie Hollocher 10.Hippo, Lefty, Max and Mann 11.Facing the Babe 12.The Far-Reaching Hand of War: Games 1 and 2 13.Just Enough to Lose: Games 3 and 4 14.Bolsheviks: Game 5 15.Flak for Max 16.From the Eyes of a Player 17.Other Finger-Pointers 18.Gambling Exposed 19.The Aftermath, Then and Now 20.100 Years of Heartbreak