The Chicago History Museum recently placed a 1920 court deposition on its website, and it contains quotes that imply the Cubs may have thrown the 1918 World Series against the Boston Red Sox.
Eddie Cicotte, who was one of the 1919 Black Sox banned from baseball after being accused of throwing the World Series, said that there was talk of just such a thing.
"The ball players were talking about somebody trying to fix the National League ball players or something like that," Cicotte is quoted as saying in the deposition (source: Associated Press via ESPNChicago.com).
"Well anyway there was some talk about them offering $10,000 or something to throw the Cubs in the Boston Series," he said. "Somebody made a crack about getting money, if we got into the Series, to throw the Series."
The implication is that word of the Cubs allegedly throwing the Series may have prompted the idea for the Black Sox players to do the same the following year.
Unfortunately, we can't ask Cicotte about this, as he died in 1969. But apparently at least one author believes it could be true.
"They didn't make much money," said Sean Deveney, a reporter with The Sporting News whose book, "The Original Curse," said a fix by the Cubs was likely. "They had the incentive to do something like that."
The story goes that the owners refused to pay the Red Sox and Cubs players and at one point, the players refused to come on the field.
Deveney says there were some suspicious plays in that Series.
Outfielder Max Flack was picked off twice, dropped a fly ball, and played too shallow to catch a drive from Babe Ruth that went over his head for a triple.
Also, Cubs pitcher Phil Douglas threw a ball over the first baseman's head, allowing the winning run to score in one of the games.
Players back in the day didn't make much money and gamblers were often seen hanging around ballplayers.
If this is true, the Cubs could have "only" been waiting 93 years for a World Series championship.
Quotes are from The Associated Press and ESPN.com
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