Document hints that the Chicago Cubs threw the 1918 World Series

Guess what? The 1918 World Series was also fixed.

"The White Sox got the idea to throw the 1919 World Series after the Cubs did the same thing one year earlier."

Point one: this is based on some allegations made by the Black Sox's Eddie Cicotte, but Cicotte never actually said that the Cubs agreed to throw all or part of the 1918 World Series, only that they were approached by gamblers.

Point two: I don't think there was a conspiracy in 1918, because it's obvious that neither of the Cubs' starting pitchers was involved. The team only used two starters in the Series and they were both magnificent. The opposing Red Sox only had 6 RBI in 6 games! Lefty Tyler's ERA was 1.17 and Hippo Vaughn's was 1.00.

But if the gamblers were throwing big money around, it is very possible that one or more of the Cubs could have agreed to screw up, and that might have been enough. After all, in the following year's Black Sox scandal, there was really no need for all eight guys to participate. Number two starter Lefty Williams pretty much managed to throw the Series on his own by losing three games.

Also, there is no reason why any Cubs would have had to appear suspicious by throwing game after game. The gamblers didn't need an entire Series to make money. The could pocket a boatload of money if they knew the certain outcome of only one game in advance.

Could one or more of the Cubs position players have agreed to take a dive in one or more games? Entirely possible. If I had to guess, I'd say some Cubs players threw game four.

Here are the likely culprits:

1. Outfielder Max Flack did a bunch of suspicious stuff. He was thrown out on not one but two inexplicably ill-advised big leads. Even more suspicious, he refused to move back and play deeper on the mighty Babe Ruth when his pitcher specifically asked him to do so with two outs, two on base, and the game tied 0-0. That pitcher, Lefty Tyler, was mighty upset with Flack before Ruth's at-bat, and his temperament didn't improve a bit when the Bambino promptly lashed a long triple over Flack's head.

2. Relief pitcher Shufflin' Phil Douglas pitched only one inning in the entire Series, but he managed to lose that fourth game in the course of facing two batters. Here's how it went down. Unable to recover from Ruth's triple, the Cubs were still down 2-0 in the top of the eighth, so starter Lefty Tyler was lifted for a pinch hitter. It paid off. The pinch hitter delivered a hit, and the Cubs went on to tie the game. Despite all of Flack's earlier efforts, the Cubs had somehow fought back. Since Tyler was out of the game, manager Fred Mitchell was forced to use Douglas for the one and only time in that Series. Douglas only needed a handful of pitches to lose the game. The first batter hit a single, then Douglas threw one in the dirt, allowing the runner to advance into scoring position. The next guy laid down a sacrifice bunt, whereupon Douglas fielded it and threw it into right field, allowing the go-ahead run - the eventual winning run - to score. Douglas's shenanigans would have seemed suspicious coming from a man with an otherwise impeccable reputation, but everything seemed utterly pernicious in retrospect when Douglas later turned out to be a bad egg who was banned from baseball for soliciting a bribe to influence the outcome of a game!