Another World Series

Ruth as a Red Sox

The Clarion Content and the Sports Editor are familiar with the story of the Chicago Black Sox and the fixed 1919 World Series. We imagine many of our readers are as well. But had you heard the tale about the 1918 World Series between Babe Ruth's Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs? We hadn't either.

The New York Times had a fascinating article in its sports pages over the weekend (and fortunately we are not over our article allotment yet). The Times, relying heavily on a book by Sean Deveney called "The Original Curse," detailed the case that the Cubs threw the 1918 World Series. It centers around Cubs rightfielder Max Flack, the only man ever to get picked off-base twice in a single World Series game. In the same game, Flack also misplayed a Babe Ruth flyball into a triple by playing excessively shallow. In the final World Series game, Flack dropped a routine, two-out, can of corn, to right field in the fourth inning; his error allowed both Boston runs to score in the clinching 2-1 victory, a four games to one Sox triumph.

The NY Times reports there was strangely no celebration on the field. America's entry World War I was the big story, the following baseball season had been put on hold and most players assumed they would be drafted. Attendance was down. The economy was wobbly. World Series payout shares were going to be less than half of what had been anticipated. Conditions for a fix were ripe.

Anecdotal evidence from convicted Chicago Black Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte, indicated that several of his co-conspirators discussed the Cubs having been offered $10,000 per man to fix the 1918 Series.

All the principals are long dead and there is no more than Cicotte's words and the circumstantial evidence of Flack's failures. It is still an interesting story. Read more here.

Baseball Attendance

Word is Major League baseball attendance is lagging yet again. The moribund economy has done the game no favors. This, in combination with the struggles of a couple of major market teams, has pushed figures downward. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that through their first eighteen home games, the Dodgers averaged 36,672 spectators, which is a 16.5% drop from the same point in the season last year. The New York Mets, playing poorly and embroiled in the Madoff scandal, are also way down in attendance. Fannies coming through the turnstiles are even lower than the paid attendance figures that the Mets are reporting.

There are also a couple of smaller market teams who doing well whose public has yet to buy into their success, most notably Cleveland, but also Florida and Kansas City. Expectations are low and attendance has been still lower.

Tweet of the Night

From our buddies Petros and Money on the radio... Matt "Money" Smith got off the Tweet of the Night as the Lakers were going down in flames to fall behind the Mavs 3-0.

Think Peja is getting texted up by J-Will, Vlade, Doug Christie, C-Webb and Rick Adlemann right about now?

We are betting, yes, definitely yes.

Baseball, its punchless

While we at the Clarion Content love the new pitching heavy, post-steroids era of baseball, we have to acknowledge it sure is different. No more Punch and Judy second basemen hitting twenty-five homers in a season, same goes for the seventh place hitter in the line-up, no mas de 100 RBI seasons for a hack hitting that low in the order.

Just how much has the balance of power swung back to the pitchers? Last night's game between the White Sox and the Twins featured seven starters with batting averages under .200, three for the White Sox and four for the Twins.

Against this fierce line-up, the Twins Francisco Liriano pitched the first no-hitter of the season and according to the Elias Sports Bureau the first no-no ever by someone named Francisco.