The 1918 World Series
On September 1919 the world Baseball series was in town hosting both Babe Ruth as well as Boston Red Sox. The games were played at Comiskey Park which was the home ground for the white sox since the place had any fans compared to their new home Weegham Park at Wrigley field. Comiskey Park was a baseball park that was located in bridge point community on the southwest side of the city. The park hosted four World Series with more than 6000 major league; it is a famous site of many other sporting events including the 11937 heavy weight match. During that time it was a modern park since it was among the three steel and concrete stadiums in major leagues. It was name after the owner Charles Comiskey (Pennington).
However, due to war tensions and jittery over bombing the game did not attract as much fans as it was expected. The fans who came were only 20, 000 which was the smallest number recorded in years for a World Series crowd. The fans did not make much noise since they feared. Babe Ruth was on the pitch, he was ready to pitch the red sox. The band from the Navy training station started to play the song by the name star spangled banner which was a major famous song that was played in the previous years. To show respect for the flag players took off their caps as they face the direction in which the flag was fluttered on a pole on the right side of the field.
Fred Thomas was a Red Sox infielder and he was in the army during the series, was the only one who was not singing. Immediately after the Wiscon heard the melody he put of his hat and turned towards the flag and gave a military salute. At the moment only a few fans were singing but then other joined and therefore the field was rolled with the great melodies with great volumes. After the Anthem came to an end the spectators exploded into a louder applause and filled the air with cheers which marked the day highest excitement. The 1918 series marked the first time when The Star Spangled Banner was performed in a league especially the baseball league.
At the 7th inning stretch of game 1 the song was played by the band since the country was among the nations participated in the World War 1. The song became the US national anthem in 1931 and during the World War 2 the playing of the song became regular. It became a regular thing that before any baseball match or any other sporting event the song must be sang first. Babe Ruth who was a trait of baseball at that time was mentioned in the anthem. However, after that game the owner of the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to New York Yankees whereby he escalated the team to be a world champion and record holders. Red sox on the other side were believed to be cursed since it went for 89 years without winning any championship.
Ruth had charismatic personalities as well as legendary power which made him a larger figure during his career in the roaring 20s. He was a womanizer and drunkard when off filed. These characters led to him denied the chance to be a manager for the baseball team despite his talents and abilities in the baseball game. He had a willing heart of visiting orphans and he poor but his reckless lifestyle hindered him from visiting them (Pennington).
It was believed that the 1918 series was affected by gambling and the Chicago cubs were said to throw the game. This were speculations that lacked evidence for a longer period of time until the time when Eddie one of the most infamous black sox player revealed that him and his team mates were given some money to throw the game. He was banned from the game for life after receiving some cash which helped in losing the game. According to Eddie the players of the baseball were paid to throw the series. The players were discussing on whom the individual may be who tried to fix the game. There were some talks which were held about them throwing the amount or throw the club during the series. There was no proof since the red sox had some strong players like Ruth Babe among others. Therefore, other did not agree with the issue since they believed Sox won fairly due to the presence of strong players like Babe Ruth. However, other historians are hard to convince and they would state clearly that there is nothing to convince them that there is anything suspicious that seemed to happened. During the dialogue in the Black sox committee it was hard for one to convince the committee members that indeed the series was fixed (Pennington).
The suspense is very unfortunate that a very recreational game like baseball is destroyed because of one person. Additionally the awful suspense is when Babe Ruth was denied an opportunity to be a baseball manager. It was so unfortunate that they would rely on his pat behaviors in his career as a player in determining his future as a manager. It would be so unfortunate if the team that has lasted for the last 20th c has become tainted. The fans are too loyal since they have supported the team for so long despite the fact that they had faced a long time drought without any tittle Red sox fans are still there to support the team.
According to Devney we cannot judge that the game was affected by gambling because of less celebration in the field. According to him the time baseball was being played is the time when the country was in the World War 1 and therefore there was some tension and fear of the bombs. More so, what Eddie was mentioning had no basis of truth or evidence they were just written words. The baseball committee did not investigate the matter and therefore, thy also lacked the truth of accusing Red Sox of gambling (Pennington).
Later I the year 2011 that is when the Chicago history museum cited the court testimony that was left by Cicotte during an investigation which was carried in the year 1919 due to the gambling issue that was raised which was facing a Sox Scandal after the world series of 1918.Cicote cited some allegations and references that the cubs threw the series and therefore, the lost was planned. He stated that the Cubs fixed the game they had lost against the Red Sox. But one cannot consider the former player information to be reliable or unbiased. History is dangerous especially if one attempts to change. Additionally many individuals may be suffering from their reputations being ruined.
Both the cubs and the Red Sox were very upset that the team owners were not paying their share and salaries. Many believed that indeed the team did not throw the series but it unfortunately happened to them that the great cub hitters forgot how to hit or did not get opportunities to hit. In addition there was no way Red Sox would have lost the series with the best hitter like Babe Ruth in the field. After he was transferred to New York Yankees his significant talent was still seen and he made that team to come from far, from grass to Grace.
Works cited
Pennington, Bill. “A Year Before The Black Sox, Whiff Of Scandal Wafted Over 1918 World Series.” Nytimes.com. N.p., 2018. Web. 20 Feb. 2018.
