Curses are a funny thing. Just ask the Boston Red Sox. Last season the Red Sox accomplished the greatest feat in postseason history, coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees and sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series for their first championship since the days of the Bambino in 1918.
Maybe the bellyachers from Beantown weren’t that cursed after all; maybe they just weren’t that good for 86 years. Curses exist if you believe in them-and, until last season, the Red Sox believed.
This postseason, another team looks to end a curse of its own ?_” the Chicago White Sox, the team that swept the defending champions in the American League Division Series.
While 1918 has special meaning for Red Sox fans, it is sandwiched between two years that mean something just as special for White Sox fans-Chicago last won a World Series one year before and threw a World Series one year after.
1917 saw the birth of John F. Kennedy, the entrance of the United States into World War I and the White Sox winning a World Series defeating the New York Giants in six games.
The Sox haven’t won a Series since.
Just two years later, Chicago would be marred by the most notorious fixing in sports history, intentionally losing to the Cincinnati Reds in the 1919 World Series.
The fix was in response to Chicago’s stingy owner, Charles Comiskey.
That year outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who received the nickname after playing a game in 1908 in his socks because his new spikes hurt his feet (he actually had a triple in that game), and third baseman Buck Weaver-Chicago’s two biggest stars-earned $6,000 each, a fraction of what other less talented players made around the league.
In 1917, White Sox ace Eddie Cicotte was promised a $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games. With several weeks left in the season, Cicotte posted an AL-best 28 wins and 1.53 ERA.
Yet, rather than risking having to pay Cicotte what he promised, Comiskey benched his star pitcher.
Jackson, Weaver and Cicotte-along with Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Fred McMullin, Claude Williams and Oscar Felsch-decided to throw the Series for $100,000.
In the first inning of the first game of the 1919 World Series, Cicotte beaned Reds lead-off hitter Maurice Rath in the back, a sign the fix was on. Cicotte and Williams lost two games each for the White Sox, including the final game of the series, a 10-5 Reds victory that saw Williams throw 15 pitches, allow three runs and record just one out.
Word of the fix was publicized the following year and, in 1921, Commissioner Kenesaw Landis banned the eight White Sox players for life, saying, “No player that throws a ballgame [and] no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame – will ever play professional baseball.”
Some historians and aficionados of the game believe one of the players-Shoeless Joe-was not actually part of the fix and should not have been banned from baseball.
Jackson led all hitters in the 1919 World Series with a .375 average, hit the only home run in the Fall Classic, did not commit a single error and threw five men out at the plate.
Yet he was banned, and his ban stood.
Another world war and 15 presidents later, the White Sox are looking to put another 86-year curse to rest-the curse of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the “Black Sox”-and might make some history while doing it.
Chicago defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in five games to advance to the World Series. After dropping the first game of the ALCS to the Angels, Chicago’s starting pitchers responded with four consecutive complete games, a feat that had never occurred in the history of the game.
Starting pitchers Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Jon Garland and Jose Contreras scattered 27 hits while striking out 22 and walking four.
The White Sox quartet has a 2.02 ERA and a .69 WHIP. Chicago’s bullpen pitched just two-thirds of an inning for the series.
They’ll be well rested for whomever they play-even though the White Sox might not even need them.
While the Chicago offense isn’t the strength of the team, it is certainly not lacking in power.
Third baseman Joe Crede and ALCS MVP Paul Konerko, who finished the season with 40 home runs and 100 RBIs, each hit two homeruns against the Angels to go along with seven RBIs.
With speedster Scott Podsednik’s 59 stolen bases, the White Sox are also capable of playing small ball and manufacturing runs.
Whether or not Chicago is able to end its curse remains to be seen. Either way, don’t expect Shoeless Joe to have the final say in the matter. After all, curses only exist if you believe in them. Just ask the Red Sox.
