How big a story is this, and how big a story would it be?

[Versatile]

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=6396358

So the lynchpin of this story is an out-of-context rumor, and I don't personally think this is anything without significant additional reporting. It's maybe a note in a baseball roundup if you're in Chicago or Boston. That's it, to me.

But I'm very open to hearing other opinions on the matter.

However, the main reason I brought this up is, what would your reaction be if it was proven that the Cubs threw the 1918 World Series. Being that the Red Sox then went 86 years before winning another title and the Cubs still haven't, I think it's actually a significant story, if someone can definitively prove it.

One interesting note: Thanks to World War I, the Cubs did not have an active Hall of Famer for the World Series.

 

[Starman]

There's a fairly lengthy thread on the S&N board, but basically I'd say,

1) The vast majority of people wouldn't care, and

2) Of those who do care, i.e. mainly hard-core baseball history nuts, it's been known for a long time that several other World Series in the teens were slightly fishy, with 1918 probably at the head of that list.

It would certainly be a story (not a notebook item) if it were solidly proven, but huge black headlines, front-page status for a week?

Nah.

 

[Versatile]

There's a fairly lengthy thread on the S&N board, but basically I'd say,

1) The vast majority of people wouldn't care, and

2) Of those who do care, i.e. mainly hard-core baseball history nuts, it's been known for a long time that several other World Series in the teens were slightly fishy, with 1918 probably at the head of that list.

It would certainly be a story (not a notebook item) if it were solidly proven, but huge black headlines, front-page status for a week?

Nah.

To be clear, I mean it shouldn't be anything more than a notebook item as it current stands reported. Factor in even one clear accusation from someone who actually has knowledge of the situation, and I think it's at least a front-page-of-the-sports-section story in both markets.

I do disagree that if it were solidly proven that the Cubs threw the Series -- if you could find financial documents or written contracts that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the 1918 World Series was thrown -- that wouldn't be a big, bold headline across the top of the page. I think that's a really big deal. I think that's A1, easily, in the two markets.

Red Sox and Cubs fans cling to their history. They would care.


Also, my apologies on the DB, but I'm more interested in the journalist value of this story if it turns out true than whether or not it IS true.

 

[93Devil]

There's a fairly lengthy thread on the S&N board, but basically I'd say,

1) The vast majority of people wouldn't care, and

2) Of those who do care, i.e. mainly hard-core baseball history nuts, it's been known for a long time that several other World Series in the teens were slightly fishy, with 1918 probably at the head of that list.

It would certainly be a story (not a notebook item) if it were solidly proven, but huge black headlines, front-page status for a week?

Nah.

I agree with all three points.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I think it would be an interesting Sunday Takeout story in Chicago, a small story in Boston, and a note everywhere else...

Unless anything is proven, that is, and that's not happening...

 

[Dick Whitman]

Wonder how far recent something like this has to be for it to be hard news rather than just history. Some of the stuff about the 1951 Giants sign-stealing implicated those kind of issues, as well.

Obviously, if the 2010 World Series were under suspicion: Story.
2004: Story.
1990: Probably still a pretty big story, even bigger if Hall of Famers or people still active in the game as managers, coaches, and front-office people are involved.
1980: Big story, but not sure it is handled the same way as '10 or '04 or even '90. Any chance of criminal charges at this point? Or has the statute of limitations run out?

What about 1970? What about 1960? What if it were found that the 1940 World Series were thrown? Does anyone outside of historians care? What if it were a famous World Series? What if it were Super Bowl III?

What if it were a 19th Century presidential election? What if it were the ratification of the Constitution? News? History?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I think it's always a huge story... If it can be proven.

 

[HanSenSE]

Nothing to see here except Cubs fans wallowing in their own self-inflicted pain, keep moving folks.

 

[Cubbiebum]

If it is proven it's a big story. A championship being thrown in one of the major sports is always a big story but this one ties into the two biggest "curses" and the Black Sox.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

If it is proven it's a big story. A championship being thrown in one of the major sports is always a big story but this one ties into the two biggest "curses" and the Black Sox.

The exception is the NBA. Then ESPN buries that story.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It would be big, but not the way that a more recent vintage fix would be. I think people would find it more quaint than anything. Very little (relative) emotion expended. Interesting to people in that it fills in some fascinating historical gaps.

 

[RickStain]

I'm no baseball historian, but I thought it was just assumed that anything that happened before 1920 had a fairly sizable chance of being hippodromed (is that the right word?).

 

[Dick Whitman]

It would be big, but not the way that a more recent vintage fix would be. I think people would find it more quaint than anything. Very little (relative) emotion expended. Interesting to people in that it fills in some fascinating historical gaps.

I think whether it would be big or small would largely depend on how iconic the moment was. A fairly non-descript 1940s World Series? Eh.

But finding out that Max Schmeling took a dive for Joe Louis? Finding out the Dodgers tanked Don Larsen's perfect game? That's a different story.

The outcry on a hypothetical Larsen fix, for an example, would be really interesting. I think the reaction would range from outright denial to "I don't care what really happened. I like the story the way it is" to anger at the whistle blower for ruffling history's bed cover. I know that Joshua Prager took some heat for the Bobby Thompson work in the WSJ, and Jane Leavy and others have gotten castigated for investigating the length of some of Mickey Mantle's home runs. Sports are almost an American secular religion for a lot of people, and like religion, when myth makes way for provable truth, we would be apt to discover that people would still pick myth.

 

[Starman]

Over my reading of baseball history over the last 45 or so years, it's been my impression that as long as the Giants played in the Polo Grounds with the team offices/clubhouse/locker room in center field, it was generally acknowledged that some kind of sign stealing went on in virtually every single game and it was pretty much accepted as one of the park conditions.

 

[BillyT]

I think it would be an interesting Sunday Takeout story in Chicago, a small story in Boston, and a note everywhere else...

Unless anything is proven, that is, and that's not happening...

If the Sox had not won the two series this century, this would get completely blown out of proportion by the New York tabloids.

Thi sis a huge story in Boston anyway.

 

[spikechiquet]

...and Eddie's last name is pronounced SEA-cot, not sih-COT-ee. Our family is French, not Italian!