Encounter the Curses
After the 1918 World Series, there is no question that both the Cubs and the Red Sox, as franchises, fell into precipitous decline and stayed there for decades. The Red Sox would not win another World Series until 2004, an 86-year wait. The Cubs, of course, still have not won a World Series. That’s odd enough. But just as odd is the strange and sometimes tragic twists the lives of the players and owners of the two teams took after the 1918 series. Gambling accusations, untimely deaths, financial destitution and even a suicide—these were the fates of those who played for Boston or Chicago in 1918. Have a look:
Dapper and flamboyant, restaurant owner and Cubs president “Lucky” Charley Weeghman was well-known and well-liked around Chicago. But the 1918 season was the last time anyone would, without irony, call Weeghman lucky. The war depleted Charley’s restaurants and he sold shares of the Cubs to stay afloat. By December 1918, Weeghman had sold all his stock to his friend and fellow Cubs investor, chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. With that, Weeghman was out of baseball. Just over a year later, his wife, Bessie, filed for divorce and on August 9, 1920, Charley’s business interests were placed in receivership. He was broke. Charley was an associate manager at the Riviera club and restaurant in New Jersey when he died in 1938.
Team owner and successful theater producer Harry Frazee will forever be demonized in Boston for the selling off of the team’s top talent, including Babe Ruth, mostly to the Yankees. Of course, no one remembers that it was Frazee’s largesse in 1918 that won the Red Sox their last championship until 2004. 
All four of the principals of the Cubs’ pitching staff in 1918—Lefty Tyler, Hippo Vaughn, Phil Douglas and Claude Hendrix—saw their careers end amid controversy. (Photo courtesy of Chicago History Museum.)Frazee remains a fuzzy and much-disputed character, but we can say for sure that, sometime between the 1918 World Series and his death in 1929, Frazee fell on hard times. His drinking habit caught up with him—he contracted Bright’s disease, a kidney ailment linked to alcoholism, and was only 48 when he passed away.
Bill Killefer, Otto Knabe and John O. Seys
Given their geographic proximity to the White Sox, it should not be astonishing that many Cubs were sucked into the orbit of the 1919 World Series scandal. Cubs secretary John O. Seys testified in 1921 that he actually held stakes for series-fixer Abe Attell. According to Bill Veeck’s book, The Hustler’s Handbook, the diary of White Sox secretary Harry Grabiner claimed that, “(Cubs coach) Knabe who intended betting on the White Sox was told by catcher Killefer to lay off as the White Sox had been gotten to. Rumors are that games were thrown during 1919 season by … Hendrix, Killefer, Cubs.”
Grover Cleveland Alexander
Alexander was the N.L.’s most dominating pitcher when the Cubs traded for him before the 1918 season. But he was drafted in April and pitched only three games that year. While fighting in France, exploding artillery rendered him deaf in his left ear and he likely suffered shellshock. He returned subject to epileptic fits and with a serious drinking problem. Alexander put together one great postwar year, earning the pitching Triple Crown for a subpar Cubs team in 1920. Alexander managed to pitch until 1930, when he was 43 years old. But he squandered his money and could not hold a job because of his drinking. In 1939, Alexander was inducted into the Hall of Fame. “They gave me a tablet up at the Cooperstown Hall of Fame,” Alexander said, “but I can’t eat any tablet.” He died in 1947, broke and indigent.
Cubs backup catcher Rowdy Elliott enlisted in the navy in May 1918, and would play only one more big-league season. He bounced through minor-league gigs until, on February 12, 1934, at age 43, Elliott (possibly drunk) fell from an apartment window and died from the injuries. A collection was taken up by friends to keep Elliott, who was penniless, from being buried in a potter’s field.
Kilduff left the Cubs to join the navy in 1918 and played three big-league seasons after the war. After his big-league career, Kilduff had agreed to be the manager for Alexandria (La.) in the Cotton States League when, on February 14, 1930, he died on the operating table while having his appendix removed. He was only 36 years old.
Leonard’s career ended in ignominy and embarrassment. He finished his career under manager Ty Cobb. Cobb released Leonard in July 1925, and Leonard was frustrated to find that no other team would pick him up. The following spring, a vengeful Leonard went to Ban Johnson, alleging that he and Cobb had conspired with Tris Speaker and Indians outfielder Joe Wood to have Cleveland lose a game to help Detroit finish third. Leonard produced letters that—vaguely—backed his claim. Johnson decided that Speaker and Cobb should be forced out by quiet “retirement.” But new commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis investigated the matter and when Leonard refused to testify in Chicago, Landis overturned Johnson’s decision and declared Cobb and Speaker, two of the game’s most popular heroes, innocent. Leonard was forever the goat.
On August 31, 1920, the Cubs were to play the Phillies. Just before that game, team president William Veeck received messages warning him of abnormal betting on the Phillies. On orders from Veeck, manager Fred Mitchell benched pitcher Claude Hendrix. Merkle, too, was mysteriously benched. The Cubs still lost, thanks in large part to a late error by second baseman Buck Herzog. As details of the suspected plot became public in the following days, a grand jury was convened to investigate baseball gambling. Hendrix, Merkle, Herzog and relief pitcher Paul Carter were sent home and were expected to testify—until discoveries about the thrown 1919 World Series got in the way. The truth of the August 31 fix is lost to history. None of the four players was formally banned, but all were released by the Cubs after the 1920 season. Hendrix, Herzog and Carter never played in the big leagues again. Merkle was out of the big leagues until he had a brief return as a player-coach in 1925 and ’26.
One of those players the Red Sox signed in 1918 to fill in for players lost to the war was Jean Dubuc, a so-so, 29-year-old righthanded pitcher. In 1912, Dubuc had befriended a teammate with the Tigers, little-used pitcher Bill Burns, the same Bill Burns who gained notoriety as a briber of the Black Sox. During the trial of the 1919 White Sox, Giants pitcher Rube Benton testified that Dubuc received telegrams—presumably from Burns—telling him how to bet on the series. His friendship with Burns convinced manager John McGraw to drop Dubuc from the Giants.
Hollocher batted .316 as a rookie in 1918, fourth in the N.L., and by the end of the year, he seemed destined to become one of the game’s great shortstops. But in 1923, Hollocher suffered an attack of the flu in spring training. He went back to St. Louis until Bill Killefer, who was, by then, manager of the Cubs, persuaded Hollocher to rejoin the team. Hollocher hit .342 in 66 games, but again left the team with illness. He returned for 76 games in 1924, but his stomach still hurt, and he quit for good. On August 14, 1940, at age 43, Hollocher slid into the front seat of his car in St. Louis County, and killed himself with a gunshot in the throat.
At the Polo Grounds on August 16, 1920, Mays faced Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman and threw a fastball. Chapman froze. The ball hit Chapman near the left temple, fracturing his skull and, eventually, killing him. He remains the only big-league player to be killed by a pitched ball. Mays was forever reviled over the death. And there would be more controversy for Mays. Later accusations—never formalized—arose that Mays was involved in throwing the World Series in ’21 and ’22.
From 1914-20, Vaughn was among the best starters in the National League. But in 1921, at age 33, things went sour. On July 9, Vaughn had a terrible outing in New York, dropping his record to 3-11. He walked off the mound and, without notifying the team, went back to Chicago. Vaughn was suspended, and turned up with a semi-pro outfit. When the Cubs brought on his old teammate, Bill Killefer, as manager, Vaughn wanted to return. The Cubs attempted to reinstate him. But Landis, saying that Vaughn had jumped his contract by signing with the semipro team, refused to allow Vaughn to return. Vaughn never pitched in the big leagues again.
Phil Douglas was a talented pitcher, but an alcoholic prone to taking what “vacations,” a euphemism for benders. The Cubs gave up on Douglas in 1919, sending him to the Giants. Manager John McGraw treated Douglas harshly, keeping him under near-constant surveillance. In 1922, Douglas slipped away from McGraw’s operatives and went on a drinking binge. When Douglas was found, he was tossed in the West End Sanitarium. He then wrote a letter to ex-Cubs teammate Les Mann, telling Mann (playing for the Cardinals, who were competing for the pennant with the Giants) he could not stand to pitch for McGraw anymore. He offered Mann a deal—he would leave the team if Mann would, “send a man over here with the goods.” The letter was turned over to Commissioner Landis. Douglas was banned from baseball.
It seemed 1918 would be a breakthrough year for Lefty Tyler. He was only 28, had gone 19-8. But when Tyler reported to spring training in 1919, he developed soreness in his shoulder. The Cubs sent him to the Mayo Clinic, where he was diagnosed with bad teeth that were causing a poisoning of his blood. He had all his teeth removed except two. It was no help. He went 11-12 in 1920 and in July 1921, Tyler was 3-2 when—at just 31 years old—the Cubs released him. He never pitched in the big leagues again.
- Charley Weeghman Team President
- Harry Frazee Owner
- Bill Killefer, Otto Knabe and John O. Seys Cubs Organization
- Grover Cleveland AlexanderPitcher
- Rowdy ElliottBack-up Catcher
- Pete Kilduff Second Baseman
- Dutch Leonard Pitcher
- The 1920 Bunch Hendrix, Merkle, Herzog and Carter
- Jean Dubuc Pitcher
- Charley Hollocher Short Stop
- Carl Mays Pitcher
- Hippo Vaughn Pitcher
- Shufflin’ Phil DouglasPitcher
- Lefty TylerPitcher
