When the Cubs struck the World Series

2016 marks 108 years since the Cubs won the 1908 World Series, their last. While many excuses have been offered - bad players, inept management, even the curse of Sam Siannis' goat, expelled from a 1945 World Series game at Wrigley though his teeth clenched a valid ticket, one factor haunting Cubs futility has been overlooked: the strike they joined in with the Red Sox during the 1918 Series.

1918 was possibly the most tumultuous in baseball history. With World War I raging, it looked like upwards of 80% of major leaguers would be drafted. Congress passed a law stating all fit men must fight or work in the war industry. Baseball big-wigs weren't able to convince authorities that entertaining war-weary citizens qualified as war work. Many players, including White Sox star Shoeless Joe Jackson, headed for the shipyards which used them mainly to play on company teams. Uncle Sam finally relented, letting the Bigs keep playing till September 1; then allowing another exemption for the World Series, featuring our Cubbies versus the Red Sox. All hell broke loose when the league, suffering reduced attendance from a shortened season, told the two champs they'd get a greatly reduced Series share, dropping from $2,000 and $1,400, to $1,400 and $800 respectively, for the winners and losers. One the train to Boston for game 5, Cubs and Sox players huddled up and planned to lobby the National Commission, which ruled the game, for their full expected share. Brusquely turned down, both teams refused to take the field before a full Fenway crowd, including many wounded vets, at game time. A drunk American League president Ban Johnson cajoled the players to end their strike after one hour on the promise to re-instate their expected pay and not punish them. The game went on with the Cubs losing (of course) to the BoSox in six. Afterwards, the players got even less than the original paltry payoff promised and were denied the World Series medals (1918's version of WS rings) they deserved.

Maybe it's simply coincidence or truly bad Karma, but neither team won another World Series for 86 years. The Red Sox have now won two. And our Cubbies? With Cub fever 108 and rising, don't expect a big parade down Addison Street this October.