The Sporting News' Sean Deveney writes that the Chicago Cubs may have thrown the 1918 World Series, which they lost 4 games to 2 to Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox. His source is a newly discovered affidavit that Chicago White Sox ace Eddie Cicotte provided to the Cook County, Illinois grand jury during the investigation over the 1919 World Series. Cicotte's affidavit states that the White Sox received their inspiration from the previous year's series.

As an admitted fixer, Cicotte is hardly the most credible source. He also did not, apparently, purport to have personal knowledge of the matter. There remains no competent evidence that the Cubs threw the 1918 World Series. In contrast, there is an abundance of evidence against the 1919 White Sox. (See Eliot Asinof, Eight Men Out.) If the 1918 Cubs had thrown the World Series, it is likely that someone involved would have admitted the fix at some point. As it is, there are nothing more than rumors, as this 2005 article by Timothy Gay in USA Today notes. Something that big does not stay a rumor if it is real.

If you are throwing a World Series, do your top two pitchers pitch 50 innings in 6 games and allow only 6 earned runs? That's what the Cubs' Hippo Vaughn and Lefty Tyler did in the 1918 series. In contrast, the White Sox' top two pitchers--Cicotte and Lefty Williams--were both in on the fix in 1919. In Game 1, Cicotte didn't throw 4 innings before allowing 6 runs.

The discovery of Cicotte's affidavit is interesting, but it does not mean much in answering the question of the legitimacy of the 1918 Series.

Curt Schilling has filed for free agency and listed the Chicago Cubs among 11 other teams for whom he would play in 2008. (Link via 1060west.) On the off chance that the Cubs and Schilling would come to terms on a 2008 contract, Schilling would bring more playoff mojo with him than any Cubs' player has had since Orval Overall (36 innings, 4 runs allowed in the 1907 and 1908 World Series).

The AP reports that former Cub Eric Hinske has been traded by the Blue Jays to the Red Sox for a player to be named later. The Blue Jays wanted to avoid paying Hinske his $5.6M salary next season.