Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1918. War casts shadow on Sox title

Providence Journal readers had to flip to the sports section in September 1918 to learn that the Red Sox had topped the Chicago Cubs to win the World Series.

War news covered the front page that day: three Rhode Island men had been reported wounded while fighting in France.

The humble two-column headline inside the paper reported:

Red Sox World's Best; Win Title in Final, 2-1

The victory was bittersweet.

The Series had been played under the weight of world war. It seemed obvious that the 1918 World Series title would be the last baseball championship until the war was over. Fan interest was down; the war was too important. The Series had been played in front of small crowds.

After Game 1, The Journal had reported on the "great pitching" of Red Sox star Babe Ruth, but it also noted soberly: "The effect of the war was everywhere apparent, especially in the temper of the crowd . . . there was no cheering during the contest, nor was there anything like the usual umpire baiting."

Journal files / AP photo

Babe Ruth in his Red Sox uniform - before there was ever talk of The Curse.

Midway though the six-game Series, a Journal editorial, headlined "Baseball's Farewell," predicted that the sport would be put on hold until the war was won.

"The national game, professionally speaking, is playing its last schedule for the duration of the war," the paper said. "Teams have already been depleted beyond replacement, by the draft and the volunteering of some of the ablest players."

And more than just the ranks of players were dwindling.

"Hundreds of thousands of fans are in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, more hundreds of thousands are to follow them, and the minds of the millions of stay-behinds are becoming fixed on the progress of the paramount national undertaking, the winning of the war."