Will the Next Cubs World Series Win be Fixed?

By the TSB Staff

If and when the Cubs win the World Series, do you think it will be fixed? Seriously, we know at least one World Series in Chicago was fixed…and yes, it was 80 years ago, but do you think the Cubs’ next triumph will be scripted and pre-arranged? Is that the only way it could actually happen? Why or why not? If it happened this October, exactly 100 years to the date, would that affect your answer?

 
All I’ll say is this- 1908 to 2008 seems like a nice story…perhaps a little too nice to be as they would say in an economics course, “pure competition.” So it might seem a little fishy this season if they hoist the World Series trophy this October. Then again, to go over a century and NOT close the deal seems even more unlikely than any possible scripted ending. So my heart, mind and hunch says “Eamus Catuli” and if they win it all this fall (or whenever they do it again finally), it will occur under a “free market” system and not under pre-arranged conditions.

Sarah Spain: Today’s baseball landscape is far too media-saturated for game fixing or scripting of any kind to be pulled off successfully. These days, Roger Clemens can’t keep decades-old extramarital affairs with 15-year-olds a secret and Tony LaRussa can’t fall asleep at the wheel without the resulting police video reaching the interwebs. If the fix was on, someone would surely find a way to appear in front of Congress to snitch. Not only is the media more involved, the leagues themselves are more self-aware as well. Tim Donaghy’s transgressions have caused the MLB and other professional leagues to shine a bigger spotlight on their officials. 
 
So while the idea of the Cubs winning the World Series exactly one hundred years after their last win sounds like the stuff of movies, if it happens, it will be for real. Curses make for great stories, but the Cubs’ woes are the result of players, managers, blown trades and bad plays. The team won’t need a script or a fix to win it all, they’ll just need to be the best team on the field when it counts. As a Cubs fan, I can’t think of better way to put a halt to a hundred years of tears than to win it all in true Hollywood fashion.

Seymour Pennants:

Dad (Ivon Pennants) put the fix in for 1907 & 1908….and what’s good enough for dear old Dad, is good enough for me.  Got some of my “friends” from the old neighborhood together to raise the amount to fix it this year – The teamsters, some of Rosti’s old boys, the guys at Gene & Giorgetti’s. We’ll raise enough to fix opposing players, the umps….hell, we’re even bribing Bartmann to stay home. It cost Pops about $500 and a hooker.  I figure if we double that we should be fine.
 

 

Professor B is used to being ahead of the curve…  

…but he was surprised to discover the New York Times on his heels in “Betting Website has been Helping to Show Various Sports if the Fix is In.” (Sunday May 25). I guess I’ve always assumed all professional sports are fixed, starting with horseracing and boxing of course, as the oldest organized sports.
 
But new technology has shown how in tennis, hockey and the NBA, gamblers are getting an inside line on fixed events. In fact Sports are about money, and so is gambling. In some ways you could see sporting events outcomes as converging on the natural result of market forces. Betfair is the name of the site, which, like at the racetrack, determines the odds based on the total action on a given event. You can bet on MLB, NFL, NBA, but you cannot wager from inside the US. Canada and offshore PayPal accounts may be an option. I’m thinking this would be a good way for sports pundits to prove their mettle once and for all. Obviously sports needs the rubes to create buzz around events and needs pundits to talk about who “should” win, to set up the basic odds structure, but being able to see through all that and sense a big score reveals the true gambling mind. Place your bets olks. I know I will.

   

You may also like -

Big Questions in Cubdom: Should the Cubs Re-sign Kerry Wood?Chicago Cubs Name Minor League Managers and Coordinators for 2012Baseball's Biggest Stat Geeks to Convene during Arizona Spring Training