World War I was ongoing. The U.S. Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, had issued the "work or fight order," meaning that anyone in "non-essential" jobs (like sports) had to either enlist in the armed forces, take a job with some connection to the war effort, by July 1, or be subject to being drafted into the U.S. Army.
As a result, baseball had to be shut down a month early, although the World Series was still allowed to be played. Unlike in the later World War II, there was no Commissioner of Baseball at the time, and thus no letter from the Commissioner to the President of the United States, asking what baseball should do; and thus no "green light letter" from the President, saying that baseball should continue.
September 11 was a date fraught with difficult history in America long before al-Qaeda's destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001:
* The Battle of Brandywine that the Continental Army lost outside Philadelphia in 1777.
* The Sugarloaf Massacre in Pennsylvania in 1780.
* The threat to Fort McHenry in Baltimore, with the battle coming 2 days later.
* The Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah in 1857.
* The leadup to the Battle of Antietam in Maryland in 1862.
* The Ninth Avenue Elevated derailment in New York in 1905.
* Charles Lindbergh's anti-Semitic speech in Des Moines in 1941.
* Hurricane Edna in New England in 1954.
* Hurricane Carla in Texas in 1961.
* A plane crash in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1974.
* A bomb killing a policeman at Grand Central Terminal in New York in 1976.
* Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii in 1992.
All that before 2001 -- and the Benghazi attack in 2012.
On September 11, 1918, no one knew if there would be a 1919 baseball season, or when baseball would ever start up again. It was not widely known that the war would be over in 2 more months. So many other sports competitions had been canceled for the duration in 1914. England's Football League and FA Cup had been canceled for the duration in 1915. There was no 1916 Olympics.
But the war did end on November 11, 1918. On April 19, 1919, the next season started on time. By the end of that year, most major sports competitions had been resumed, even in war-torn Europe. The 1920 Olympics were granted to hard-hit Belgium, and the 1924 Olympics to France: Summer to Paris, and the 1st Winter Olympics to Chamonix in the Alps.
As for the 1918 World Series: George Herman "Babe" Ruth (pictured above, in 1918), who had already helped pitch the Red Sox to win the 1915 and 1916 World Series, and had led the American League in home runs this season with 11, pitched and won Games 1 and 4 for the Sox, although, in Game 4, his streak of consecutive scoreless innings in World Series play ended at 29 2/3rds. That would remain a record until 1961. (It would not be the only record to be set by Ruth and broken that year.)
With this one exception, the earliest that a World Series has ever ended is on October 2. It's happened twice: In 1932, when the New York Yankees (with a Babe Ruth with a very different image) beat the Chicago Cubs; and in 1954, when the New York Giants (with Willie Mays making the most famous defensive play in the history of sports 4 days earlier) beating the Cleveland Indians. Both of those World Series were won in 4-game sweeps.
Let me address the elephant in the room: How did the Babe respond to the work or fight order? Until the World Series was over, he didn't respond to it at all. He kept on playing, exposing himself to the draft -- which he had every legal right to do.
Once it ended, he gained exemption from the war draft by accepting a nominal position with a Pennsylvania steel mill. The end of the war in November set Ruth free to play baseball without such contrivances.
I will leave it to the individual reader to decide whether Ruth's method of avoiding military service, while completely legal, was moral. However, unlike with what Jack Dempsey, who became Heavyweight Champion of the World in 1919, did in 1917 and 1918, and unlike Mickey Mantle, who was exempt from service in the Korean War of the early 1950s because of his osteomyelitis, nobody ever called Ruth a "slacker" or a "coward."
Over the next few years, Sox owner Harry Frazee began to break up his team. He really couldn't keep Ruth, leading to the myth of "The Curse of the Bambino." But the real problem was that he broke up a really good pitching staff.
As a result, the Red Sox did not get into another American League Pennant race until 1938. They didn't win another Pennant until 1946. They lost the ensuing World Series with Game 7 tied in the 8th. They lost a single-game Playoff for the Pennant in 1948. They blew the last 2 games of the 1949 season, only needing to win 1 to win the Pennant.
They lost the 1967 World Series in 7 games. They blew the 1972 AL Eastern Division title in the last week. They blew another Division title in 1974. They lost the 1975 World Series despite leading Game 7 3-0 after 5 innings. They blew another Division title in 1977. They blew a 9-game Division lead in July 1978 (remember, the Yankees were 14 games back, but they weren't the 2nd place team), and lost a 1-game Playoff for the title.
They lost the 1986 World Series despite leading Game 6 5-3 and needing 1 more strike in the 10th inning, and leading Game 7 3-0 going to the bottom of the 6th. They got swept in the AL Championship Series in 1988, and again in 1990. They got swept in the AL Division Series in 1995, and again in 1998. They got to the ALCS in 1999, and clowned their way through another loss. They nearly pulled off a "reverse choke" for the 2000 Division title, but didn't quite make it. They lost the 2003 ALCS despite leading Game 7 5-2 going to the bottom of the 8th.
"The Curse of the Bambino is not, 'The Red Sox can't beat the Yankees.' The Curse of the Bambino is, 'The Red Sox can't win the World Series.'" -- Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe. You'll notice that, of those 17 defeats starting in 1946, the Yankees were involved in "only" 6 of them. The problem wasn't the Yankees. If the Sox wanted to know what was wrong, they needed to look in the mirror.
It took one more year to do it. The Boston Red Sox stunned the Yankees in the ALCS, and, on October 27, 2004 -- 86 years, 1 month and 16 days after they last did so -- won the World Series. To do so, they beat the St. Louis Cardinals, who had beaten them in the 1946 and 1967 World Series.
This win, of course, was bogus, as were the World Series they won in 2004 and 2007. And we know why: Performance-enhancing drugs. David "Big Papi" Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, by far their 2 most significant hitters in 2004 and 2007, used PEDs. Ortiz was still there when they won again in 2013.
He used PEDs. He was tested for them. He failed the test. He said he never used them. He lied. He was exposed. Exposed as a cheater and a liar. He still lies about it. For all we know, he still cheated until he retired at the end of the 2016 season.
And yet, he was not only still permitted to play professional baseball, he was allowed to be crowned the Most Valuable Player of the 2013 World Series.
And when the Red Sox won again in 2018, 100 years after their last honest title, that was the year they were caught using something not available for their entire 86-year drought: Apple Watches. So even with these 4 tainted titles, the Red Sox have still not won the World Series without cheating since September 11, 1918.
Which was a Wednesday. And no other major sporting events were played. So Game 6 of the 1918 World Series was the only score on this historic day.
UPDATE: The Red Sox have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918 World Champions, they have inducted manager Bill Carrigan, shortstop Everett Scott, 3rd baseman Larry Gardner, left fielder Duffy Lewis, center fielder Tris Speaker, right fielder Harry Hooper, and pitchers Smoky Joe Wood, Dutch Leonard, Herb Pennock and Babe Ruth.
The Cubs also have a team Hall of Fame. Inducted from their 1918 Pennant winners have been pitchers Grover Cleveland Alexander and James "Hippo" Vaughn, team owner William Wrigley Jr., and public address announcer Pat Pieper.
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