page_title: History of the Chicago Cubs
section_title: 1914–1924: Lasker, Weeghman, and the double-Bills
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Chicago Cubs / Early MLB years (dead-ball era) / 1914–1924: Lasker, Weeghman, and the double-Bills
caption_attribution_description: English: Max Flack, Cubs, c. 1920 Notice the scoreboard featuring the "Doublemint Twins" atop it
context_page_description: The following is a franchise history of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball, a charter member of the National League who started play in the National Association in 1870 as the Chicago White Stockings. The Chicago National League Ball Club is the only franchise to play continuously in the same city since the formation of the National League in 1876. They are the earliest formed active professional sports club in North America, predating the team now known as the Atlanta Braves by one year. In their early history, they were called in the press the White Stockings, Orphans, Infants, Remnants and Colts before officially becoming "Cubs" in 1907.
context_section_description: The Cubs fell into a lengthy doldrum after the departure of their stars.  In 1916, advertising executive Albert Lasker and his partner Charles Phelps Taft obtained a large block of shares and soon acquired majority ownership of the Cubs. In 1916 Taft was bought out by Charlie Weeghman, who had owned the Chicago Whales of the short-lived Federal League, and was proprietor of a popular chain of lunch counters.
  Weeghman and Lasker moved the Cubs to the Whales' old home, Weeghman Park, in 1916.  The club was soon playing competitively again, and won the NL pennant in the war-shortened season of 1918, where they played a part in another team's curse, Curse of the Bambino. In the 1918 World Series, the North Siders, led by pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, posted the majors' best record at 84–45 that year, and faced the Boston Red Sox. Babe Ruth won two games in the series, including a 1–0 complete-game shutout in the opener to start off what would be a six-game Boston triumph. At the time considered a star pitcher who "just happened" to hit 29 home runs, Ruth was sold to the Yankees a year later, starting the Red Sox' own tale of futility which lasted for 86 years. The 1918 Series was poorly attended and there were rumblings that it was "fixed", but with America's energy focused on World War I, nothing came of these suspicions.
  Following the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, which led to yet another "curse" on the south side of Chicago, baseball in the city fell into very dark times and Lasker worked to create a new governing authority for Major League Baseball that led to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis becoming the first Commissioner of Baseball. By then, Weeghman was out of the picture. His lunch counter business fell on hard times after the war, and he was forced to sell more and more stock to Lasker's friend, chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. By 1918, Weeghman had sold his remaining stock to Wrigley. In 1921, Wrigley bought Lasker's controlling stake as well.
caption: Cubs right fielder Max Flack, c. 1920. Note the Doublemint "elves" atop the scoreboard, and the Wilson Sporting Goods sign on the right field wall.
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