 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.