This week, author Skip Desjardin tells us about his new book September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series. He introduces us to a pivotal month, when world history was being made in Boston and Bostonians were making history around the world. The cast of characters ranges from Babe Ruth to Blackjack Pershing to EE Cummings. During our discussion, you’ll learn about the Massachusetts National Guardsmen who fought the first American-led battle in World War I, you’ll hear about the uncertainty surrounding the 1918 World Series, and you’ll encounter more details about the deadly 1918 influenza outbreak.
September 1918
Find out more about the book September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series or order it online. Plus, you can follow author Skip Desjardin on Twitter to learn when he has upcoming book events and media appearances. He has two Massachusetts book events on the schedule now, with more likely to come:
- Sept 24 – 7:00pm – Western New England University, Springfield, MA
- Sept 27 – 6:30pm – Paul Pratt Memorial Library, Cohasset, MA
Featured Historic Site
Since the Red Sox are so heavily featured in this week’s podcast, we wanted our featured historic site this week to take a page out of baseball history. Before the Red Sox were the Red Sox, they were the Boston Americans. And before Fenway Park was built, the Boston Americans, and then the Red Sox, played at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds, right across the railroad tracks from the South End Grounds, home of the rival Boston Braves.
The Huntington Avenue Grounds were used from 1901 until Fenway Park opened in 1912. In that short time, the park was home to the first World Series, which the Red Sox won at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates in October 1903. It was also home to baseball’s first perfect game, pitched by Cy Young on May 5, 1904.
Today, the site is part of the campus of Northeastern University. To visit, take the E branch of the Green Line to the Northeastern University stop. Walk down Forsyth Street toward Ruggles Station, and on your left you’ll see a campus path called World Series Way. In between Northeastern’s Cabot Cage athletic facility and Churchill Hall, you’ll find a silent bronze statue of Cy Young marking the former location of the pitcher’s mound, and if you look hard enough, you can find a flush mounted plaque where home plate used to be.
Upcoming Event
Our event this week is part of the Partnership of Historic Bostons’ annual Charter Day commemoration. They have more events planned throughout the month.
On September 12, Elon Cook Lee is speaking at the main library in Copley Square on the early history of slavery in Massachusetts in a talk called, “Desire and the Body of Liberties.” Here’s how the BPL website describes it:
In 1638, John Winthrop recorded in his diary that upon returning from the West Indies, the Massachusetts ship Desire carried “some cotton, and tobacco, and negroes, etc.” Public historian Elon Cook Lee discusses the history and legacy of the first slave ship to enter Boston’s waters and explores the lives of the charter generation of Africans in Massachusetts.
Elon Cook Lee is the program director and curator at the Center for Reconciliation, a consultant on interpreting slavery and racial identity for historic sites around the country, and a Brown University educated public historian. She will almost certainly do a better job interpreting the history around slavery and the Desire than your humble hosts did. Her talk begins at 6pm in the Rabb Lecture Hall.