This isn’t the first time Red Sox players have threatened to boycott a game — or delayed one — over money. The Red Sox and Cubs threatened to boycott Game 5 of the 1918 World Series in Boston over the distribution of World Series shares.
Before the 1918 season began, the owners of the major-league teams decided to redistribute the shares. There was no players union in those days, so the players weren’t consulted, and many of them weren’t aware that their shares were going to be cut until they were riding the train from Chicago to Boston and got their first look at the documents handed them just before the Series began.
Until 1918, players received 60 percent of the proceeds from the first four games, which usually meant three or four thousand dollars for each player. But the owners unilaterally cut the players’ share to 55 percent in 1918, of which only 60 percent of that total would go to the players on the Cubs and Red Sox. The remainder of the money would be distributed to players on the second-, third-, and fourth-place teams in each league. The theory was that by giving the players of runner-up teams a few hundred dollars in World Series shares, the owners of those teams could use that money as leverage to hold down salaries.
Furthermore, American League president Ban Johnson ordered each Red Sox player to donate 10 percent of his share to charity as part of the war effort.
When the Cubs and Red Sox got to Boston, they demanded to meet with the owners, who stalled them by promising to meet the following day. The teams played. But when they showed up the next day, the owners’ representatives refused to negotiate.
The players asked once more for a meeting on the morning of Game 5 and were told they could meet after that game. But the Red Sox led the Series 3-1, and if they won that afternoon, it would be all over and the players would have no leverage.
The Cubs and Red Sox agreed to strike. With a crowd of nearly 25,000 at Fenway getting restless when the game did not start on time, the owners’ reps finally met with the players. They told the players that if they didn’t play, the remainder of the World Series would be canceled and the players wouldn’t get a dime.
Red Sox star outfielder Harry Hooper told them they could give the money to charity. This was a matter of principle, and the players wanted their traditional share. Johnson, who was reportedly drunk, insisted the system could not be changed back on the spot, and he pleaded with the players that they owed it to the doughboys in the stands to play.
Reluctantly, the two teams agreed to play. The fans, unaware of what the dispute was all about, thought the players were being selfish and blamed them for the delay and jeered them with catcalls like “Slackers!” and “Bolsheviki!”
The Cubs won, and barely 15,000 fans turned up the next day to see the Red Sox win the World Series.
The champion Red Sox received the lowest shares for a winning team in World Series history, $1,102 per player.
The owners also punished the players by refusing to give them their traditional championship medallions, which were the equivalent of rings today. In 1993 a story by Red Sox historian Glenn Stout that revisited the slight prompted the Red Sox to present the families of the players — all of whom were dead by then — with championship medallions in a ceremony at Fenway Park later that year.