He wasn't from Chicago, but Chicago nevertheless played an important role in the Presidency of Warren G. Harding.

For one thing, in 1920 he was nominated by Republican party leaders in a smoke filled Chicago hotel room; Suite 4046 on the 13th floor of the Blackstone hotel.

Harding had lots of powerful friends in Chicago who helped propel him to the Presidency. A minority owner of the Cubs, Albert Lasker, was actually one of those Republican operatives who helped Harding secure the nomination in that smoke filled room.

Harding even attended a Cubs game during the Presidential campaign, at the invitation of a big supporter and friend; Cubs majority owner William Wrigley. After he was elected, Harding invited his all-time favorite baseball player, Cubs legend Cap Anson to the White House. (photo: Harding and Anson with their wives)

But it was another minority Cubs shareholder, Harry Sinclair, that really had an impact on the Harding Presidency. He was at the heart of Harding's biggest scandal, Teapot Dome. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Sinclair. When the Senate got wind of this, they investigated.

It was found that in 1921, Sinclair (photo) also “loaned” Secretary Fall a large amount of money. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000. Sinclair was acquitted, but was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury.

Most of this was discovered after Harding's death on August 2, 1923. That's not all investigators discovered. During his time in his office, his veteran Bureaus chief skimmed profits from war surplus sales, bootlegged drugs to dealers, and took kickbacks from purchasing agents; his Alien property Custodian took bribes—using Harding’s Attorney General’s personal aide as a bagman; and Harding also had a young mistress, mother of his illegitimate child, and another mistress, who was inconveniently married to one of his friends.

Nevertheless the Republican party and the Chicago Cubs emerged from these scandals unscathed. The Republicans won again in 1924, and the Cubs overcame the loss of Harry Sinclair.

On the day Harding died, the Cubs beat the Boston Braves 5-1 thanks to a great pitching performance by Vic Aldridge, the #2 starter on the team (behind Grover Alexander). Aldridge went on to win 16 games for the Cubs that year. That same day, however, Cubs star shortstop Charlie Hollocher (photo), wrote a note to his manager telling him he was quitting for the season. (Charlie's story would not end well.)

The Cubs finished the 1923 season 12 games over .500, but also 12 ½ games behind the pennant winning New York Giants.