Tag Archives: Chicago Black Sox

The Chicago Black Sox And the 1919 World Series (Volume 2, Episode 12) Part One

The Chicago Black Sox and the Scandal Surrounding the 1919 World Series

Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson

Almost one hundred years after the Black Sox scandal, the legend of Shoeless Joe Jackson, created by disingenuous journalists and burnished by Hollywood, lives on in the American imagination.  An illiterate mill hand, a country boy who escaped small town poverty and obscurity as a baseball savant, Jackson is perceived as tragically victimized by wealthy owners and slickered by hustlers and cheats who took advantage of his childlike innocence.  Ironically, without the backstory of the Black Sox scandal, Jackson would have been consigned to the obscurity heaped on such players as Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, Rogers Hornsby, Honus Wagner, George Sisler and many other stars of the early 20th century who now are prominent only in the consciousness of obsessive journalists or baseball historians.

Bill Burns Testifying At Trial

It is alleged that earlier in the baseball season, Burns had spoken on several occasions with Eddie Cicotte about the possibility of fixing the World Series.  Burns and his buddy Maharg knew that they could never finance such an undertaking on their own and they traveled to New York in late September in an attempt to recruit Arnold Rothstein as their financier.

The Black Sox Defendants At Trial

All of the seven most prominent indicted White Sox lawyered up, renounced their confessions and denied their participation in a conspiracy.  Only dogged pursuit of Bill Burns, funded by Ban Johnson and assisted by Billy Maharg, saved the case, the gambler finally agreeing to appear and testify.

Billy Maharg

Eventually, an explosive interview with gambler Billy Maharg appeared in a September 27 edition of a Philadelphia newspaper.  Maharg told the whole story of he and Bill Burns attempts to fix the series, the double cross by Abe Attell, the promise of $100,000, the partial payment of 10 grand and the pivotal role of Eddie Cicotte.  Maharg also explained that he and Burns had lost everything on game 3 after Chick Gandil assured them that the Sox would bag the game.  The article prompted a national sensation and desperation damage control from Charles Comiskey.

Charles Comiskey

Comiskey responded to the Maharg article by suspending all seven alleged conspirators but also decided on the additional PR strategy of delivering some of the key players to the grand jury with predetermined testimony.  They wished to convey the impression that Comiskey wanted to get to the bottom of a conspiracy he had tried to cover up for almost a year.

Eddie Collins On The Philadelphia Athletics

The highest paid player on the team and the second highest in the league with the exception of Ty Cobb was Eddie Collins, who was shrewd enough to demand his $15,000 salary upon being traded to the White Sox by the Philadelphia Athletics.  Already disliked for his Ivy League background, (Collins graduated from Columbia) players like Gandil hated the second baseman and never spoke with him on or off the diamond.  Gandil also had his nose broken on the basepaths by the scrappy Collins in 1912, when Gandil played for the Washington Senators, the salary differential an additional element adding to the first baseman’s deep animosity.

Abe Attell As A Boxer

On the eve of game one, the center of baseball buzz in Cincinnati was the prestigious Hotel Sinton.  Burns, a former ball player and acquaintance of Chick Gandil, was able to set up a meeting with seven of the eight White Sox in on the fix, only Joe Jackson was absent.  Burns eventually introduced them to Maharg, a former boxer named Abe Attell and a mysterious Mr. Bennett aka David Zelcer, a high stakes gambler with alleged ties to Arnold Rothstein.

Joe And Kate Jackson On Their Wedding Day

Perhaps on the urging of his wife, Jackson would subsequently attempt to come clean with White Sox management and disown the money but this cannot erase Jackson’s willingness to take the payoff to begin with.  Ultimately his own behavior would lay the groundwork for a terrible tragedy.

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Understanding that gambling was currently inextricably tied to baseball, various owners proposed hiring Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge as the commissioner of the sport.  Landis was probably the most well known judge in America, Having famously fined John D. Rockefeller 29 million dollars in a previous anti-trust decision.  Although this fine would be thrown out on appeal, Landis gained the reputation as a fearless and tough minded jurist of impeccable reputation and was additionally a rabid baseball fan.  Initially, Landis was hired to lead a new commission but eventually it was agreed that he would be appointed sole Commissioner with unlimited power and a huge raise over his federal salary.

Grave of Joe Jackson, Greenville, SC

The Chicago Black Sox And The 1919 World Series (Volume 2, Episode 12) Part Two

The Chicago Black Sox and the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series

The Eight Chicago Black Sox

“Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ballgame; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame; no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are planned and discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.” Today, almost one hundred years later, all eight of these Chicago White Sox remain permanently banned, their statistics expunged from the official record.  This expulsion also affected even consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame, a punishment that definitely affected Joe Jackson and possibly eliminated Eddie Cicotte and Buck Weaver, as well.

Shoeless Joe Jackson and Babe Ruth

The most prominent member of the Black Sox adopted a nonchalant attitude.  Shoeless Joe was quoted, “I’m through with organized baseball,” hinting that he would be just fine with his outside business interests which would be as lucrative as major league baseball.

Eddie Cicotte

In 1919, Eddie Cicotte, with bonuses and salary, earned $8,000, the second highest sum for a pitcher in the league, only Walter Johnson at 9,500, earned more.  Cicotte was also the eighth highest paid player in the league, and the oft repeated legend that Reds game one starter Dutch Ruether earned double what he was making is nonsensical.

Arnold “Chick” Gandil

On the road, Cicotte gravitated towards the company of first baseman Charles Arnold “Chick” Gandil, a tough, streetwise veteran player familiar to all of the habitués of taverns, pool halls and hotel bars that Gandil frequently haunted.  Although the exact origins and catalyst of the scheme to fix the 1919 World Series has never been specifically documented, it is believed that Chick Gandil and Eddie Cicotte were first approached in late September, 1919, in the vicinity of Boston’s Buckminster Hotel by Joseph “Sport” Sullivan, a well known professional gambler.

Dickie Kerr

Kerr, 5′ 7″, 155 lbs, was 13-7 during the regular season but was a big drop-off from Cicotte and Williams.  He was opposed by Ray Fisher, a solid major leaguer who went 14-5 in 1919.  Surprisingly, in Game 3, Kerr produced a three hit shutout, retiring the last fifteen Reds in a row.

Buck Weaver and Eddie Cicotte

 

The Chicago Black Sox and The 1919 World Series (Volume 2, Episode 12) Book and Music Information

The following books were used during the preparation of this podcast:

Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball, by Charles Fountain

The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball

 

Fall From Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of Shoeless Joe Jackson, by Tim Hornbaker

Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of Shoeless Joe Jackson

 

Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

Also, the SABR Journal Article “1919 Baseball Salaries and the Myth of the Underpaid Chicago White Sox,” by Bob Hoie

Chicago Black Sox Salaries

The Intro and Outro Music:

Scott Joplin, “The Entertainer”

Scott Joplin, “The Maple Leaf Rag”