Say It Ain't So
There's a story breaking in town. It is a wonderfully fabricated, messed up jumble of lies and fiction that is bound to raise some eyebrows. But cheating in baseball is nothing new.
I'll admit that I'm having some fun with this story & it might be something we track throughout the year and try to match up with actual league statistics. However, before I start spewing BS, I thought I'd write a completely real story about cheating in the grand old game. If you came here for comedy, come back next week. But if you're a student of the game or dig history or just like reading, stick around.
The problem with cheating is the "LINE". What does that mean? We'll, everyone has their own interpretation of that. Are steroids cheating? Many will say yes. Others will say that using steroids prior to 1991, when MLB instituted a steroid ban, wasn't cheating; It was just players using legal means to improve. Others, still will say that using steroids between 1991 and 2003 wasn't cheating because MLB had a ban but a) didn't test for steroids nor did they have a penalty for using. The list goes on. And on. And on. Is gambling cheating? What kind of gambling? Is the hidden ball trick cheating? Is the hesitation pitch (called the eephus pitch in MLB) cheating? Everyone's line is different.
I'd be surprised if anyone ever heard of him, but Hall of Famer, Pud Galvin is the first documented cheater that my research has been able to find and that goes back to 1889. It's a fascinating story that I'll share with you all one day this summer. However, the point is this; "Cheating IS baseball's legacy."
For many of you, baseball's cheating and cover-ups started thirty years after Pud's walk on the wild, in America's 2nd city - Chicago. But I'm here to tell you that virtually everything you know about that situation has been misrepresented and I'm not even going to touch on the Joe Jackson lies AT ALL.
Truthfully, I'm hoping that a dry, mostly black and white history lesson of ball will bore you and overall lower your expectations for future editions.
Buck Weaver
The year was 1919.
There's some stuff about this story that is baseball lore. There's some that's Hollywood legend. But different from both of those things, is the truth.
This is what you think you know.
- The White Sox won the American League in a landslide.
- They were overwhelming favourites to win the world series.
- 8 players conspired to throw the series to the underdog Reds.
- Gamblers got rich.
- The 8 players would never play major league ball again.
- Shoeless Joe Jackson was the only innocent player banned.
None of the six statements above is true.
1917 White Sox
The Sox had a 100 win team in 1917 and won the World Series over the John McGraw managed, New York Giants. But in 1918, they fell back 5th place in the American League. They big reason for the tailspin was that Jackson was injured and only got into 17 games the entire season.
The next year, '19 was a return to form for the Sox and Jackson. The White Sox finished two games up on the Cleveland Aboriginals to win the American League a second time in three years, but they did so, winning only 88 games. But winning is winning, right? However, they were a long way behind National League pennant winners, Cincinnati Red Stockings, total of 96 wins. But the real story of the 1919 season was the triumphant return of Shoeless Joe. He hit .351, with an on base percentage of .422, 96 RBI, 14 3B's, 31 2B's and 79 runs in 139 games.
Cincinnati were the favourites in the World Series, despite legend and lore. It would have made sense to bribe them to make money when the favourite loses, right? Sure it would. Not only were the White Sox the underdog, but they also had the highest payroll in baseball. Surely, they couldn't be bribed.
Charles Comisky
Except that the White Sox had one thing that the gamblers could count on and that was the player's universal hatred of Sox owner, Charles Comiskey. The movie "8 Men Out" makes out Comiskey to be the cheapest of all cheap owners. That doesn't really jive with having the highest payroll in baseball does it? Comiskey played Major League ball from 1882 - 1894 and collected 1,530 career hits and 416 career stolen bases. He sits at #66 on the all time base stealing list. He was a baller for sure. As a Manager he was 840-540 (.608) for his career, that's 3rd all time in winning percentage for people who've managed over 1000 games. Impressive.
You have to remember, that we're talking the 1890's here and there was the National League and a bunch of other satellite leagues. But the NL was other only "Major League" organization. The Federal League, Players League, and the American Association all came and went. Comiskey, after his playing days, bought a team named the Apostles in the Western League out of Sioux City Iowa. He moved it to St. Paul Minnesota, where he shared the city with another Western League club, the Millers, for 5 years.
In 1900 Comiskey moved the team to Chicago and the Western League changed their name to the newly formed American League and "declared" themselves a Major League organization. They brought with them the Boston Americans (now the Red Sox), Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics (after a stop in Kansas City)), Baltimore Orioles (now the New York Yankees), Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins), Cleveland Bluebirds (now the AL franchise in Cleveland) and the Milwaukee Brewers (now the Baltimore Orioles (after a stop in St. Louis as the Browns)).
Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston would focal points for the upstart American League as they'd be competing head - to - head with the established senior circuit - The National League. Good old Charles was nobody's fool. The National League team in Chicago had been called the White Stocking since 1876 as one of the League's charter members. They had Albert Spalding, who would later standardize and mass produce the actual baseball; and Cap Anson who was one of the games first ever superstars. Sometime in the 1890's the White Stockings started being referred to as the "Colts" or "Anson's Colts" in the newspaper and their previous name slowly disappeared from use. Comiskey, being ever alert, stole the original name and renamed his Apostle's as the White Stockings. Not a very saint-like move, but pretty smart. Meanwhile, the Colt's would fire Anson as player-manager in 1901 and they were known for a year as the Chicago Orphans! In 1902 their owner renamed them the Chicago Cubs.
Sorry about the last two paragraphs, I went down the rabbit hole a little, but I love this stuff. So all this makes Comiskey an opportunist at worst, clever at best; but why, when he had the highest payroll in baseball would he be hated by his players. Particularly when he was a player and a pretty good one! Well, he was pretty much a dick. Take these examples, he docked players salaries to compensate for laundering their uniforms. Dick move. He promised his team a bonus if they won the 1917 pennant, which they did. The bonus? They got to split a case of cheap champagne. The White Sox only paid 75% of the standard meal money to the players. Also a dick move. The worst of all, was what happened to Eddie Cicotte. Cicotte would become the principal member of the 8 men out. He had a bonus in his contract of 10,000.00 if he won 30 games in the season as a starting pitcher. That would be worth about 150k today. It was also double his salary. Chicotte won his 29th game on September 19th and was pulled from his starts on the 24th and 29th, finishing the season with a 29-7 record.
Make no mistake. If there really was a conspiracy, the players didn't lose on purpose get money. Getting money was just a byproduct of being able to screw Comiskey.
You have to remember, that we're talking the 1890's here and there was the National League and a bunch of other satellite leagues. But the NL was other only "Major League" organization. The Federal League, Players League, and the American Association all came and went. Comiskey, after his playing days, bought a team named the Apostles in the Western League out of Sioux City Iowa. He moved it to St. Paul Minnesota, where he shared the city with another Western League club, the Millers, for 5 years.
Philadelphia A's
In 1900 Comiskey moved the team to Chicago and the Western League changed their name to the newly formed American League and "declared" themselves a Major League organization. They brought with them the Boston Americans (now the Red Sox), Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics (after a stop in Kansas City)), Baltimore Orioles (now the New York Yankees), Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins), Cleveland Bluebirds (now the AL franchise in Cleveland) and the Milwaukee Brewers (now the Baltimore Orioles (after a stop in St. Louis as the Browns)).
Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston would focal points for the upstart American League as they'd be competing head - to - head with the established senior circuit - The National League. Good old Charles was nobody's fool. The National League team in Chicago had been called the White Stocking since 1876 as one of the League's charter members. They had Albert Spalding, who would later standardize and mass produce the actual baseball; and Cap Anson who was one of the games first ever superstars. Sometime in the 1890's the White Stockings started being referred to as the "Colts" or "Anson's Colts" in the newspaper and their previous name slowly disappeared from use. Comiskey, being ever alert, stole the original name and renamed his Apostle's as the White Stockings. Not a very saint-like move, but pretty smart. Meanwhile, the Colt's would fire Anson as player-manager in 1901 and they were known for a year as the Chicago Orphans! In 1902 their owner renamed them the Chicago Cubs.
Sorry about the last two paragraphs, I went down the rabbit hole a little, but I love this stuff. So all this makes Comiskey an opportunist at worst, clever at best; but why, when he had the highest payroll in baseball would he be hated by his players. Particularly when he was a player and a pretty good one! Well, he was pretty much a dick. Take these examples, he docked players salaries to compensate for laundering their uniforms. Dick move. He promised his team a bonus if they won the 1917 pennant, which they did. The bonus? They got to split a case of cheap champagne. The White Sox only paid 75% of the standard meal money to the players. Also a dick move. The worst of all, was what happened to Eddie Cicotte. Cicotte would become the principal member of the 8 men out. He had a bonus in his contract of 10,000.00 if he won 30 games in the season as a starting pitcher. That would be worth about 150k today. It was also double his salary. Chicotte won his 29th game on September 19th and was pulled from his starts on the 24th and 29th, finishing the season with a 29-7 record.
Doubt it said "black Sox scandal" on his ball card
Make no mistake. If there really was a conspiracy, the players didn't lose on purpose get money. Getting money was just a byproduct of being able to screw Comiskey.
So let's fast forward ... the Sox lose the Series 5 games to 3, yes it was a best out of 9 until 1923 and the story comes out and all hell breaks loose. And as you know, the cheating is soon discovered and the players are kicked out of ball.
Except that's NOT what happened.
Discussion of cheating and cavorting with gamblers carried on through the winter. And while rumours abounded, there was nothing substantive and the 1920 season started without a hitch. And how did 32 year old Joe Jackson do? Well he must have been really troubled by all the controversy, because he got into 146 games, batted .382 with a .444 on base percentage, 121 RBI's, 20 3B's, 42 2B's and kicked in 105 runs scored.
But the rumours persisted and in late September of 1920 a Grand Jury was convened while the Sox were playing their last three games of the year against Cleveland. Eddie Cicotte confessed to the cheating scheme and Comiskey suspended all 7 remaining major leaguers for the last three games and the Sox subsequently lost the 1920 pennant.
Here comes the Judge!
Coincidental to the Grand Jury was the recognition of the baseball owners that they had to have Commissioner to give them an air of justice and independence. Baseball had always had a President, but the President was primarily a mouth piece for the owners and had no real power beyond breaking up squabbles between individual teams. The problem was that they wanted the "appearance" of justice, but they really didn't want justice.
Baseball made a big deal out of offering its first commissioner's job to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Now anyone who has driven to Florida down I75 knows of Kenesaw Mountain because you drive through it just north of Atlanta. And "Kenesaw" and "Mountain" are Judge Landis' real first and middle names as his folks named him after his birth place. Thank god they weren't from Pussy Creek Ohio (yeah, it's a real place). Landis was appointed as a federal judge by Teddy Roosevelt in 1905 and received national attention when, in 1927, he fined Standard Oil 29 million dollars. Conservatively, that would be about 800,000,000 million today. Point is, there's no way that Pussy Creek Landis would be levying a fine of nearly a billion dollars in 1927. Just saying.
At any rate, after publicly announcing Landis' appointment, he told the owners that he would only accept the job if he had full and unobstructed authority over baseball as well as a lifetime contract. Of course the owners snapped, but eventually relented as they figured they could control him.
Mistake.
The Grand Jury came back with it's decision and determined that the 8 players conspired to defraud and recommended indicting them.
So 1921, sees none of the 8 indicted players actually playing ball and the trial gets started in June. On July 28th, the trial went to Jury and in three hours they came back with not guilty verdicts for all players.
Interesting, this was the same day Enrico Caruso died.
Six days later, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis issued the following proclamation: "Regardless of the verdict of juries .... no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ball players and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball again."
Now, anyone who ever tells you that Chick Gandli, Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch, Shoeless Joe, Fred McMullin, Swede Risberg, Lefty Williams or the great Buck Weaver were kicked out of baseball for cheating, throwing games or fixing games, you can tell them they're wrong.
The 8 men in question were acquitted of all charges. Presumably Landis, who is also known to be staunchly against integrating the game, kicked them out for being in the same room as gamblers, not for gambling.
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