1919 White Sox

[diehard chisox 1427]

Hey fellow Sox fans, I just got done writing a speech for my public speaking class. The speech is supposed to be informative and about any topic that we please. So I picked the 1919 White Sox - the black sox scandal. I thought some people might enjoy reading it, so I pasted it below. I believe it is pretty accurate, if some parts are not, just let me know.

 

I have a clip from a website as the beginning of the intro, the rest is below for you to read.

 

The eight names that you just saw were the eight players that were said to be involved with the “black sox scandal.” The year was 1919, and baseball had been growing at an incredible rate. After World War I baseball saw a huge boom in increased attendance at the games. The World Series at that time, was comparable to the Super Bowl of today’s era, it was the biggest sporting event in the world. Now enter the Chicago White Sox. At that time they were arguably the best team in baseball, and according to Douglas Linder who wrote “The Black Sox Trial: An Account,” maybe the best team ever. However, this team did not go down in history for how good they were, they went down in history for how much they disgraced the game of baseball.

 

From 1917 to 1919, the Chicago White Sox were the most dominant team in baseball. They had won the World Series in 1917, and it looked as though they were the huge favorite to win again in 1919. The superstars on this team however, got paid about half of what all other ball players in the league received. The best two players on the team, Shoeless Joe Jackson - who receieved his nickname because he once played a minor league game while not wearing shoes - and Buck Weaver were getting paid about $6,000 a year, while other players in the league with less talent were getting paid about $10,000 a year. Despite having that most talented team in baseball, White Sox owner Charles Comiskey paid his players sub-par. In actuality, the team earned the name Black Sox not because of the scandal, rather because Comiskey charged them to wash their uniforms, so usually the players played with dirty uniforms. The players started to get angry because they were clearly the best team, but their owner was so cheap. White Sox ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte was promised by Comiskey that he could earn an extra $10,000 if he won 30 games in the 1919 season. Cicotte had 29 wins and in the final 2 weeks of the season Comiskey had him benched so he could not win his 30th game.

 

Frustration had set in with the players and they were sick of Comiskey, their cheap owner. Now enters the gambling. White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil came up with the idea one weekend when the team was in Boston. Gandil and one of his acquaintances and professional gambler “Sport” Sullivan put the deal together. The deal was for the White Sox to intentionally lose the World Series for money. Other gamblers entered the picture to make the deal go smoothly and to raise the money that the players wanted. Gandil knew that ace pitcher Cicotte would like to get involved after the way Comiskey treated him. The two of them knew that they would need more than two players to fix the World Series, so they recruited six other players: SS Swede Risburg, 3B Buck Weaver, CF Happy Felsch, P Lefty Williams, Utility IF Fred McMullin, and one of the best and most popular stars ever, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. These eight players had agreed to throw the World Series. According to Eric Everstine’s “1919 World Series: Black Sox Scandal,” the gamblers bet nearly half of a million on the other team, Cincinnati Reds, to win the World Series. The players were to be payed $100,000 to split eight ways. To put that into perspective, $100,000 divided by eight is $12,500, which is a little more than double of what Comiskey was paying them.

 

With the deal underway and the money figured out, the last part of the puzzle is the World Series - Chicago White Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds. Game 1 of the World Series, White Sox ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte was scheduled to start. On the second pitch of the ball game, Cicotte hit Reds batter Maurice Rath, alerting the gamblers that the deal was officially on. The sign was the hit batter. Now I am just going to give a brief summary of each game. Game 1, Cicotte pitched, the deal was on. The White Sox went on to lose the game 9-1. Game 2, Lefty Williams pitched, another player involved in the deal, the Sox lost 4-2. Game 3, Dickie Kerr pitched and the Sox won 3-0. Game 4 Cicotte pitched again, and surprise surprise, the Sox lost again 2-0. Game 5, Williams pitched again and the Sox committed 5 errors, Sox lose again 5-0. Game 6, Dickie Kerr pitched another great game and the Sox won 5-4. Game 7, Cicotte pitched again, but surprisingly, the Sox won this time 4-1. And finally, Game 8, Williams threw for the third time and the Sox lost the series. The White Sox lost the best of 9 series to the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3. The deal worked like a charm. The gamblers won their money and the players were rewarded their money.

A year later, word had spread of the deal. The eight players involved would be tried in court for defrauding the public, but all eight were found innocent. However, the eight players supposedly involved would later become suspended from the game of baseball from life, and none of them would ever be allowed to be inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

That is the story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox or Black Sox Scandal - done and over, but however, there is one part of that scandal will live on forever. That is the legendary “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and his possible involvement with the deal and the banning of the Hall of Fame. Some time after the deal had been put together, but before the series had started, Jackson allegedly wanted out of the deal. He knew it was wrong. Jackson even went to Comiskey and asked him to bench him for the series so he would not participate in the deal or be a part of the series. After the team had been busted for fixing the World Series, Jackson offered his share of the winnings to Comiskey. Jackson to this day is not in the Hall of Fame, but one must wonder why? Jackson is third all time on the career batting average list with a career average of .354. Before Babe Ruth took over baseball, Jackson was the most popular player, he was the face of baseball. In the 1919 World Series, Jackson batted .375, with a World Series record 12 hits, one of which was a home run, the only home run hit in the series. Do those numbers sound like the numbers a player would put up if he was trying to lose? For the less informed on baseball, the answer is NO.

 

At a time when baseball was on the rise and the country needed a pasttime like baseball to help get over WWI, the Chicago White Sox came along and disgraced the game of baseball. The White Sox were clearly the best team in the league in 1919 but the players grew upset with their owner. Gandil managed to organize a deal with gamblers that would have the eight players involved lose the World Series but gain wealth. The White Sox lost the series 5-3 and the World Series had been ruined. The eight players involved in the deal were all suspended or kicked out of baseball for life, including the HOF. The scandal will never be forgotten and it will always put a dark cloud over the Chicago White Sox, especially the 1919 White Sox. One of the greatest teams of all time, a team with so many talented athletes, will forever be in the history books for how much they embarassed baseball.

 

 

 

Bill

[SouthSide2004]

I just took Public Speaking last semester, and your speech looks much better than my informative speech. My only advice is to talk about Buck Weaver also when discussing the doubt surrounding Shoeless Joe, because I believe Buck never took a dime of money. Other than that, everything sounds great.

[POTUSChris]

Nice speech. Good luck!

[SoIL]

During the '94 strike the Tribune ran the original newspaper accounts of the 1919 Series. It was a real interesting read, and IIRC (which may be in doubt) rumors of a fix were mentioned in the articles. I've got them stashed away in a file cabinet. I'll have to dig them out and reread them.

[SoxFan1]

Great speech diehard...a good read!

[WilliamTell]

That sounds like a good speech to me. Good luck with it.

[JUGGERNAUT]

It is a very good read but I would add a few more points:

- The 1919 Chicago White Sox were not the only team to throw a WS. Mention the other years & teams that did it before & after the White Sox.

 

- Historians believe that if the Sox had allowed the Reds to sweep the story is dead because the gamblers had strong connections to the press. The biggest $ was riding on a sweep & every Sox victory cost the mob millions. It's believed that because the Sox pushed it to 5-3 with the fix on that the mob decided to get back at them & leaked the scandal. This deserves some mention in your speech.

 

- There is no evidence that OF Shoeless Joe, 3B Buck Weaver, & C ?? ever agreed to the fix. Judge Landis knew this. They were banned not under the pretension that they played to a fix but rather the reality they knew the fix was in & did nothing to alert the public.

 

Now some would say that's justifiable but I do not. It's simply not realistic to expect a ball player to rat out a fix orchestrated by the Chicago mafia. These players had already put their lives at risk for not agreeing to the fix.

Historians have reported that Eddie attempted to do just that after his first start. Both his own life & the life of his wife were threatened to the point were if he talks she dies. Again it's believed that judge Landis knew this.

 

It would be nice from the perspective of a White Sox fan if you made some mention of it. I believe this fact more so than any other makes the lifetime ban unreasonable & unjustifiable. Baseball is a game after all. A form of entertainment. It's honor is not worth the death of another human being.

Landis seemed to think it was. Shoeless Joe should be judged based on his numbers & his fandom as to whether he should be in the HOF. Not some cockamaimy BS by Landis conncocted to save the game.

 

Finally I just want to say that when I first read about Comiskey's cheap ways (especially his denial of Eddie's 30th start) I lost all respect for that name. I was one happy White Sox fan when US Cellular bought the rights & helped to distance the Sox from Comiskey's legacy. In my opinion Comiskey was a scumbag & the Sox should have distanced themselves from that accursed name the day he sold the team.

[diehard chisox 1427]

Thanks everyone for your responses!!

[TLAK]

- There is no evidence that OF Shoeless Joe, 3B Buck Weaver, & C ?? ever agreed to the fix.

 

Here is a link to a law school project about the scandel:

Black Sox Trial

 

Check out page 5 of Joe Jackson's sworn grand jury testimony, in the Confessions and Court Records page, where he states Chick Gandel promised him $20,000 and he personally recieved $5,000 from Lefty Williams.

 

There is evidence. Other teams of the era were dirty too, and the Sox took the fall for all of them -but they were unquestionably dirty themselves.

[NO!!MARY!!!]

The Cicotte benching story is a complete and total myth and a

slanderous lie tossed into "Eight Men Out" by Eliot Asinof.

According to Rich Lindberg, Cicotte was in on the fix by the

time the White Sox clinched the pennant in September. Cicotte

started the last game of the season and had 29 wins then, but

the Sox lost that last game. John Sayles bent the facts for the

movie version, which sympathized with the poor, underpaid

wretches.

 

Lindberg exhaustively researched it and found no evidence to

suggest that the benching story is true. It is mentioned in only

one sentence in "Eight Men Out": "...it was said that Comiskey

had him benched." That's it. One sentence, and one that offers

only speculation; not disturbing, inconvenient details like facts

or evidence.

Edited March 8, 2005 by NO!!MARY!!!

[southsider2k5]

Wow that is something I have never heard before.

[Yossarian]

Cicotte started 3 of the last 8 games in the 1919 season. You can verify that for yourself at retrosheet.org which is a great site by the way.

 

Great Baseball Website

[JUGGERNAUT]

Excellent site! Gracias!

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Pcicoe101.htm

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/VCHA01919.htm

4-24-1919 At STL A W 5- 2 2-0 Cicotte Sothoron

4-29-1919 At DET A W 3- 1 5-1 Cicotte Ehmke

5- 4-1919 Vs STL A W 4- 2 7-2 Cicotte Sothoron

5- 8-1919 At CLE A W 4- 1 10-2 Cicotte 5-14-1919 Vs BOS A W 1- 0 13-4 Cicotte Mays

5-18-1919 Vs PHI A W 1- 0 15-6 Cicotte Perry

5-23-1919 Vs NY A W 5- 0 18-6 Cicotte Shawkey

5-27-1919 Vs WAS A W 4- 3 21-7 Cicotte Harper

5-31-1919 Vs CLE A W 5- 2 24-7 Cicotte Phillips

6- 5-1919 At NY A W 5- 1 25-11 Cicotte Shore

6-10-1919 At BOS A W 5- 3 26-13 Cicotte Ruth

6-14-1919 At PHI A W 6- 3 28-15 Cicotte Rogers

6-18-1919 At WAS A L 0- 2 30-16 Cicotte Shaw

6-23-1919 Vs CLE A L 2- 3 32-19 Cicotte Bagby

6-27-1919 At STL A L 1- 4 33-22 Cicotte Weilman

6-30-1919 At CLE A W 5- 2 35-23 Cicotte Bagby

7- 4-1919 Vs DET A W 8- 1 38-24 Cicotte Boland

7- 7-1919 Vs DET A W 8- 3 41-25 Cicotte Ehmke

7-11-1919 Vs PHI A W 7- 1 45-25 Cicotte Perry

7-15-1919 Vs BOS A W 3- 1 48-26 Cicotte James

7-20-1919 Vs NY A W 2- 1 51-28 Cicotte Shore

7-24-1919 Vs STL A W 1- 0 54-29 Cicotte 7-29-1919 At NY A L 1-10 55-32 Cicotte 8- 8-2-1919 At BOS A L 3- 5 57-34 Cicotte Musser

8- 7-1919 At PHI A W 2- 1 59-35 Cicotte Perry

8-10-1919 At WAS A W 1- 0 61-38 Cicotte Shaw

8-14-1919 Vs BOS A L 6-15 62-39 Cicotte Russell

8-20-1919 Vs WAS A W 10- 3 68-39 Cicotte 8-23-1919 Vs NY A W 10- 2 71-39 Cicotte 8-29-1919 At CLE A W 3- 2 75-40 Cicotte Caldwell

9- 1-1919 2 At DET A W 5- 1 77-42 Cicotte Boland

9- 5-1919 Vs CLE A W 9- 1 78-43 Cicotte Myers

9-19-1919 At BOS A W 3- 2 87-46 Cicotte Hoyt

9-24-1919 Vs STL A W 6- 5 88-48 Cicotte 9-28-1919 Vs DET A L 9-10 88-52 Cicotte Ayers

 

The basis for the claim is the absense of starts from 9-5 to 9-19.

There is no mention of Eddie being hurt after winning 9-1 & therefore there

are at least two start opportunitites there for Eddie to earn that bonus.

If you can find a reference to his being hurt then I will accept your claim.

Otherwise it seems as if Comiskey purposefully skipped his starts.

 

With respect to Shoeless Joe's confession it's a question of what you choose to believe. There are other historical references that suggest Joe was coerced into that confession. The belief is that they convinced Joe that he would be allowed to continue to play baseball if he confessed & would never play baseball again if he didn't. Joe was an illiterate. His signature on the so-called confession was just an X.

 

I choose to believe that is an accurate portrayal of what happens. You can choose to look upon the events separately or take them as a whole. I'm not going to ignore their numbers in the series itself:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/f...LAYERstats.html

Jackson, Weaver, & Schalk all hit over .300 in the series. A stark contrast to the rest. That's the strongest evidence that they were not in on the fix.

 

1918 deserves mention because it involves the city's beloved Cubs.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Tlz0uAE...es+thrown&hl=en

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/VCHN31918.htm

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/UPCHN01918.htm

4 losses by 1 run, & 2 wins by 3 & 2 runs. Vaughn, Tyler, & Douglas.

[Yossarian]

Hall of Fame catcher Ray Schalk was never part of the fix.

[TLAK]

Cicotte started 3 of the last 8 games in the 1919 season. You can verify that for yourself at retrosheet.org which is a great site by the way.

 

Great Baseball Website

Oh my God, you've turned Juggernaut on to retrosheet! Buy another 100 gig for the server!

 

Retro is indeed a great site, the Grand Daddy of them all! If you like stats, and Jugger certainly does, it's nirvana.

[NO!!MARY!!!]

         

 

The basis for the claim is the absense of starts from 9-5 to 9-19.

There is no mention of Eddie being hurt after winning 9-1 & therefore there

are at least two start opportunitites there for Eddie to earn that bonus.

If you can find a reference to his being hurt then I will accept your claim.

Otherwise it seems as if Comiskey purposefully skipped his starts.

 

Some links for your perusal:

 

http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=223

 

http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=232

 

http://www.thediamondangle.com/marasco/hist/cicotte.html

[JUGGERNAUT]

Some links for your perusal:

 

http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=223

http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=232

http://www.thediamondangle.com/marasco/hist/cicotte.html

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

All good links to which I have re-assessed my opinion of Comiskey: he's even a bigger scumbag than I thought.

 

First the Eddie situation. The 10K bonus looks to be a myth. It was probably 1K.

Still that represents roughly 20% of Eddie's salary in both yrs. The link on the baseball cards is what makes me believe it was 1K. Since Eddie failed to earn it both yrs it would make sense there would be no mention of it on his card.

 

With respect to 1917 the facts strongly suggest that Eddie just came up short. But 1919 is a different story. There is mention of Eddie having a sore arm after 9/5 but there is no mention that the the two week layoff that followed was justified. Keep in mind in a day & age where they are pitching as many as 350 innings in a season a 2 wk layoff is out of the ordinary. With respect to 1919 the facts strongly suggest that Eddie was indeed denied a reasonable chance to win the bonus. Yes he had two more opps to get it down after 9/19/19 but two more starts before hand would have greatly increased his chances of reaching 30 wins.

 

The Jackson interview makes me think even less of Comiskey. Jackson was not just another player. To baseball fans his stature was like that of Griffey in his prime. A true baseball fan would never ignore Jackson. Comiskey did. If I had been the owner of the Sox & Jackson wanted to talk to me I would have made time

for him no matter what I was doing. Comiskey either knew the Fix was in or feared the mob or both. Probably both. So he decided to just ignore it, reap the Series revenue, & plan for next year. A greedy miserly scumbag is what he was.

 

I just want to add that as a Sox fan I will not stop sending MLB e-mails yearly

stating that Shoeless Joe Jackson deserves to be in the HOF & that Selig should once & for all issue a statement as follows:

"Even though Judge Landis' ruling in the early 1920's might have been the best thing for the game at the time it wrecked the lives of some very honorable Chicago White Sox players. The most storied one being Shoeless Joe Jackson. It is the consensus of MLB that his play in the 1919 World Series was exemplary & that he tried his hardest to help his team win against all odds. For this he should be commended.

I can not heal the wounds of the past but I can heal the wounds of his legacy for years to come. Effective immediately I am reinstating Shoeless Joe Jackson back into MLB making him eligible for the HOF."

 

One of these days MLB will get it in their minds that fans care as much about the past time of the game as they do the present day. This would be a major media story that would have the eyes fixed upon baseball around the nation. This year would be ideal in light of the steroid scandal/controversy rocking baseball today.

[Yossarian]

Comiskey was a double dealing cheapskate. That is stating the obvious. Still Buck Weaver is the only one of the Black Sox that garners any sympathy from me.

Edited March 9, 2005 by Yossarian

[JUGGERNAUT]

Comiskey was a double dealing cheapskate. That is stating the obvious. Still Buck Weaver is the only one of the Black Sox that garners any sympathy from me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

How can you say that when Joe Jackson hit 375 in the Series & made game saving catches? When was the last time a Sox player did that?

[Mplssoxfan]

His .375 BA in the Series is one of the strongest claims to Jackson's innocence. However, he did accept the $5,000, and he did not immediately go to Comiskey with the possibility of the fix. I have also seen research that there were three balls hit to left field that turned into triples. Since we all acknowledge that Jackson was a tremendous defensive player, that strikes me as a little odd.

 

I am not settled on Jackson's guilt. Althoough I am settled on Comiskey's benig an avaricious scumbag who didn't deal fairly with his players, I don't think that justifies fixing the Series. I mean, you can say that you don't like the government, but you'll still get procecuted if you don't pay your taxes.

[JUGGERNAUT]

His .375 BA in the Series is one of the strongest claims to Jackson's innocence.  However, he did accept the $5,000, and he did not immediately go to Comiskey with the possibility of the fix.  I have also seen research that there were three balls hit to left field that turned into triples.  Since we all acknowledge that Jackson was a tremendous defensive player, that strikes me as a little odd.

 

I am not settled on Jackson's guilt.  Althoough I am settled on Comiskey's benig an avaricious scumbag who didn't deal fairly with his players, I don't think that justifies fixing the Series.  I mean, you can say that you don't like the government, but you'll still get procecuted if you don't pay your taxes.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

He did take some $ but it was strictly out of fear for the live of his wife & his own life.

He repeatedly refused to accept it until that was made clear to him. As for his defense I know he made several catches near the wall. I would imagine if he makes an attempt at such plays & fails to connect it's going to wind up a triple. Just something to consider.

[Yossarian]

He did take some $ but it was strictly out of fear for the live of his wife & his own life.

He repeatedly refused to accept it until that was made clear to him.  As for his defense I know he made several catches near the wall.  I would imagine if he makes an attempt at such plays & fails to connect it's going to wind up a triple.  Just something to consider.

If you've got some new info clue me in. The evidence does not back up your claim. In Asinof's book, the Black Sox players felt betrayed by the gamblers. After going down 4-1 in the Series (it was 5 out of 9 in 1919) they decided to try and win, resulting in victories for the Sox in games 6 and 7. It was at this point that goons hired by the gamblers approached game 8 starter Claude (Lefty) Williams and informed him that they would kill his wife if he did not throw game 8. Not only that but he was ordered to fall apart in the first inning. He complied and the rest is history. The evidence is that Joe Jackson gladly took his money and complained when there was no more. Long time Chicago sportwriter Jerome Holtzman claimed that Jackson dogged it at the plate and in the field in crucial situations. The whole thing was a terrible tragedy. Decades later Hall of Fame catcher Ray Schalk told a then young sportswriter Bill Gleason that without the Black Sox there would have been no Yankee dynasty. Comiskey was an autocratic cheap tyrant. He also built the White Sox into a powerhouse twice. After they won the WS in 1906 he had a falling out with player manager Fielder Jones and the White Sox struggled from 1909-1914. He restocked the team, eventually winning another WS in 1917. By 1919 they were poised to be a dynasty. Then the Black Sox scandal wiped out the team. Old Commy thought he could rebuild again, but this time he was not up to it. Everybody paid a heavy price for this. I don't believe in making heroes or saints out of the players. Like I said only Buck Weaver earns my sympathy. Edited March 10, 2005 by Yossarian

[JUGGERNAUT]

If you've got some new info clue me in.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=223

http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=232

http://www.thediamondangle.com/marasco/hist/cicotte.html

 

These 3 links & particular the interview with Jackson seems to suggest otherwise.

[Yossarian]

Part VII is part re-run -- Joe Jackson's imaginary meeting with the Sox' lawyer Alfred Austrian first appeared here nearly a year ago, in #280.

 

 

 

An "imaginary meeting" as evidence? Like I said I'm open to changing my mind if I come across something substantial but an "imaginary meeting" hardly qualifies. I'll check our your other two links as soon as I have time. I suggest you read Asinof's book. It's not perfect, but it is highly informative. Also Nelson Algren's short story "The Swede was a Hard Guy". It is very sympathetic to all the players and the timeline of events is riveting.

[JUGGERNAUT]

How do you know it was imaginary? Keep in mind that Joe was an illiterate. It wasn't just that he couldn't read or write he had a very weak vocabulary as well. Without his wife present you could easily talk him into something. Many biographies on the man attest to this.

 

Let's not forget Weaver's words with respect to Joe as well. He claims Joe was innocent. I can link you to the quotes. So if you are sympathetic to Weaver doesn't it make sense to side with his opinion of Joe?

 

Putting aside the Sox players there was a much bigger issue about the Black Sox Scandal that I felt Landis ignored completely. As you said when the $ owed to the players came up woefully short they decided to go for it & that's when the mob started threatening the players & their families. This was a well known fact at the time Landis made his ruling. Generally speaking the mob had intended to fix the Series & whether it took bribes or coersion to do so didn't matter. Landis ignored the coercion part entirely.

Even being down 4-1 the Sox still had a solid chance of winning the Series if free from coersion. That's the part Landis either didn't understand or choose to ignore but MLB is certainly aware of today.