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AMELIA EARHART
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart flew away from a town called Lae in the South Pacific. Earhart was attempting to circumnavigate the globe. After taking off from Lae, she disappeared. The Superhero Historians will investigate her life, her final flight, and the possible outcomes to that flight.
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In 1919 eight members of the Chicago White Sox teamed up with gamblers to throw the World Series against the Reds. Among the players was one of the greatest hitters ever, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Find out who was behind this scheme, how they pulled it off, and what happened as a result.
Superhero Historians used the following sources to help with the 1919 World Series topic:
Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof
Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball by Harvey Frommer
The Shoeless Joe Virtual Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown
The Chicago Historical Society
1919BlackSox.com
Dr. Susan Dellinger
The White Sox had lost the 1919 World Series. Rumors of the “fix” had set itself as truth with many in the baseball world. Some players felt remorse at their involvement. Joe Jackson waited all afternoon, one day following the season, to talk with Commiskey. He had a dirty envelope with $5,000 in it. Commiskey did not want to deal with the problem. Jackson went back home to the South without telling his story. The truth was that Commiskey knew about the scandal, but thought it would harm his ball club to deal with it. Goodness.
Sportswriters played the biggest part in exposing the scandal to the public and pushing it towards a Grand Jury. Writers like Hugh Fullerton and Ring Lardner did their best to expose the fix through newspaper articles. Their anger at the wrecking of the national pastime turned itself into the written word. Goodness.
With the constant pressure, all groups started to crack. Billy Maharg, Sleepy Bill Burn’s partner, came forward to talk about the “fix”. Baseball was finally forced to deal with it. A Grand Jury was formed. Then the players began to crack. First was Eddie Cicotte and then Shoeless Joe Jackson. Everything was exposed. Goodness. The players were acquitted by the Grand Jury, but not so lucky with baseball. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis became Commissioner of Baseball and banned all eight players for life. Goodness. Many of the players could not leave baseball. They played in other leagues for years. Both Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver tried to get reinstated based on their play during the World Series. Attempts to clear their names continue today.
Years later Ty Cobb stopped into Shoeless Joe Jackson’s liquor store in South Carolina. Ty Cobb asked Jackson if he recognized him. Jackson said “yes” but he was surprised the Cobb would want to talk to him, none of the other guys wanted to. Ty Cobb told Jackson he was one of the best and that he wanted an autographed baseball. Jackson told him to come back the next day to get it. He could have given him one right there, but after all those years he still couldn’t sign his name. Ty Cobb never returned to get his baseball. Goodness.
The picture below is of a button for Shoeless Joe and does not reflect any belief of Superhero Historians.
What makes the final three games interesting is a combination of three things: gambling promises broken, athletic competition, and gambling muscle. Let’s take them one at a time. One at a time. After Game 5, Sport Sullivan promised Chick Gandil another $20,000, but just like all the other gambling promises this one failed to come through. The players had enough. They were tired of losing and would certainly not lose without payment. They would not lose this time. With Dickie Kerr on the mound, the Reds put up a tough fight. However, when the final out was called, the White Sox prevailed. Ironically, Chick Gandil pushed the winning run over the plate with a single to center. A single to center.
Now we come to the athletic competition. Even though the Sox were down in the Series, they felt they could win. Even though they “fixed” a few games for money, they wanted to win. Cicotte took the mound for Game 7 and dominated the Reds. He was tired of losing. Tired of losing. They won in a little over an hour and a half, 4 to 1. Now comes the gambling muscle. Gambling muscle. Remember Arnold Rothstein? Yes, he put a bet on the whole World Series so he wouldn’t have to worry about individual games. Now he was worried about the Series outcome. He contacted Sport Sullivan and told him to take care of it. Sullivan contacted some gambling muscle. That muscle contacted White Sox pitcher Lefty Williams and made it known that it would be best for him and his family if he lost early. I won’t go into details. Lefty did what he was told. He took the mound and threw nothing but fastballs. Fifteen pitches total. Four hits for the Reds. Three runs scored. Kid Gleason finally took him out of the game with only one out in the first inning. One out in the first.
Here is something very interesting… and cool. The players shared in the ticket receipts for the first five games of the World Series. As it turned out the winners would get about $5,000 each and the losers would get $3,254 each. Why is this interesting? Keep in mind that the Black Sox have gotten around $5,000 each so far from the gamblers. Of course, Cicotte and Gandil have gotten more, but… whoa! They could have done fine just winning the Series, or so it seems!
Here we are at Game 5 already. Goodness. Keep in mind that the World Series was the best of nine games that year. The owners wanted to take advantage of the amazing crowds the first season back from the war, so they extended the World Series.
In Game 5 we are back to Lefty Williams pitching. Williams pitched that day with extra enthusiasm. Why? Well he had just gotten a dirty envelope with $5,000 in it from Chick Gandil. Sport Sullivan had delivered money to Gandil and he split it up among the players: five grand to Risberg, five to Williams, five to Jackson, and five to Felsch. That was a lot of money to those players. Goodness.
Williams threw a no hitter through four innings, with only a hit during the fifth inning. In the sixth Cincinnati got a lead off triple from Hod Eller… the pitcher! Goodness. The first suspicious play of this game. Jackson and Felsch let the ball drop between them and Felsch followed that with a bad throw to Risberg. Risberg mishandled it and threw late to Weaver at third. It looks like the newly gotten money greased the wheels a bit! Later Edd Roush blasted a shot to center that Hap Felsch dropped! By the end of the inning the Reds put four runs in and the White Sox catcher, Ray Schalk, was thrown from the game.
None of the Black Sox connected for a hit that game. Goodness.
Hap Felsch is pictured below.
Onto Game Four. The White Sox are losing at this point, 2 games to 1 and Game Four comes back to Eddie Cicotte. Remember that Cicotte was the key for the whole “fix” and lost badly in the first game. Now he wanted to lose again, but this time he wanted to make it look better. He made his move in the fifth inning. Cicotte pitched brilliantly in the first four innings, but used faulty defense to help the Reds win in the fifth. The first error came on an errant throw to first base. This allowed Duncan to get to second base. Then came the beauty. Are you ready? Okay. With Duncan on second, Kopf drilled a single to centerfield. Joe Jackson made a great throw that would have gotten Duncan at the plate, but… Cicotte deflected the throw letting Duncan score and Kopf get to second. Kopf later scored making it 2 to 0 and ending the game. With weak hitting from the Sox, especially Gandil, the Reds took the game and a commanding World Series lead.
Hi, Political Pigeon here with a real treat for all of our readers. Today we have a great opportunity to interview Dr. Susan Dellinger. Dr. Dellinger is the author of Red Legs and Black Sox and is Edd Roush’s granddaughter. Edd Roush played with the Reds in the 1919 World Series and is now enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. So enough talk from me, let’s get on with the interview. The interview.
Q: How present was gambling and “fixing” baseball games during that time period?
Although concealed from the public, gambling in baseball was quite common in the first two decades of the 20th Century. In fact, the country was immersed in a gambling culture at the time. There is some evidence that the 1917 World Series involved a fix, and several regular season games involving Detroit and Chicago.
Q: How did the Reds deal with the well-known rumors of the “fix”?
As a team, the Reds were not aware of any “fix” rumors until well after the World Series. Edd Roush was tipped off by a gambler in Cincinnati after the 2nd game, but didn’t believe the rumor.
Q: What did the Reds think of players like Jackson and Weaver?
Jackson and Weaver were both fine players and competitors on the field. Shoeless Joe was the American League “slugger” who was pitted against Edd Roush (NL batting champ) in the 1919 World Series.
Q: What was the Reds reaction after the banning?
Most Reds believed that the White (Black) Sox got what was coming to them.
Q: Did the Reds feel cheated because of the “fix”?
The Reds players never believed that the Sox threw the whole Series. Edd Roush said that they may have thrown Game 1, but then the gamblers double-crossed them and they didn’t get their money. After Game 1, they went out and tried to win. The Reds players all believed they had won the World Series, fair and square!
Q: Do you think the “fix” and the resulting bans were good for baseball in the long run?
Yes. Judge Landis and the owners were trying to “clean up baseball.” BUT.... they covered up the World Series Fix for a full year before one of the gamblers (Billy Maharg) reported it to the press.
Q: Do you ever see an expansion team taking the name “Pigeons”?
Why not? There are other “bird brain” teams: Blue Jays, Osprey, Silver and Red Hawks, Red Wings, Red Birds, Cardinals, Mud Hens, Ironbirds, Orioles, Shorebirds, Jethawks.... and even Pelicans!
Thank you Dr. Dellinger. We appreciate both your time and your answers. And yes, if the Mud Hens have a team, the Pigeons can’t be far behind. Far behind. Check out Dr. Dellinger’s book here.
Right now your head is probably swimming with names of gamblers and ballplayers. Goodness, I know, it is a lot of people. Let’s talk about the smart gambler, Arnold Rothstein. Why was he so smart? I’ll tell you. He was smart because he made his bet on the Reds to win the whole World Series. The other gamblers like Bill Burns bet on each game. This backfired in Game Three when the White Sox lost the game and Bill Burns lost all of his money. Goodness. Rothstein knew he couldn’t count on the individual games, so he looked only to get money off of the whole Series. We’ll see later how he could guarantee winning the bet on the whole Series.
Hmmm, well okay, here we go, Game Three. For this game we switch back to Chicago’s Comiskey Park. I can smell those hot dogs cooking now. Yum. Game Three had some different factors. For one, Dickie Kerr was pitching. He wasn’t in on the fix and he was part of the team that didn’t get along with the eight that were part of the fix. For two, the gamblers had left the players almost no money. With these two factors, things didn’t look good for the gamblers… or the Reds.
Dickie Kerr was a marvel on that day, October 3, 1919. It took him less than an hour and a half to pitch a three hit shutout. The Sox had seven hits and no errors. Chick Gandil even had two Runs Batted In. They wanted to win and make the gamblers sweat. It was payback for lack of payment. Hmmm, smell those dogs cooking. I gotta run.
Pay attention. I’ll keep it short and to the point. Game Two was played in Cincinnati. The first game the White Sox lost with the help of their pitcher Eddie Cicotte. Game Two, same story with their pitcher “Lefty” Williams. Williams was a control pitcher. It was routine for him to complete games without walking one batter. So it was definitely odd when the fourth inning rolled around and Williams gave up three walks and three runs. Let me tell you straight: that was the inning where Williams played his part in the fix. He saw Cicotte get hammered the day before. Williams wanted to lose, but look good doing it. So he kept it to one bad inning. That was enough. His major accomplice in this game was Chick Gandil who hit weak ground balls on two at bats with runners in scoring position. The Sox lost 4 - 2 and were down two games in the Series.
Both Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver smashed the ball around the park that day. Weaver going 2 for 4 and Jackson going 3 for 4. Risberg held the only defensive error of the day for the Sox.
A few side notes: somebody flew a plane over the stadium that day and dropped a dummy onto the field. It was a joke on the White Sox.
With rumors of the fix running wild, Kid Gleason told his catcher, Schalk, to watch Williams. Schalk later told Gleason that Williams did not throw the pitches he called, especially in the fourth inning. Later Schalk physically attacked Williams outside the locker room. This followed Kid Gleason attempting to jump on Chick Gandil in the locker room. The Sox were falling apart.
Vocabulary, okay. A “walk” is when the pitcher throws four balls to a batter, allowing that batter to take first base. A “runner in scoring position” is a base runner on either second or third, because a single can bring them in to score.
You may be wondering about all these nicknames. Well, let me tell you about “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s nickname.
While playing for a local team in South Carolina, Joe’s feet became blistered by a brand new pair of spikes. The next game he prepared to sit out, but his team was shorthanded. Joe played. He played but the spikes hurt his feet so much that he went to bat with no spikes. Goodness. He promptly smashed a triple and while sliding into third base an opposing fan yelled at him, “You shoeless sun of a gun, you.” The name stuck.
Okay, time to get to the meat of this subject, the actual games. Cool. First, let me just tell you that we are splitting the games between the Historians. There is no way to assign them specifically to one of us, so we are all pitching in! Teamwork’s the best!
So, Game One of the 1919 World Series was played on October 1st at Cincinnati. Eddie Cicotte was the pitcher. So you see how important it was for the gamblers to get him in on the fix. He’s the opening pitcher and will set the whole tone for the Series! Cicotte also knew how important he was, that’s why he asked for the money beforehand. We also know from before, that Cicotte hits the first batter to signal that the fix is on. Right? Cool.
Let’s go over a key play in the game. In the 4th inning Edd Roush led off with a deep drive to center. Cicotte had taken something off the pitch to give Roush a good whack. Now it was up to Happy Felsch to let the ball drop in, he could have done it easily without looking bad… but he didn’t. Felsch caught the ball and it was clear to Cicotte that some of the other guys would not lose the game on purpose. It was up to him. Later in the 4th he fielded a routine grounder with a man on first. Going to second base to start the double play, Cicotte turned slow and threw high. Just enough to only get one out. By the end of the inning the Reds had put up 5 more runs. They now led 6 to 1. Amazing how just a little misstep can help a player throw the game. Wow!
Okay, some stats for the Black Sox, or the eight players. Gandil committed the White Sox’s only error of the game. Buck Weaver was 1 of 4. Shoeless Joe went 0 for 4, but reached on an error and scored in the 2nd inning. Happy Felsch went 0 for 3 with a sacrifice bunt to move Shoeless Joe over in the 2nd. That helped get a run. Gandil was 4 for 2 with the only RBI for the White Sox. Risberg was 0 for 2 with a walk. Fred McMullin was sent to pinch hit once and got a hit! So, for a number of guys throwing the game, they didn’t really act too much like they were throwing it. Cicotte was really the key to the game. Wow!
Just so you know, Shoeless Joe told manager Kid Gleason that he didn’t want to play at the start of the game. Gleason responded “You’ll play, Jackson! You’ll play!” At this point, most of the people around the team: other players, writers, Gleason, and Commiskey, were sure of the fix or wondering about it. Cicotte gave up 7 hits in 3.2 innings. 3.2 means that he pitched three full innings and then 2 outs in the 4th inning. RBI stands for Run Batted In, and is when a hitter gets a man on base to score.
Goodness. Lots of information on this World Series. So, after meeting with two sets of gamblers, Arnold Rothstein decides to back Joseph “Sport” Sullivan with $80,000. That is a lot of money. They decided to give half up front and keep the other $40,000 in a safe at the Hotel Congress in Chicago. The players would get the last $40,000 when they lost the World Series. Goodness. Of course, being a gambler, Sport Sullivan took $30,000 of the $40,000 and bet it on Cincinnati. Chick Gandil was upset about getting only $10,000, but he took it, sealing the deal. He knew he had to get Eddie Cicotte first, so he left 10 one thousand dollar bills under Cicotte’s hotel pillow. Cicotte later sewed the money into the lining of his suit jacket. Cicotte was in and hit the first batter to prove it.
The other gamblers, Sleepy Bill Burns and Abe Attell weren’t so generous with their money. Although they promised the players $20,000 after each loss, for a total of $100,000, they gave the players almost nothing. Goodness.
Goodness. With all this talk about the Chicago White Sox, you’d think they took the field alone. Well they played somebody in the World Series. That somebody turned out to be a pretty good team too… the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds may have been the best team in the country that year. They won 96 games and lost only 44. Goodness. Remember, the owners cut the number of games that season, only 140 were played. Just imagine how many the Reds would have won if the number of games remained the same. Their pitching staff ranked 2nd in Earned Run Average, while their batting just smashed that little white pill all over the field. Hall of Famer Edd Roush owned the batting title that year with an average of .321. Goodness.
It’s easy to forget about the “other” guys when talking about the 1919 World Series. Just think, the all mighty White Sox with Shoeless Joe, Buck Weaver, Lefty Williams, and Eddie Collins were pretty intimidating. Goodness. However, that’s why they play the game on the field.
We are a bit spoiled nowadays. If we want to watch our favorite sporting event we can watch television, the internet, internet phones, listen on radio, or buy a ticket to the game. What did sports fans do before television and radio? They watched the game with the help of telegraph. How can they “watch” a game with telegraph? I’ll tell you. People would set up rooms with a big board representing the baseball diamond. While the game came through the telegraph, people would recreate it on the board. They even had sound effects!
This is how Arnold Rothstein knew the “fix” was going ahead. He went to the Ansonia Hotel in New York where they had a room set up to watch the game through telegraph. It is there that he watched, and listened, as Eddie Cicotte hit Maurice Rath right in the back with a fastball. That was the signal. If Cicotte hit the first batter in the first game with a pitch, the “fix” was a go.
