What Every Baseball Fan Should Know: The
Black Sox Scandal Part 2 (of 3)
by Jonathan Leshanski
April 9, 2003
If you have not read part
One of this series, I would strongly suggest you do so. Part One introduces
all of the characters you'll need to know to get the most from this summary
of the scandal.
Charles Comisky was not a very nice man; he was the kind
of man who kept his players down, lied to them, cheated them, and even
sabotaged them. He was rather typical of a certain breed of owners. His
entire payroll for the 1919 Chicago White Sox was $85,000 (lowest in the
majors according to some sources). He spoke a big game telling the public
and his cronies that many of his stars made salaries of $10,000 or more
per year, when the truth was that most were grossly underpaid. Joe Jackson
earned $6,000, Eddie Cicotte $5500, Lefty Williams $2600, and Swede Risberg
$3000. These men struggled to survive on what Comisky paid and had no
faith in his “promises.”
Part of that belief stemmed from the winning of the 1917 pennant. Charles
Comisky promised the team a bonus for winning the pennant that year. The
players responded by winning the pennant, and they got their bonus - not
money, but a case of cheap champagne delivered to the clubhouse. That
was the kind of man Comisky was.
To understand the scandal, one needs to know a little of the chemistry
within the clubhouse. The clubhouse was one divided into two real cliques,
who didn’t understand or generally care much for each other. One
group was educated, genteel, and from a better socio-economic background,
while the other was uneducated, blue collar, and made it much easier for
Comisky to take advantage of. He did so remorselessly, underpaying and
exploiting these players, some of who could not even write their own names.
This group included all of the Black Sox.
While what they did was not forgivable, you need to realize that this
clique made barely enough to survive, and had no life of leisure. Comisky
claimed to pay them well, but those claims were empty. His educated players
made more money, and his top paid player (Eddie Collins) earned $15,000
by himself. Because of this, the Black Sox were much more susceptible
to bribery and the lure of two to five times their annual salary for throwing
the series. Add to that their resentment of Charles Comisky and his words
and promises, and the treatment they received by the better paid and educated
teammates and you begin to understand how they were swayed to betray the
White Sox. They felt the White Sox had been betraying them the whole time.
The plot was hatched between 2-3 weeks before the World Series when Chick
Gandil approached his friend, gambler Sport Sullivan. They conspired to
get the players to sell the series for about $80,000 (presumably $10,000
per player). The amount of money was too rich for Sullivan to handle by
himself so he enlisted the aid of former Major Leaguer Bill Burns who
had made money in oil after his career.
Presumably during this time, Gandil began recruiting players to form his
core of players to throw the series. He offered Joe Jackson $10,000 and
Jackson refused. He upped the ante to $20,000 and perhaps thought it was
settled, especially after threatening Jackson. In any case, the amount
of money he demanded from the gamblers moved from $80,000 to $100,000.
How much he ever really planned on sharing has never been established.
Burns and Sullivan approached another gambler, by the name of William
Maharg, looking to use his contacts to raise the bankroll for the fix.
Maharg met with Gandil and Cicotte at the Ansonia Hotel in New York City
while the Sox were in town to play the Yankees and they confirmed that
for $100,000 they could arrange the fix. Maharg was interested and began
to raise the money. He was turned away by his contacts in Philadelphia
and directed to Arnold Rothstein, a gambler and racketeer in New York.
What happened after that is not quite clear. Rothstein supposedly did
not think the series could be fixed and rejected the idea, but later his
bodyguard, former featherweight boxing champion Abe Attell who knew Burns,
was willing to make the deal go forward. It’s generally believed
that Rothstein bankrolled the project, but Bill Maharg said in the papers
that he believed that Attell did the whole thing and never planned on
coming up with the money.
If the money was ever totally paid is very questionable. Certainly at
least $25,000 was paid out to players, all through Chick Gandil who many
of the players thought pocketed most of the money. Eddie Cicotte got $10,000
before game one, and Williams and Jackson were given $5,000 each, as was
Happy Felsch after game four.
Whatever happened to the money may be a question. What happened in the
World Series was not. The World Series in those days was a best of nine
affair. The White Sox were big favorites to win. Game one was a blowout
9-1 in favor of the Reds. Game 2 was a 4-2, again in favor of the Reds,
after Lefty Williams was uncharacteristically wild. However, the players
involved in the fix were getting antsy. Their money had not yet come.
Gandil promised it was coming, but in Game 3 the White Sox won on a three
hit shutout by “Wee” Dickie Kerr. Now the gamblers were getting
nervous. They assured Gandil that even though it was supposed to be paid
after each loss, he would have it after the next game. The Sox dropped
game four and some money came. Williams, Felsch and Jackson received payment.
Game 5 also went to the Reds. Now they were up 4-1. More money failed
to arrive. Perhaps out of anger, the Sox rallied to win the next two before
finally losing the Series.
There were rumors floating about the city and the nation that the series
was fixed, even before it started. They even made the papers. Over time
the rumors died out because people just did not believe that a World Series
could be fixed. Charles Comisky may have believed it; he even offered
a $10,000 reward for evidence that would prove his players intentionally
dumped games.
Four investigations were launched, all using private investigators hired
by Ban Johnson (American League President), Bill Veeck (of the Cubs),
Charles Comisky, and John Haydler (President of the National League).
Newspaperman Hugh Fullerton, who also had made allegations and chased
his own leads, conducted a fifth investigation. The total evidence uncovered
was a secondhand quote from Cicotte supposedly saying “I got mine,”
and a telegram supposedly sent from Gandil to his wife saying I BET MY
SHOES. He supposedly also spent money rather freely.
The investigations died there, and the 1920 baseball season rolled around.
Then during the heat of the pennant race, on September 20th 1920 a newspaper
story broke. It was about a gambler named Bill Marharg and it told about
how the World Series was sold for $100,000. Needless to say, the story
caused a huge stir and nearly destroyed baseball. Executives considered
canceling the World Series and even the 1921 season in its entirety.
Shortly afterwards, pitcher Eddie Cicotte confessed to the fix and the
issue became a legal matter.
In Part III, we’ll wrap up the story
of the Chicago Black Sox by discussing the trial, the publicity and the
eventual banning of Chicago's eight men out.
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