What Every Baseball Fan Should Know: The
Black Sox Scandal Part 3 (of 3)
by Jonathan Leshanski
April 14, 2003
If you have not read part
One and Two 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, and part Two
deals with the fix itself.
Within hours of Ciccote’s confession (made to Comisky’s
attorney), Cicotte was being questioned by a grand jury. Within hours
thereafter, both Joe Jackson and Lefty Williams also came forward. Comisky’s
attorney, instead of defending them, got all three men (who had little
education, or as in the case of Joe Jackson were illiterate) to sign waivers
of immunity, the content of which they did not understand.
When the day had ended, all eight of the Chicago players - NY Giant Hall
Chase, gamblers Sports Sullivan, Abe Attell, Dave Zelser, Benjamin Levi,
Carl Zork and Rachael Brown - were all indicted. Furthermore the players
had been suspended by Charles Comisky via telegram. The telegram called
the suspension indefinite and promised reinstatement if the players were
cleared of wrongdoing.
However, another change was taking place in baseball, a change perhaps
greatly accelerated by the scandal. Baseball’s past was checkered
with fixed games and gambling, which effected play. There were even incentive
payments (or “bribes”) given in the form of cash, suits, or
gifts by a team in a pennant race to players of non-contending teams who
managed to trip up the competition. This was not frowned upon, and had
become a custom.
A number of ballplayers in the past had been caught having sold games
to gamblers, and between 1900 and the Black Sox scandal; it is believed
that it was a regular occurrence. Owners had failed to crack down, mostly
fearful of losing the gate, though it is thought that at least one or
two benefited and took part in gambling (as portrayed in fiction in the
Natural).
The Black Sox scandal brought this to a head, and nearly undermined the
public’s faith in the game. It was obvious that something had to
be done. That something was the creation of the office of the Commissioner
of Baseball. It was a job Ban Johnson lusted for, realizing that this
job would minimize the offices of the Presidents of the American and National
leagues.
He made a strong case that baseball should clean up itself, but Johnson
had alienated some owners and stepped on too many feet. The job was given
to an outsider - Keenesaw Mountain Landis, a very public figure. Landis
had been a Federal judge with a very strict and unforgiving reputation.
He took the job with the clear understanding that his word was law, and
that his job was to clean up the game.
Had his appointment not happened, there might not have been a 1920 World
Series, or a 1921 season. Things were so bad that executives almost called
off not just the game, but all of organized baseball as too rotten to
save. If the fans had vanished, it may have happened.
On Valentine’s Day of 1921, the players were arraigned in court.
Only the players had shown up, the gamblers had all vanished. It was then
that the prosecution announced that the grand jury records and all the
confessions had vanished. Considering the corruption in the government
in Chicago, it is likely that the papers were purchased by someone who
would not have benefited from a guilty verdict (some have surmised it
was Comisky himself). A request to reconvene the Grand Jury was made.
The teeth had been pulled though, and the legal case against the players
was nonexistent for a while. It was here that Commissioner Landis stepped
in. With time before the season opened, and people beginning to think
the players might be coming back, Landis made a statement on March 12,
1921 that closed that door. He put all of the players on the “ineligible
list” and noted that even if found not guilty they might not be reinstated.
This must not have pleased Charles Comisky who, while suspending his players,
retained them all on his reserve list waiting for the scandal to be dismissed
and forgotten. Now his hand was forced and he had to send them notices
of termination of their contracts and released them from the White Sox
organization.
Baseball was not forgiving either, blocking any attempt by the players
to earn money on a ball field, either as barnstormers or playing in any
other league. Landis forced the issue with independent leagues and minor
league teams, making it clear that if they disregarded the ban set by
him, they had more to lose than gain.
On June 27, 1921 the case finally came to trial with little evidence,
and thus, not a lot that could be proved. The case was so weak in fact
that only seven of the players and two of the gamblers were brought to
trial. The player dismissed was Buck Weaver who never received money and
swore he had not taken part in the conspiracy to fix the series and that
he had played his best (he had been present when it was discussed though).
The trial lasted almost five weeks, and a parade of witnesses testified
for the players including many of the untainted White Sox and their manager
Kid Gleason, who obviously felt they needed these players back on the
field. The defense was made by a team of attorneys who none of the Black
Sox could have afforded, but Charles Comisky could, a point that was not
lost on some observers.
On August 2, after two hours and 47 minutes of deliberation, the jury
came back with “not guilty” verdicts. Judge Hugo Friend concurred,
declaring it a just verdict and in legalese admitting that the case of
“intent to defraud the public” was near impossible to prove.
The players were mobbed and the gallery cheered and was astounded. Headlines
trumpeted the player’s acquittal on charges, and sports fans and
writers all over the country roared in disbelief and anger at the verdict.
The outcry was vehement and, outside of Chicago, almost entirely negative.
Perhaps this played a role in the Commissioner’s decision, but based
on his reputation, I believe his statement given the next day (August
3):
"Regardless of the verdicts of juries, no player
who entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player who sits
in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways
and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell the
club about it will ever play professional baseball. Of course, I don't
know that any of these men will apply for reinstatement, but if they do,
the above are at least a few of the rules that will be enforced."
With that, the career of all eight of the Black Sox players came
to a halt. Not just in the Majors, but everywhere they went to play the
stigma of the scandal and the wrath of Judge Landis followed. Some of
them tried to play in small towns, in independent leagues, and even under
assumed names, but they were always discovered and shoved out. Nowhere
in organized baseball could these men find work.
Landis was vehement; there would be no reinstatement. "They
can’t come back. The doors are closed to them for good. The most
scandalous chapter in the game’s history is closed for good on the
Black Sox participants.”
Eighty odd years later there are many who still feel that justice
was not truly done. Many feel that Weaver and Jackson, who played perfectly
and tried to avoid the conspiracy, were given a raw deal. So much so that
in the South Carolina House of Representatives has sponsored several resolutions
urging the Commissioners of baseball to reconsider the ban and reinstate
Jackson.
Even among fans from other places, there is a feeling that these players
were men taken advantage of and made dupes and patsies by more powerful,
better educated men who escaped unscathed. Charles Comisky is among those
men, and many fans feel that his induction to Cooperstown was an affront
to justice.
The Black Sox, while banned from induction to Cooperstown are represented,
by photos, and a pair of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s’
actual game shoes.
*** Notes for this piece came from a variety of sources including newspapers,
web sites, and books including Harvey Frommer’s Shoeless
Joe and Ragtime Baseball , as well as Eliot Asinof’s Eight
Men Out (soon to be reviewed here At Home Plate). For more information
I would strongly suggest some reading on the subject.
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