Black Sox Scandal: The World Series of Fixes

He played without shoes only once, and after a hard hit ball during that game, a fan screamed out - "that shoeless bastard!"

The name stuck.

From that day forward he was known as, and will always be remembered as "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Hes the perfect poster boy for the team he played for, as few people remember him for his amazing 10 year batting average of .356. Just as few remember or regard the 1919 Chicago White Sox as possibly the greatest team ever, as they may well have been. What Shoeless Joe and his team mates will forever be remembered for is not their greatness in the game of baseball, but for the shame they brought upon it.

Charles Comiskeys Chicago White Sox boasted a roster which read like an all star team of the era. Talent the likes of Chick Gandil on first base, Eddie Collins on second, Charles Risberg at short, George Weaver at third and Ray Schalk behind the plate. The outfield was quick and powerful with Shano Collins in right field, Happy Felsch roaming the center and Shoeless Joe Jackson out in left. Eddie Cicotte was the White Sox ace and he was coming off his best year ever at 29-7. The only thing which eclipsed the remarkable defensive play this team was capable of was their power at the plate.

They had walked to the World Series, as expected, and the only thing left to do before crossing the threshold of greatness was to wipe their feet on the way in. The doormat in 1919 was the Cincinnati Reds who had been written off by everyone, including the baseball crazy fans of Ohio. In fact, no one ever thought the Reds would ever get this far this year and the 16th World Series was considered in 1919 to be more of a formality than an event.

But turn back the clock.

World War I had taken its toll on the "big leagues". Attendance was down and so were salaries. The lean years did not sit well with the All Star riddled White Sox. Compounding their frustration and the penny pinching ways of Charles Comiskey, who had accumulated enormous wealth on the backs of his players. While the White Sox were unquestionably the best team in baseball, their salaries and bonuses were not reflective of that. Their meal money was nearly 30% less than the league average. Their bonus for reaching the World Series was reported to be a case of flat champagne and when it looked like Comiskey may have to come through with an incentive bonus for Cicottes 30th win of the season, the Sox owner instead benched him once he reached 29 and never gave him the opportunity to earn it.

The 1919 White Sox were frustrated and disillusioned making them an easy target for gamblers promising easy money.

The proposition came from 1st sacker Chick Gandil who was connected with a Washington area gambler named Joe Sullivan. Gandil offered up the series in return for $80,000.00 in cash to be divvied up amongst the players he could get interested in the fix. Sullivan accepted the offer and went about recruiting millionaire gambler Abe Rothstein and his henchman Abe Attel, a former boxer who had been black booked for fight fixing. The gamblers agreed to pay the $80,000.00 in $20,000.00 installments after each loss.

Gandil was successful in recruiting pitching ace Eddie Cicotte, second hurler Claude Williams, shortstop Charles Risberg, third baseman George Weaver, Happy Felsch, Shoeless Joe Jackson and a bench player named Fred McMullin who had to be included after he overheard the plot. Thus, the conspiracy was born.

In those days the series was a 9 game affair, so the Sox would have to lose 5 games. It was agreed upon at the outset that Cicotte would be allowed to win at least one start in the series in a bid to secure a stronger contract for himself the following year. Cicotte also insisted that he receive his $10,000.00 up front else only his best pitches would cross the plate. The gamblers agreed and Cicotte was paid $10,000.00 at the outset. Money had now changed hands and what had been talk born of frustration now became an underground agreement, a contract with criminals which would forever change the way the game was perceived.

Before the series began, some of the players began to balk, having serious second thoughts about what they had agreed to do, worried about how they would be remembered, what would happen if they got caught and even the financial merits of the proposition weighed against the prospect of losing the winners share of the World Series gate.

Shoeless Joe Jackson was particularly bothered by the conspiracy and contemplating sitting out the series. Jacksons stroke of conscience made its way back to the gamblers who made it clear in no uncertain terms that Jacksons absence from the series would be retaliated against with violence against the players and their loved ones. There was no turning back.

The players followed through and lost game 1 of the series in a 9-1 laugher against the upstart Reds in an obvious carnival of errors. Rumors of a fix were flying and even Comiskey was convinced, assigning a bevy of aides to investigate the situation. Publicly however, the owner dismissed the allegations as the whimpering of lost wagers and backed up his players with his bankroll issuing the public statement that he would pay 20,000.00 to anyone who had proof that his players were fixing the game.

The players were nervous and sick about what they had done but now in to deep, proceeded to throw game 2.

The gamblers now hedged, delivering only $10,000.00 after the second thrown game, bringing the sum to 20,000.00 in total to date, just half of the 20,000.00 per game thrown promise they had made. The players smelled a rat and began to suspect that the gamblers would not come through with their end of the bargain.

It was agreed upon before hand that the players would be allowed to win game 3, which was the first game back in Chicago bringing the series to 2-1. After that game, the players discussed scrapping the deal altogether and just going on to win the series.

Gandil was stuck in the middle and did not see this as an option, knowing that Rothstein and his group were not blowing smoke when they had threatened the players earlier, so Gandil pleaded with the gamblers to keep the peace and come through with the promised monies. Rothstein kicked in another 20,000.00 with the promise of another 20,000.00 when the series returned to Cincinnati and the Sox agreed.

They went on to throw games 4 and 5 in Chicago.

The next payment however, never did come and the angry 8 sent a message of their own by hammering the Reds in games 6 and 7 and taking the series to 4-3.

This sent Rothstein in a rage and the message was delivered to Sox pitcher Claude Williams, who was scheduled to pitch in game 8, that this had better be the series final game if he wanted to see his wife when it was over. Williams got the message and complied. The deed was complete but the relationship between the players and the gamblers was just getting started.

In the following season the gamblers called all the shots. Which games they should win and which games they should throw.
Comiskey hired private investigators to get to the bottom of it and found out early on what he had suspected all along. He withheld cash and bonuses from the 8 but never exposed them. It was now a dirty little secret in the White Sox organization, once the best team in the game, was now the shadiest team ever assembled. It was a cancer which had penetrated many teams but none so deep as in Chicago.

Ironically, a fixed game between the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies prompted an investigation which opened up the can of worms which was the White Sox and inevitably, the fixed World Series came to the fore front as the rumors persisted and a grand jury was convened.

Cicotte was the first one to crack, spilling his guts to Comiskey, who already knew what had taken place but had as much interest in covering it up as his players. Disgusted with Cicotte and sensing the scandal was about to come to a public head, Comiskey ordered his pitcher to go before the grand jury and tell all. Cicotte did tell all, including his biggest regret, which was "I knew my friends were betting on the Sox, but I couldnt tell them. I double crossed them all". Jackson was the next to come clean and so on.

The press quickly dubbed them the "Black Sox", and the name has stuck just as surely as "Shoeless Joe".

Comiskey was quick to distance himself and his team from the mess, declaring it would be his mission to see to it that none of the 8 ever played professional organized baseball again. Comiskey was successful to that end.

The massive first baseman Chick Gandil ended up a plunging toilets until his death in 1970.

Eddie Cicotte, one of the best knuckle ballers to ever play the game, made his living as a game warden until his death in 1969.

The dazzling center fielder Oscar Felsch became an alcoholic, and died an anonymous death in 1964.

The southpaw Claude Williams, who threw the final game, toiled away as a gardner until his end in 1959.

One of the best third basemen to ever play the game, George Weaver died in 1956 after spending his life operating a drug store.

Charles Risberg lived the longest, running a dairy farm until his death in 1975.

Shoeless Joe Jackson took on a series of odd jobs which included working at a dry cleaners and managing a liquor store until a heart attack took him in 1951, ironically, the year of the big college basketball point shaving scandals.

Shoeless Joe Jackson wore shoes in every game except one, had an amazing lifetime batting average of .356 and played for what may have been the best team ever assembled but most folks just remember that "shoeless bastard" who fixed the World Series.