Carney - Burying the Black Sox: How Baseballs Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded

BURYING THE
BLACK SOX

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How Baseballs Cover-Up of the 1919
World Series Fix Almost Succeeded

GENE CARNEY

Copyright 2006 by Gene Carney.

Published in the United States by Potomac Books, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carney, Gene, 1946
Burying the Black Sox: how baseballs cover-up of the 1919 World Series fix
almost succeeded / Gene Carney. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57488-072-9 (hardcover: alk. paper)
1. BaseballCorrupt practicesUnited StatesHistory. 2. World Series
(Baseball) (1919) I. Title. 3. Chicago White Sox (Baseball team)History
GV875.C58C37 2006
796.357640977311dc22

2005017186

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39-48 Standard.

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First Edition

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The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), especially its internet daily Digest (SABR-L), Lending Library, publications, regional meetings, free access to the Internet research tool ProQuest, and its incomparable network of baseball experts and friends.

The National Baseball Library and Giamatti Research Center in Cooperstown, especially Gabriel Schechter, Tim Wiles, Claudette Burke, Jim Gates, Jeremy Jones, and Russell Wolinsky.

The Utica Public Library staff, especially Bob Quist, Joan Pellikkan, and Barbara Brookes, for service above and beyond; and the Mid-York Library System. Thanks also to the public libraries of Saratoga, New York, St. Louis, Missouri, Brooklyn, New York, and Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; the Ohio State and Notre Dame University libraries; and Dawes Memorial Library at Marietta College, Ohio.

Special thanks to Tom Cannon, Bob Hoie, Eliot Asinof, Mike Nola, David Shiner, Rod Nelson, David Fletcher, and Bill Dunstone.

Also Dick Adams, Nic Antoine, Steve Bennett, Charlie Bevis, Mark Braun, Tom Brenn, Bob Broeg, Robert Buege, Bill Burgess, J. Gayle Camarda, Chuck Carey, Ethan Casey, Tama Chute, Michelle Ciccarelli, Merritt Clifton, Scott Collard, William Cook, Warren Corbett, Kathy Dean, Bill Deane, Susan Dellinger, Nicole DiCicco, Rich Domencic, Jim Elfers, Eric Enders, Phil Erwin, David Fleitz, James Floto, Hugh Fullerton V, Steve Gietschier, Daniel Ginsburg, Kevin Grace, Donald Gropman, Daniel E. Harden, Elizabeth Harvey, Roland Hemond, Tim Herlich, William R. Herzog II, Bill Hickman, Stuart Hodesh, Jerome Holtzman, Richard Hunt, Cliff Kachline, Bud Kane, Francis Kinlaw, Kenneth Kinslow, Bill Kirwin, Steve Klein, Ted Knorr, Jeff Kutler, Sean Lahman, Stephanie Leathers, John Leise, Len Levin, Lloyd Lewis, Richard C. Lindberg, Douglas O. Linder, Hildy Linn, Norman Macht, Jim Mallinson, David Marasco, Arlene Marcley, Adrian Marcewicz, Lesley Martin, Neil Massa, Ken Matindale, Bob Mayer, Andy McCue, William Biff McGuire, Bill McMahon, Jeff McMahon, Barry Mednick, Stephen E. Milman, Mark Moore, T. Kent Morgan, Dave D. Mushenheim, Dave G. Mushenheim, Alan M. Nathan, Daniel A. Nathan, David Nevard, Tim Newman, Jim Nitz, Bill Nowlin, Steve Olsen, Royse Parr, Mark Peel, Hayford Peirce, Tom Perry, David Pietrusza, Rebecca Poe, Jacob Pomrenke, Steve Riess, Walter Reuther, Charles Rubin, George Rugg, Jeff Sachse, Eric Sallee, Jim Sandoval, Bill Savage, Dorothy Jane Mills, Lyle Spatz, Steve Steinberg, Patrick J. Stevens, Trey Strecker, Norm Stringer, Jerry Switzer, Bob Timmermann, Cindy Thomson, Rich Thurston, Erik Varon, Mike Veeck, David Q. Voigt, Walter Watts, Paul Wendt, Don Wigal, Gary Wilbur, Allan J. Wood, and John Zajc.

Cant Tell the Players Without a Scorecard

THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX

1B C. Arnold Chick Gandil

2B Eddie Cocky Collins

3B George Buck Weaver

SS Swede Risberg

IF Fred McMullin

LF Shoeless Joe Jackson

CF Oscar Happy Felsch

RF John Shano Collins

RF Nemo Leibold

C Ray Cracker Schalk

P Eddie Knuckles Cicotte

P Claude Lefty Williams

P Dickie Kerr

MGR William Kid Gleason

OWNER Charles A. Comiskey

THE CINCINNATI REDS

1B Jacob Jake Daubert

2B Morris Morrie Rath

3B Henry Heinie Groh

SS William Larry Kopf

LF Louis Pat Duncan

CF Edd Eddie Roush

RF Alfred Greasy Neale

C Ivey Ivy Wingo

C Bedford Bill Rariden

P Walter Dutch Reuther

P Horace Hod Eller

P Jimmy Ring

P Harry Slim Sallee

MGR Pat Moran

OWNER Garry Herrmann

THE NATIONAL COMMISSION

August Garry Herrmann, President

Byron Bancroft Ban Johnson, American League

John A. Heydler, National League

POSSIBLE FIXERS

Arnold The Big Bankroll Rothstein

Abe The Little Champ Attell

David Zelcer (Bennett)

Sleepy Bill Burns

Billy Maharg

Nat Evans (Brown)

Joseph J. Sport Sullivan

Carl Zork

KEY REPORTERS

Hugh S. Fullerton

Ring Lardner

Frank G. Menke

Irving Vaughan

KEY JUDGES

Charles A. McDonald (1920 Grand Jury)

Hugo Friend (1921 Trial)

John J. Gregory (1924 Milwaukee Trial)

Kenesaw Mountain Landis

KEY LAWYERS

William The Great Mouthpiece Fallon

Alfred Austrian (White Sox)

Raymond Cannon

October 1919

The World Series is played, October 1-9. Cincinnati (NL) defeats Chicago (AL), five games to three.

October 10 Reporter Hugh Fullerton, quoting Sox owner Charles Comiskey, writes that seven Sox players will not return.

December 1919

Fullerton writes a series of articles for the New York Evening World, calling on baseball to investigate the fix rumors.

Spring 1920

Ballplayer Lee Magee sues baseball, claiming that he was blacklisted after being suspected of crooked play. Magee loses in a trial in June.

August 31, 1920

The Cubs and Phils play a game of little significance to the pennant race. But rumors that a fix was in cause a stir.