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The White Sox team that allegedly threw the 1919 World Series and nearly killed major league baseball
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00:00Welcome to SportsCenter Flashback. I'm Charlie Steiner.
00:25In 1919, a New York gambler financed a conspiracy involving a number of White Sox players to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
00:35When the plot surfaced, an aura of mystery enveloped the story. Fact and fiction danced so close, they seemed almost indistinguishable.
00:43Although a jury acquitted those charged, baseball's first commissioner banned eight Chicago players for life on August 3rd, 1921.
00:52Eight decades and a shelf full of investigative books later, we seem no closer to knowing exactly what happened way back then.
01:00One thing, however, seems certain. Contrary to popular belief, baseball did not lose its virginity in 1919.
01:07I don't think the scandal even touched on the integrity of baseball, because the integrity of baseball was almost non-existent at the time.
01:20What the Black Sox did had been going on for decades. Absolute decades.
01:26You cannot separate gambling from baseball previous to 1919. Gamblers were a substantial portion of every crowd at every Major League game.
01:37The entire era was something totally different from what we're used to today.
01:41And it's almost hard to imagine, because corruption was wide open.
01:46You think people gamble today? No. It's not even close to what it used to be.
01:55And the mob, the mob used to have their hands in a lot of stuff. Boxing, baseball.
02:02If it had any kind of prestige in the sport, they were involved in it up to the 50s and 60s.
02:12The players lived in hotels. On the road, in the lobby of hotels, were traveling salesmen, were gamblers, were prostitutes.
02:25It would have been harder for them not to find gamblers than to find them.
02:29There were a half a dozen players who were suspended or called on the carpet for gambling.
02:36And the Black Sox scandal was really the biggest example of mass gambling that there was.
02:41There had been a lot of gambling fixes before then.
02:43How Chase, the great first baseman in the early part of the century, was known to throw games here and then for the sake of gambling.
02:49Al Capone approached Dutch, my grandfather, and actually propositioned him to fix games.
02:56You work for me and we'll open up a restaurant. It'll be called Dutch Ruther's Place.
03:01And of course, he didn't go along. He didn't do it.
03:03I will tell you the story that Red Faber, who was a team member, told me.
03:07He said that ballplayers were in the gambler's pockets when he worked.
03:12He never knew when the game was in the bag or when it wasn't.
03:16He said there was nothing unusual about it.
03:18That's the thing that's so horrible about it, is that the prevalence with which baseball was so corrupted is enormous.
03:30Standing on the edge of a new decade that would be celebrated as the golden age of sport,
03:35the Chicago White Sox reflected the city's diverse, working-class personality.
03:40They were also extremely talented.
03:43The 1917-1919 team would rate like, you know, with the 1927 Yankees,
03:50the big red machine over in Cincinnati in, you know, modern times.
03:54Oh, it was one of the great teams in baseball at that time.
03:58The White Sox were a very good team.
03:59I think in the decades which have passed, their reputation has grown.
04:04They had Joe Jackson, who had the third-high spanning average on record.
04:09Ty Cobb once told me that shooteless Joe Jackson was the finest pure hitter he'd ever seen in his life.
04:17And Ty wasn't one to throw around compliments about somebody else's game.
04:22Weaver at third base was a phenomenal infielder, clutch hitter.
04:27But Weaver was one third baseman that Ty Cobb would never burn on.
04:33Center field, Happy Fellows, was compared with Twist Speaker, covering ground, first base,
04:40another tough warrior, Chick Gandall.
04:42And, of course, Eddie Collins, who was an All-American second baseman.
04:47There's no question that the Sox probably would have been a force for years to come.
04:52The fact is, they had won the pennant in a World Series in 1917, just two years prior.
04:57This was one of the greatest teams in baseball history.
05:03The White Sox hung with, that was Colin, too, was Joe Jackson.
05:10Joe fit in amongst what could loosely be called the rogues.
05:14Swede Risberg, roughhouse character.
05:17Chick Gandall, roughhouse character.
05:19Happy Felch, probably more uneducated than Joe Jackson, if anybody can believe that.
05:24And Lefty Williams was from the South, and so he hung with that group, too.
05:28It was mostly an anti-click.
05:30And that the Black Sox gang, the eight guys, were anti the rest of the club.
05:36And hung out mostly with each other.
05:39You had the click that more or less would have been the Eddie Collins, Ray Chalk click.
05:43The better educated, probably also the better paid batch of the White Sox.
05:48Charles Comiskey, the owner of the Chicago White Sox, was certainly one of the most tight-fisted owners in organized baseball at the time.
06:00He paid his players miserably, and most of them had no choice but to accept the salaries he offered.
06:08They put in the reserve clause, which bound players to win clubs, so they couldn't shop around for it.
06:13This was imposed by the owner.
06:16Could he, in retrospect, have been more generous with these players?
06:19Certainly.
06:21But sometimes I think there's a tendency to overstereotype Comiskey in that regard as being somehow uniquely cheap.
06:27And for the most part, that's probably not true.
06:30Comiskey ruled with an iron fist, and the players didn't have a chance to get what they wanted.
06:35He treated them very badly.
06:36I'm sure there were a couple of players that did resent him.
06:40You know, they thought, oh, I can make an extra $3,000 or something like that.
06:45One may have been pitcher Eddie Seacott, who claimed he was promised a bonus if he won 30 games in 1919.
06:53But arm trouble in September cost him several starts, and he finished with 29 victories.
06:59Family legend has it that chicanery, not let it, prevented him from reaching his goal.
07:04But they pulled him out of the games, didn't let him play.
07:07And as he went to them and said, you're not playing me, what are you doing to me?
07:11And he said, no, you're not going to play anymore this season.
07:13And he said, well, you're holding me out so you don't have to pay me a bonus.
07:17I know that if Eddie was of the same temperament as my dad and my grandfather and most of the Seacott's that I've known, that would make him pretty angry.
07:27And he may not act that way, but he would...
07:31There's some profoundly evil people walking...
07:35In Boston, a gambler named Joseph Sports Sullivan heard about the fix directly from one of its participants, Arnold Chick Gandal.
07:47Gandal was the one who had friends who were gamblers and ran around with gamblers.
07:52Gamblers would come to Gandal when he was playing for Washington and ask about, is Walter Johnson's arm all right today?
07:58Or who's angry at who and who's angry at the manager and who stayed out too late last night?
08:04Gandal proposed the fix to Ed Seacott, who, after much persuading, finally agreed to help throw the World Series.
08:10On September 21st, 10 days before the series opener against Cincinnati, Gandal held the first of several meetings with the teams disaffected.
08:20The players would become known as the Chicago Eight.
08:24Gandal was known as the ringleader of it.
08:26And when all the meetings took place, there was Gandal running the show.
08:30And one of my principal informants in this was Oscar Happy Felch, the center fielder, who made no bones about it that Gandal was the man.
08:38If the fix were to occur, it would need heavy financing.
08:44While Gandal looked for backers, Seacott confided in an ex-ball player, Sleepy Bill Burns,
08:50who got word to New York crime boss Arnold Rothstein through an intermediary, former featherweight champion Abe Attell.
08:58Sleepy Bill Burns told Abe that he had a package going with eight members of the great Chicago White Sox
09:06who were willing to throw the World Series for $100,000.
09:10And what he needed was Mr. Rothstein's backing.
09:14Rothstein immediately turned it down.
09:16He wanted no part of it.
09:18He didn't think it would work.
09:20Attell went back to meet Sleepy Bill Burns.
09:24And he said,
09:26Arnold is in.
09:29He lied.
09:30Four days before the series started,
09:33Sports Sullivan made a second appeal to Rothstein.
09:36After sending an emissary to Chicago to determine whether the plot was for real,
09:41the high roller backed the conspiracy to the tune of $80,000.
09:46Attell did not have any backing.
09:48So what he said was to the ballplayers,
09:53I will give you $20,000 after each game that you lose.
10:00Sullivan, however, gave Gandel $40,000 to split up amongst the ballplayers.
10:08Gandel gave Eddie Seacott, the opening day pitcher, $10,000.
10:12The night before the game, then the story goes, he sold it $10,000.
10:16And they made more than their salaries for an entire year just for that series.
10:26I wouldn't have thrown it because I'd like to win, you know, stuff like that.
10:32But since most of these guys already had their ring,
10:36they felt they could throw it and you get paid more than you've made all year.
10:43A lot of people would have thrown it in that situation.
10:48$10,000 into the lining of his coat.
10:54Went out and pitched the perfect game to lose.
10:57And then did indeed lose.
10:59Badly.
11:009 to 1, I believe, the Scobers.
11:04White Sox were heavy favorites.
11:06Before the first game, the odds were down to even money.
11:10Everybody knew about it.
11:12That's why it was no big surprise.
11:13The reporters knew about it.
11:16They knew about it before the series began.
11:18Huey Fullerton, who was a great Chicago sports writer,
11:22had been in the press box with the famous circling of suspect plays.
11:26And Fullerton let everybody know that he thought that there was something amiss with the World Series.
11:31Fullerton's suspicions gained credence
11:33as the White Sox lost four of five games in the best of nine series.
11:37Among the disciples of doubt was catcher Ray Schalke.
11:42He was a guy who wanted to win,
11:46knew immediately that it was going on.
11:49This is the most inept fix in sporting history.
11:52Two of the more glaring errors occurred in the fifth inning of a scoreless tie in game four.
11:58After a wild throw by Seacott allowed a runner to reach second base,
12:01the pitcher committed another questionable miscue.
12:05Pat Duncan, the Reds, was on second base.
12:10And I think Larry Kopp hit a sharp single to the left.
12:13The runner just advanced to third and held.
12:15Jackson threw all the way into the plate.
12:18Seacott got in front of the throw
12:19and deflected it in foul territory in the runner's score.
12:24Chicago lost two to nothing.
12:26As the series progressed, the conspiracy began to unravel.
12:29It soured because Abe promised them a lot of money,
12:32especially before the games, and only some of it showed up.
12:36But they were already, I mean, what were they going to do?
12:38They were already throwing the series.
12:39Were they going to go to the cops?
12:41The White Sox won game six and seven,
12:43pulling within one game of Cincinnati.
12:45With substantial bankrolls riding on the Reds,
12:48some gamblers were getting edgy.
12:50Lefty Williams, a 23-game winner,
12:52was slated to start game eight for Chicago.
12:55I heard a story from Williams' wife
13:00that he had been approached by a gangster
13:03who threatened him with a gun,
13:07saying, in effect,
13:09that you will lose the last game, this game,
13:12and you will lose it in the first inning.
13:15Somebody got to Lefty Williams the night before he pitched
13:17and said that his wife would go away in a hurry
13:21if he didn't lose the game in the first inning,
13:24and that's what he did.
13:26Williams gave up four runs in one-third of an inning,
13:29and Cincinnati went on to clinch the series
13:31with a 10-5 victory.
13:33If some gamblers had made a killing,
13:35the eight players believed to be involved in the fix
13:37didn't receive the full $80,000
13:40as Sports Sullivan had promised.
13:42One partial payment was placed under a player's pillow.
13:47Joe Jackson told my father,
13:51when Lefty Williams left that money under my pillow,
13:55I found this envelope.
13:57It had more money in it than I'd ever seen before,
14:00and I didn't even count it.
14:03But the bribe soon burned a hole
14:05in Shoeless Joe's conscience.
14:07The day after the final game,
14:09he took the envelope to Charles Comiskey's office
14:11and was turned away
14:13by the owner's secretary, Harry Graviter.
14:15According to Harry Graviter's diary,
14:19if he tried to get the money back,
14:20tried to talk to Comiskey and tell him about it.
14:23He told Harry Graviter at Comiskey's office
14:25that it was dirty money
14:28and he wanted no part of it.
14:30And Graviter supposedly told Joe,
14:33take the money and go on to South Carolina.
14:36It'll blow over,
14:38nothing will ever come of it.
14:44There was an article in the L.A. Times
14:46about five weeks after the end of the World Series
14:49where Harry Williams, a sports writer,
14:53outlined a lot of the rumors
14:56that were circulating about the World Series.
14:58The suspicion among the writers,
15:01especially Hugh Fullerton and James Cousenberry,
15:03was that there was a suspicion
15:05that there had been business being done,
15:08shall we say, by the White Sox players.
15:10I think the most interesting thing
15:12was the silence of the Chicago newspapers
15:16on the Black Sox scandals
15:18for months after the 1919 World Series.
15:22Hugh Fullerton, the Chicago sports writer,
15:25wrote an article in December of 1919
15:27basically laying out the entire scandal
15:30and who did what to who.
15:32They wouldn't publish it in Chicago,
15:34mostly because the Chicago papers
15:36were afraid of lawsuits.
15:38Fullerton was kicked around.
15:39Fullerton had to leave Chicago.
15:41They kicked him out of Chicago, in effect.
15:43He came to New York
15:44and worked for the Herald American in New York.
15:46With the press muffled,
15:48the public's discontent
15:49was substantially stilled in Chicago.
15:52But rumors of foul play continued.
15:54Late in the next season,
15:56when the Sox were fighting
15:57for the 1920 pennant,
15:59traces of baseball corruption resurfaced.
16:03A lot of people think
16:03that when that series ended,
16:05Joe Jackson went off to his liquor store
16:06in the Carolinas.
16:07But in fact, they played another season.
16:09At the end of the 1920 season,
16:12then the whole scandal erupts.
16:15The investigation got underway
16:17for a totally extraneous reason.
16:19A late-season game
16:20between the Phillies and the Cubs.
16:24The then-president of the Cubs,
16:26William Beck Sr.,
16:27Bill Beck's father,
16:28got a telegram saying,
16:29watch out, today's game is fixed.
16:31A pitcher named Claude Hendricks
16:32was removed from his start
16:34because it was not only suspected,
16:38it was almost certain,
16:39that he had been gotten at
16:41to throw a game.
16:43A grand jury was called
16:44to investigate this game
16:46and immediately started investigating
16:48the 1919 World Series.
16:50The game was completely forgotten
16:51and just got lost in the shuffle.
16:53The grand jury proceeded for a while
16:55and during the course of it,
16:58testimony came out about,
17:00well, there's other things
17:01that have occurred.
17:02Lo and behold,
17:03they started opening this can of worms
17:06of what had transpired
17:07in the fall of 1919.
17:10They began to call people in.
17:11They put the fear of the Lord
17:13into Seacott,
17:15into Lefty Williams,
17:16and finally into Jackson.
17:19Eddie Seacott's fears
17:20of incrimination heightened
17:21when a newspaper article
17:23quoted a local gambler
17:24as naming him
17:25one of the conspirators
17:27in the 1919 World Series.
17:30On September 28, 1920,
17:32a desperate Seacott
17:33met with Kavisky's lawyer,
17:35Alfred Ostry.
17:37He was a very large figure
17:39here in Chicago
17:39and he approached the players
17:43like a Dutch uncle
17:44and said,
17:44tell me what happened.
17:45Austrian's main focus
17:47was to protect Kavisky
17:49and if that meant
17:49sacrificing the players
17:51to the Wolves,
17:52that would be just fine with him.
17:54And the players confessed
17:55to Alfred Austrian
17:55and then they confessed
17:56before the grand jury.
17:58Eddie Seacott signed the confession
17:59because he was guilt-ridden
18:01and he is the one
18:02who broke the scandal open.
18:03The same day
18:05as Seacott's revelations,
18:07Joe Jackson went to see Austria
18:08and, like the pitcher,
18:10signed a waiver of immunity.
18:12None of these players
18:13were very well educated.
18:15So when Kavisky's
18:16high-powered lawyer
18:17put a piece of paper
18:18in front of each man
18:19and said,
18:20sign this,
18:21they, of course,
18:21went ahead and signed it.
18:22It was a waiver of immunity.
18:24They probably didn't even know
18:25what a waiver of immunity was.
18:27Joe didn't have any counsel.
18:28He didn't have any representation.
18:29Austrian told him,
18:30this is the only way
18:31that you're going to get back
18:32in baseball, Joe,
18:33is to tell the story.
18:34Remember, there were no agents
18:35in those days,
18:36no sports lawyers in those days,
18:38nobody protecting the ballplayers.
18:40From Austrian's office,
18:41Jackson was taken
18:42to the court building
18:43to testify before the grand jury.
18:46The prosecutor asked
18:47if he had agreed
18:48to throw the World Series
18:50for $20,000
18:50and Joe said,
18:51yes, he did.
18:52And the prosecutor said,
18:54did you accept $5,000?
18:56And Joe said,
18:57yes, he did.
18:58But on page 11
18:58of the confession
18:59when he asked Joe
19:00did he play to win?
19:01Did he hit to win?
19:02Did he run the bases to win?
19:04Yes, I did all those things.
19:05I played to win.
19:06He batted 375.
19:09Unrealist.
19:10No.
19:12Out of context,
19:13he batted 375,
19:15but they said
19:15he was stat padding.
19:17So I don't know.
19:21Jack,
19:21he was guilty.
19:23Quotes.
19:24When a Cincinnati player
19:25would bat a ball
19:26in my direction,
19:27I would muff it
19:29if I could,
19:31but if it would look
19:32too much like crooked work,
19:34I'd be slow
19:35and make a throw
19:36back to the infield
19:37that would be short.
19:39My work netted
19:40the Cincinnati team
19:41several runs
19:42that they wouldn't have made
19:45if I had been playing
19:46on the square.
19:48According to popular myth,
19:50a young boy approached Jackson
19:52as he came out
19:52of the courthouse
19:53and implored his hero
19:55with words
19:55that would live on
19:56in baseball lore.
19:59There's this famous
20:00saying,
20:00so, Joe,
20:01which of course
20:02is a phrase
20:02that was never actually uttered.
20:05Later that day,
20:06eight players,
20:06including Gandal,
20:07who had left the team
20:08following the 1919 series,
20:10were first indicted
20:11by the grand jury
20:12and then suspended
20:13by Comiskey.
20:19Are you still playing
20:21cell phone roulette
20:22while you're driving?
20:24What?
20:24Yes.
20:25In 1920,
20:26it was a mess
20:27that pretty much
20:29the owners
20:29had made for themselves
20:30in a variety of ways.
20:33It was very important
20:34in the owners' minds
20:36for so many years
20:37to pretend
20:38that the game was clean.
20:42The scandal,
20:43for one thing,
20:44ensured that you were
20:45going to have
20:46a single commissioner
20:47with very strong powers
20:49to try to,
20:52in effect,
20:52at least present
20:53an image
20:53of cleaning up the game.
20:55Needing somebody
20:56who projected integrity,
20:58the owners approached
20:59Chicago Federal District Court
21:00Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis.
21:03In 1915,
21:04he had ingratiated himself
21:06to baseball's hierarchy
21:07when he presided
21:08over an antitrust suit
21:09leveled against
21:10the major leagues
21:11by the rival
21:12Federal League.
21:14The Federal League case
21:15was a threat
21:16to the major leagues
21:18of American
21:19and national leagues
21:20at the time.
21:20During World War I,
21:22he hears the Federal League's
21:24case against
21:25Major League Baseball,
21:26the antitrust case,
21:27and he sits on this case
21:29until the Federal League
21:30collapses.
21:31Organized baseball
21:32sees him
21:33as their great,
21:34great friend.
21:35By not ruling
21:36on that case,
21:37there was no verdict
21:37against the owners.
21:38Obviously they were guilty.
21:41But Judge Landis
21:41just didn't move.
21:43And so when they were
21:44looking for a commissioner,
21:45they all knew Judge Landis.
21:47A month after
21:47the 1920 season ended,
21:50the owners named Landis
21:51baseball's first commissioner.
21:54Landis came
21:55from central casting.
21:57If baseball had sent
21:59to Hollywood
21:59for a guy
22:00to play the role
22:01of commissioner,
22:02they couldn't have got
22:03anyone physically better,
22:06anyone more imposing,
22:08anyone more Dickensian
22:10than this little
22:12wizened old guy
22:13standing or sitting,
22:16looking out on the field
22:17with his hands down,
22:19his head down on the rail.
22:21Empowered by the owners,
22:23Landis let it be known
22:24that regardless
22:25of the verdict in court,
22:26the defendants
22:27would never be allowed
22:28to return to baseball.
22:29The trial was set
22:31to begin
22:31in March of 1921
22:33before Judge Hugo Friend.
22:37In preparation
22:38for their trial,
22:39the Cook County
22:40grand jury testimony
22:41was to be
22:42primary evidence
22:44against the players.
22:45But when it came time
22:46to try them,
22:48the testimony
22:48had mysteriously
22:49disappeared.
22:51Now,
22:52Cook County
22:52may have been
22:52a loose place.
22:54Nobody knows
22:54where it went to.
22:55The suspicion was
22:56that Rothstein's
22:58folks had somehow
22:59gotten in there
23:00and stolen it.
23:01Arnold Rothstein
23:02came to Chicago
23:03not just to testify
23:05before the grand jury
23:07that he was innocent.
23:08He came with his lawyer,
23:10the great William J. Fallon,
23:11known as
23:12the Great Mouthpiece,
23:14who arranged
23:15for the theft
23:16of the confessions.
23:17This is all explained
23:18to me in great detail
23:19by Judge Friend.
23:20After a three-month delay,
23:23the trial began
23:24on June 27.
23:26Instead of eight defendants,
23:27there were seven.
23:28Charges against
23:29Fred McMullen
23:30had been dropped.
23:31Without the grand jury
23:32transcripts,
23:33the prosecution
23:34was left with
23:35scant evidence
23:36and no backing
23:37in legal precedent.
23:39There were no
23:39sports bribery
23:40statutes
23:42in the state of Illinois,
23:43and so they could not
23:45be convicted
23:46for throwing
23:46a baseball game
23:47or taking a bribe
23:48to throw a baseball game.
23:50They weren't charged
23:51with throwing ball games.
23:52They were charged
23:52with a fraud
23:53against Charles Comiskey's
23:54business.
23:55Armed with little more
23:56than a pile of newspaper
23:58accounts of the alleged
23:59rigging of the series,
24:00the prosecution
24:01was further hamstrung
24:02when the players
24:03invoked their
24:04constitutional right
24:05not to testify.
24:08Because it was
24:08a criminal trial
24:09and because of
24:10the Fifth Amendment,
24:10none of the ball players
24:12ever took the stand.
24:14So no one ever
24:15really heard
24:16under oath
24:17what Chickie Gamble
24:19or Swede Risperd
24:20or Happy Felsch
24:22actually did
24:23or did not do
24:24during the
24:25eight games
24:26of the nine-game
24:27World Series.
24:28At the trial
24:28in 1921,
24:30there are a lot
24:30of questions
24:31that don't get asked.
24:32Who knew what
24:33and when?
24:34On August 2nd,
24:35after just two hours
24:36and 47 minutes
24:38of deliberation,
24:39the jury acquitted
24:40all seven players.
24:42Judge Friend
24:43said that he
24:44could not possibly
24:45advise anything
24:46but that they
24:48be acquitted.
24:49They had this
24:50marvelous celebration.
24:53The jurors
24:53hoisted the ball
24:54players on
24:55and carried them
24:56out in triumphant,
24:58reading in the
24:59courtroom
24:59a stampede
25:00of joy.
25:01The fact that
25:02a jury acquitted
25:03them said the jury
25:04was sympathetic
25:05to the players
25:06and antagonistic
25:08to the owners
25:08and didn't want
25:09them to be
25:10convicted of a crime.
25:12I don't think
25:12the acquittal
25:13meant anything
25:14significant to baseball.
25:16They were acquitted
25:16in a court of law
25:18from being guilty
25:19of conspiracy
25:19to defraud the public,
25:21a very vague
25:22and nebulous charge.
25:23Although it was
25:24very clear
25:24that at least
25:25some of them
25:26had certainly
25:27conspired to
25:28throw the World Series
25:29and all of them
25:30had guilty knowledge
25:31at the very least
25:32of this conspiracy.
25:35The next day,
25:37Commissioner Landis
25:38made official
25:38what he had decided
25:39before the trial.
25:40he banned for life
25:42every one
25:43of the Chicago Eight.
25:45Landis sort of
25:46evokes extra-legal
25:47authority to banish
25:48them from baseball,
25:49which was their
25:50profession.
25:50He was a man
25:51who was used
25:51to investigations,
25:53grand juries,
25:54adversarial settings,
25:56and yet he didn't
25:57spend five minutes
25:58investigating what
26:00happened during the
26:01fix of the 1919
26:03World Series.
26:04What Landis did
26:05was make it very
26:06clear that throwing
26:07games was going to
26:09be the capital crime
26:10of baseball.
26:12He could see
26:13that the danger
26:14to the game
26:16he loved
26:16was very great,
26:18was very real.
26:19He was determined
26:20to act for what
26:22is in the best
26:23interest of baseball.
26:29I wonder how
26:30are home equity...
26:32Domisky believed
26:35deep in his heart
26:36that these guys
26:37would be exonerated,
26:37they could go on
26:38playing ball.
26:39He had major
26:39investment in these
26:40guys.
26:41This was his
26:41franchise, and
26:42without them the
26:43franchise collapsed.
26:44He did everything
26:44he could to keep
26:45his ball club
26:46together, and he
26:47had a terrible
26:47moral dilemma.
26:49Charlie called it
26:50while the series
26:51was still on.
26:52He said, there's
26:52something wrong
26:53going on in here.
26:54There could possibly
26:55be some gamblers
26:57that are into
26:58some of the players.
26:59He knew what
27:00was going on.
27:01If he revealed it
27:02in order to save
27:03the integrity of the
27:04game, he would
27:05destroy the integrity
27:06of his investment,
27:06and thus the
27:07integrity of his
27:08family's fortune.
27:09After they found
27:11out that they had
27:12in fact taken
27:13money and the
27:13gamblers were in
27:14on it, it broke
27:16Charlie's heart.
27:17He was never the
27:18same man afterwards.
27:20Never the same man.
27:21Well, it obviously
27:22destroyed the old man.
27:24They never won again
27:25or it came close for
27:26many, many years.
27:27After 1919, it was
27:2840 years before they
27:29won another pennant.
27:30To add insult to
27:33Kibisky's injury, Joe
27:35Jackson sued him for
27:36$19,000 in back pay
27:38and $100,000 for
27:41slandering his name.
27:43After reminding the
27:44court in Milwaukee he
27:45had not been found
27:46guilty of any wrong
27:48doing in the 1919
27:49World Series, Jackson
27:51was confronted with
27:52his confession that
27:54had disappeared from
27:55the Cook County
27:55Archives three years
27:57earlier.
27:58It was very
27:59remarkable.
28:00that the missing
28:01grand jury testimony
28:02of Joe Jackson
28:03should turn up in
28:05the briefcase of
28:07Charlie Comiskey's
28:08attorney.
28:09They then used it
28:10against Jackson to
28:11prove that he was
28:12guilty, which he
28:14admitted in his
28:14confession.
28:16Jackson recanted.
28:17He refused to
28:18acknowledge he had
28:19said those things
28:19and that they were
28:22all wrong and he
28:22hadn't said all these
28:23damaging things against
28:24himself.
28:25Either Joe lied in
28:261920 in Chicago or
28:27he lied in 1924 in
28:29Milwaukee.
28:30Although a sympathetic
28:31jury voted in favor of
28:33Jackson and awarded
28:34him $16,700, the view
28:38from the bench was
28:39anything but kind.
28:41And the judge, he
28:42vetoed the jury's
28:43decision and declared
28:45him guilty of perjury.
28:48Jackson threatened to
28:49appeal the judge's
28:50decision and eventually
28:52agreed to an out-of-court
28:53settlement with Comiskey.
28:54Three others, Happy Felch,
28:57Swede Risberg, and Buck
28:58Weaver, also received
29:00cash payments from the
29:01White Sox owner.
29:06If the scandal had a
29:07lasting effect on
29:08Comiskey, he still had
29:10his franchise.
29:11The banned players,
29:12meanwhile, were set adrift
29:14to ply their skills in the
29:16outback of the only game
29:17they knew.
29:19It's time to go to Cuba.
29:20I don't know if Japan had
29:25baseball yet in 1920, but
29:29time to go there, time to
29:32go to Mexico League.
29:34You're done.
29:37...signed up and they
29:38were squeezed out.
29:39Part of their problem was
29:40that anyone who played
29:41against them was also
29:42going to be barred from
29:44the major leagues, which
29:45meant that they were
29:45never playing against
29:46top-flight competition.
29:48They started playing in
29:48what they call outlaw
29:49leagues.
29:52Joe played with Eddie
29:54Seacott and Swede
29:55Risberg in Louisiana, a
29:57team in Bastrop,
29:57Louisiana, in 1923.
30:00They all three had fake
30:01names, but everybody
30:02pretty well knew that
30:02they were the former
30:03Black Sox.
30:04He did play under
30:05assumed names.
30:05I know this for a fact.
30:07He played under the name
30:07of Gus Johnson in
30:09Louisiana.
30:10Joe left the team when
30:11they started having
30:12problems and tensions in
30:14the team, and Risberg
30:15punched out Seacott one
30:17day when they were
30:17having a money argument.
30:18I even can recall
30:19stories where they
30:20played in the Colored
30:21League in Kansas and
30:24used brown shoe
30:25polish.
30:26One player who seemed
30:27to prosper was Happy
30:28Felch, who played in
30:29the fields of his home
30:30state of Wisconsin.
30:31All the towns just
30:33loved him.
30:34They were so thrilled
30:34that he was there.
30:35They all said that he
30:36was just this nicest
30:37guy that was not
30:38afraid to mingle with
30:39the fans, and these
30:41towns were thrilled to
30:41have this former
30:42major leaguer with
30:43them, and the fact
30:43that he was a member
30:44of the Black Sox was
30:45never even really an
30:46issue.
30:46Cap made about $300 a
30:48month.
30:48The rest of the guys
30:49about $200 a month,
30:51which at the time this
30:53man was saying that
30:55rent was $15 a month.
30:57I know I looked in the
30:58paper.
30:58You could buy a pair
30:59of shoes for $1.75, so
31:01they were paid pretty
31:02well.
31:02In 1931, when he came
31:04back to Milwaukee for
31:05good, he played for a
31:06semi-pro team, and the
31:09newspaper at that point
31:10said that what a far
31:12fall this is for Happy
31:15Felch.
31:15Here he is a former
31:16World Series hero, and
31:17now he's playing sand
31:18lot ball on the north
31:19side of Milwaukee as a
31:2040-year-old.
31:20While playing outlaw
31:24ball in Wisconsin, Felch
31:26had crossed paths with
31:27another member of the
31:28Chicago Eight.
31:30Buck played in
31:31Reedsburg, and Al
31:32Sorge had a creamery
31:33there, and the team's
31:35name was of all things
31:36Sorge's Ice Creams.
31:38They were big
31:39attractions.
31:39These two major
31:40leaguers come into a
31:41little town, watch him
31:42play ball, and it was
31:43a big deal.
31:44As a child, I saw him
31:45play.
31:46He drew in a ballpark
31:47that might hold 5,000,
31:49he drew 6,000.
31:50They still came out
31:51to see Buck.
31:53In his only season
31:54with the team, Weaver
31:55led the 1924 Ice Creams
31:58to a winning record.
32:00The first opening game
32:01of 1925, the team's on
32:04the field, and Buck's
32:06in the stands in
32:07street clothes.
32:08The ice creams are
32:09losing.
32:12Halfway through the
32:12game, Buck, in
32:14street clothes, goes
32:15down onto the field,
32:16grabs a bat, ties it
32:17up, and they win the
32:18game.
32:19Can you believe this?
32:20But after that, he left
32:22town and never came
32:22back again.
32:26After playing baseball
32:27in Arizona in 1925 and
32:291926, Weaver returned to
32:32Chicago, eventually
32:33finding steady
32:34employment as a
32:35racetrack teller.
32:36In 1921, he had begun a
32:40four-decade campaign to
32:41clear his name, petitioning
32:43Landis, Happy Chandler, and
32:47Ford Frick.
32:48Buck, he begged for a
32:50separate trial, and he was
32:52denied it.
32:53He wrote about 24 letters to
32:55Landis, and Landis either
33:00ignored him, or said, Buck,
33:03what you've done by not
33:07informing about the series
33:10means you're just as guilty
33:12as the rest of the
33:13fellows.
33:14What?
33:15When Buck Weaver felt the
33:16world, he didn't want to
33:17rant on his fellow players.
33:19Well, Landis didn't agree.
33:20Said Landis to Weaver,
33:22birds of a feather flock
33:24together.
33:25Therefore, you're guilty.
33:26You were one of the flock.
33:28Buck's whole life was
33:30baseball, and he died of a
33:33heart attack on the streets
33:34of Chicago, and I'm sure it
33:36was from a broken heart.
33:39It's a shame.
33:48Who's that guy?
33:49He still had the fever to
33:59play baseball.
34:00He would go around the
34:01southeast and play ball.
34:02He played ball in Savannah,
34:03and played some in Louisiana,
34:05and New Orleans down there,
34:07and played under assumed
34:09names, different things of
34:10that nature.
34:11He's probably making more
34:12money out of the White Sox
34:15uniform than he was in it.
34:16The players honored him, but
34:19Kennesaw, Mount Landis, and
34:20the gambler's claim did not
34:22affect his popularity, did not
34:25affect his respectability
34:27at all.
34:29Drifting in the backwash of
34:30his checkered past, Shoeless
34:32Joe earned a living by
34:33barnstorming around the
34:34country and playing for
34:36semi-pro teams in Georgia.
34:38He played entire seasons with
34:40Americus in Waycross.
34:42The first game in Americus,
34:44he didn't have an Americus
34:45uniform, so he wore his
34:461917 White Sox uniform, and
34:48they made a big deal out of
34:49that in the newspaper.
34:51And then same thing in
34:52Waycross in 24, he didn't
34:54have a Waycross uniform yet,
34:55and so he wore his 1919
34:57White Sox uniform, and
34:58they made a real big deal
35:00out of that.
35:04He was about 56 years old,
35:06and Joe was asked to come
35:07out and finish it.
35:10Tap, drop, grab.
35:11And they said that when Joe
35:12stepped up to the plate, the
35:13players on the other team were
35:15making fun of him.
35:16You old man, go sit down, you
35:17can't hit, that kind of
35:18stuff.
35:18First pitch, it was thrown
35:20to him.
35:21He hit it off to the base of
35:23the centerfield fence, 415
35:25feet away.
35:27He had had a couple of
35:28heart attacks at that time,
35:29and he was about 56 years
35:31old.
35:32But he could still swing that
35:33bat.
35:35Jackson still played baseball
35:36well into his 40s, and
35:38lived with his wife Katie in
35:40his native Greenville.
35:41Jackson went back down to
35:42South Carolina where he was
35:43regarded as a hero to the
35:45people he grew up with.
35:47He became a prominent
35:48businessman.
35:49Joe was illiterate.
35:50He was an uneducated man,
35:52but he was not ignorant, and
35:53he was not stupid, and he was
35:54not dumb.
35:55He made a great living for
35:56himself once he was out of
35:58baseball.
35:59He had owned several
36:01businesses, and all were very
36:02successful.
36:03One of Jackson's most
36:04successful ventures was a
36:05Greenville liquor store,
36:06where one day he received an
36:08unexpected visit.
36:09One version says that Ty Cobb
36:13comes in, coming back from the
36:15Masters to see Joe, walks
36:17around in Joe's store, Joe's
36:18Dustin is putting up stock and
36:20that kind of stuff in his liquor
36:21store, and Joe's kind of
36:22ignoring him.
36:23And finally it kind of frustrates
36:25Ty Cobb, and Ty says, Joe, you
36:29don't know me?
36:29And Joe turns around and said,
36:31sure, Ty, I know you.
36:32I just didn't think anybody that
36:33knew me up there wanted to know
36:35me now.
36:35He professed to be innocent until
36:39his dying day, and I believe he
36:41was, and yet he felt like that
36:43baseball turned his back on him,
36:45and he had given so much to
36:46baseball in the years he had
36:48played, and I'm sure that hurt
36:50him.
36:51He was scheduled to appear on the
36:52Ed Sullivan Show in New York.
36:55Sullivan was going to interview
36:56him, and they were going to
36:59vouchsafe that he really was
37:00innocent, and he had his second
37:02or third heart attack.
37:05Joe Jackson died on December
37:095th, 1951.
37:11He was 63.
37:15He is the center of the
37:17communications revolution.
37:21The exposure of the scandal and
37:25Landis' action in banning the
37:27players elevated Landis to
37:29sainthood.
37:30The number of game fixing and
37:33gambling incidents does
37:35diminish by the late 1920s, and
37:38it doesn't have to do with
37:39Landis' disciplinary sanctions.
37:41What it has to do with
37:43primarily is the fact that the
37:45industry is doing better, the
37:47revenues are rising, and the
37:48owners feel as though they can
37:51afford to pay higher salaries.
37:52Judge Landis didn't save baseball.
37:55Babe Ruth saved baseball.
37:57Yep.
37:58In 1920, Babe Ruth started hitting
38:00home runs, and that's what saved
38:01baseball.
38:02Yep.
38:03Landis gave the game credibility and
38:06honor, and Ruth gave it appeal.
38:09But you couldn't have one without the
38:11other.
38:11He would not tolerate
38:13Gamblin, and of course, he
38:15demonstrated this a couple of times
38:17by denying Bing Crosby, who owned some
38:19racetracks, the option of buying a team.
38:22He's nothing, Mr.
38:23The impact of Landis' 1921 decision
38:27reverberated well beyond his 24 years
38:30in office.
38:31Even through Boyd Kuhn's era as
38:34commissioner, where he disallowed
38:36Mays and Mammel to be employed by a
38:39casino, was really kind of a carryover from
38:42the paranoia baseball has stemming, I think,
38:44through the Black Sox days.
38:46Every ballplayer to this day, as he walks
38:49into a clubhouse at home or on the road,
38:52and walks by a billboard with a Major
38:55League Baseball set of rules and
38:57regulations, and in it prominently is the
39:01message, no gambling.
39:03That no gambling rule was invoked in full
39:05measure on August 24, 1989, by the late
39:08commissioner, Mark Javadi.
39:10The banishment for life of Pete Rose from
39:13baseball is the sad end of a sorry
39:16episode.
39:18Players know that if you gamble on
39:21baseball, you'll be thrown out.
39:23And I think that's basically why baseball
39:26has been protected from corruption, is that
39:30the sanction is so draconian.
39:32You're out for life, and there have been
39:34no exceptions.
39:35Hi.
39:42Ray Kinsella.
39:45Joe Jackson.
39:47Movies such as Eight Men Out and Field of
39:50Dreams have revived not only interest in the
39:52Black Sox scandal, but a movement to
39:54enshrine Joe Jackson in the Hall of Fame.
39:58His reputation, too, has grown with the
40:00years as his story has grown.
40:02People are fascinated by the story.
40:03Everybody says, well, Joe Jackson couldn't
40:06have been in on it because he led all the
40:09series hitters with a .375 average.
40:12He hit the only home run of the World
40:13Series.
40:14He hit the only home run of the series when
40:16they were already behind in the last game,
40:185 to nothing.
40:19It seemed like Joe did most of his damage
40:21with the bat when the games were already
40:24out of hand.
40:25In the first five games, he came to bat with
40:2910 runners on base.
40:31Total of 10 in the first five games.
40:33Six of whom were in scoring position, and he never
40:37drove in a run.
40:38You can't judge anything about fixed games by
40:42observing the actions of the players.
40:46That's the whole nature of fixed games.
40:48I thought Joe Jackson was guilty of sin when I
40:50started my research 15 years ago.
40:52I went out and did the research.
40:53About two years later, I came up to the conclusion
40:55that Joe was more sand on than he's sand.
41:00The only reason people talk about Joe Jackson
41:03being deprived of something is because you
41:06acknowledge how good he was.
41:08He was as good as everyone to play in baseball.
41:12He would have been in the Hall of Fame
41:15if he didn't take part in throwing the series.
41:20The owner wasn't a freaking penny pincher.
41:24They would have won that World Series.
41:29They couldn't have thrown it.
41:32Look, if you're making $6,000 a year,
41:35and you get offered $20,000,
41:37most people are taking that.
41:40But, hey, that was his fault.
41:45Resolution in the Congress a couple years ago
41:47asking that they reinstate
41:49Shoeless Joe into baseball
41:51so that then he'd be eligible for the Hall of Fame.
41:53And it passed the Senate overwhelmingly.
41:56We got a lot of support for it.
41:58And based on that,
41:59a number of us wrote a letter
42:00and sent a petition to Bud Selig
42:02asking him to reopen the case.
42:04Another petition from within the game's ranks
42:07to reinstate Jackson
42:08led by Hall of Famer Ted Williams
42:10also reached the commissioner's desk.
42:14In court, he was never convicted.
42:16And he was barred from baseball forever.
42:21And so that's our argument there.
42:24The current commissioner has no intention
42:26of overriding something that Judge Landis
42:30declared when he banned Joe Jackson from the game.
42:33Joe Garnard votes throughout all those years
42:36for the Hall of Fame.
42:37He just never garnered enough
42:38to gain election to the Hall.
42:40When they put the Rose ruling in
42:42that said any player on the ineligible list
42:44was banned for any kind of consideration
42:47from the Hall of Fame,
42:48that pretty much nailed in Joe's coffin.
42:51I think a lot of Joe Jackson's future
42:54as far as the Hall of Fame
42:55is tied to Pete Rose.
42:57I hope Joe Jackson makes the Hall of Fame
42:59because I have to think it's got to help me
43:02if they reinstate this guy.
43:04As long as there's some doubt
43:06about what role he played,
43:09then it's perfectly legitimate.
43:11It's heartbreaking,
43:12but it's perfectly legitimate
43:13to keep him out of the Hall.
43:16Why the story?
43:18Neither Shoeless Joe Jackson
43:19or Pete Rose were reinstated
43:21or got in the Hall of Fame
43:23in their lifetime.
43:24What remains so sort of vibrant
43:30in the consciousness of so many people
43:31is that there are some things
43:32about this story
43:33we will never know.
43:35And so we can constantly talk about them
43:37and debate them
43:37and consider different alternatives.
43:39But ultimately,
43:40we'll never really know
43:41some things about this story.
43:42Well, we love him
43:44because there's, you know,
43:48redemption and salvation.
43:50The game was saved
43:51by this crusty old father figure,
43:54this kind of a sad,
43:56barefoot farm boy
43:59who could have been great
44:02but got swept up
44:03because of the naivete and the scandal.
44:09Well...
44:10Through the lens of history,
44:12the significance of events
44:13is often diminished,
44:15even forgotten.
44:16But for White Sox catcher Ray Schalk
44:18who played to win
44:19the 1919 World Series,
44:21the memory remained
44:22bordered in black.
44:24Four decades later,
44:26Schalk, then an assistant baseball coach
44:27at Purdue University,
44:28was asked by a student
44:30to recall the Black Sox scandal.
44:33No, said Schalk,
44:33I can't talk about that.
44:35It was the worst thing
44:36that ever happened to me.
44:38Years later,
44:39the student described Schalk's reaction
44:41this way.
44:42It was like asking a person
44:44about a child
44:45who had died.
44:47For SportsCenter Flashback,
44:49I'm Charlie Stark.
44:50James!
44:51See?
44:55He's so old.
44:56As a person
44:59OK.
45:01What?
45:01Don't say
45:02No, he's so violent.
45:02No, he's so late.
45:03I don't want to listen.
45:04Well, you don't know my thing.
45:04Super.
45:06Heraf's on...
45:06This time is really
45:07aboutpspire.
45:07But I could hear
45:09about this story.
45:09I'll be able to ride
45:11because of the young man
45:12and we'll be able
45:16to see some Rudy Veers
45:16and go to see him
45:17really 30 minutes.
45:18There was a whole
45:18love we have to Å¡arlo
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