Most of us know the Black Sox scandal of 1919, but what if I told you that there was another activating event, completely unrelated to that World Series, that precipitated its investigation rather than that World Series itself?
It’s pretty safe to say that most of you probably already know about the 8 players on the 1919 Black Sox who were banned from baseball for fixing the World Series: Arnold "Chick" Gandil, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver, and Claude “Lefty” Williams. It was arguably baseball’s darkest moment as it tainted what many deemed as the purest sport.
Now, if you watched the movie Eight Men Out or have read the numerous stories written about the incident, you probably understand it like this: The series was played, people got suspicious, rumors of a fix started circulating, a grand jury convened, and the rest is history.
None of this is incorrect, but what is missing is the event that sparked the grand jury that had nothing to do with that World Series, and it actually occurred in late August of 1920, nearly a year later.
The treatment that the Sox got after they were found out would probably lead you to believe this was some new phenomenon. However, accusations of game fixing was not uncommon during the era, and while betting on sports had questionable moral implications, it was not necessarily illegal at the time. Rather it was very commonplace in sports. Nonetheless, most people disregarded such allegations as they refused to believe that baseball could be tainted.
So, when rumors started circulating that the underdog Reds trumped the mighty White Sox due to a fix, most dismissed it. To further quell the storm, league officials also worked to squash the speculation, owners attempted to cover it up, and fan naivety all served to cast doubt on the rumors. Nonetheless, following the eighth game of the series when sports writer Hugh Fullerton reported that Comiskey had decided that seven players would not return the next year, the rumors continued on into the off season. In December Fullerton would suggest in an explosive article that the game was fixed.
Still, nothing was done. Not for nearly 9 months, which takes us to Cubs Park in Chicago, IL on August 30, 1920 where the Cubs were hosting the Phillies. The eight place Phillies fell to the fifth place Cubs by a score of 7 to 2. So what, right?
The two teams were scheduled to meet again the next day, but that morning Cubs president William Veeck Sr. received word that there were bets out there, some of which to the tune of $50,000 (which when adjusted for inflation would equate to nearly $642,000 in 2019). The bets were in favor of a Phillies victory over the hometown Cubbies.
Veeck had his manager Fred Mitchell scratch Claude Hendrix as the starting pitcher as he had been accused of gambling before. His replacement was none other than future Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander. Though Alexander has never been implicated in any efforts to manipulate the outcome of the game, many have shown concern that as a Philly, one of his closest friends was Billy Maharg. If you don’t know Maharg, he’s pretty much the one who wound up being right in the middle of the Black Sox scandal. He’s the rat who exposed the 1919 World Series fix to the papers.
Honestly, looking at the numbers, Alexander had a good outing, only giving up 8 hits on 8 innings pitched and 2 runs. But the Phillies came out on top 3-0. However, one sportswriter said that Alexander had a lack of steady support which was obviously directed at a mishap in the second inning. With runners on base, Second Baseman Buck Herzog let a groundball through his legs, and what could have been a double play resulted in an inning where two of the Phillies’ three runs were scored.
But before we go on, that error would eventually cause more trouble for Herzog than just some embarrassment. About a month later, on September 30, 1920, the Cubs played an exhibition against a local semi-pro team called the Joliet Rivals. It was a highly publicized event that drew nearly 5,000 people into the Joliet’s 2,000-seat capacity stadium. Following the game, as Herzog was getting into his cab, a fan came out of the grandstand, accusing Herzog of being a crooked Chicago ball player before attacking him. A fight ensued, and a friend of the attacker pulled out a knife and slashed Herzog’s hand and leg.
What prompted the attack remains uncertain as some believe he mistook him for Buck Weaver, while the more likely scenario was that Herzog was implicated in being one of the individuals who just a few weeks earlier conspired to throw the August 31st game against the Phillies. In response to the attack, Herzog simply said that he was sorry that it occurred, but that he couldn’t resist punching the man who called him a crook.
Though Herzog’s error was the lone error of the game, it was enough for Veeck to hire a detective to investigate. But when the detective’s investigation came up dry, Veeck went to the papers which prompted all the Chicago sportswriters to call for an official investigation. The National League opened its own investigation, but that too failed to secure any evidence. Though no charges were ever filed, various papers named seven Cubs as participants, and ultimately Claude Hendrix, Buck Herzog, Fred Merkle, and Dode Paskert were all released after the season for undisclosed reasons.
As the public’s cry for answers caught the ears of politicians, pressure on the league began to mount. On September 7, Judge Charles A McDonald convened a Cook county grand jury to review the Phillies-Cubs game, but it didn’t take long before the attention shifted to the 1919 World Series. The grand jury took testimonies from several Cubs players, but had not even acted on anything when Billy Maharg took it upon himself to tell his story to sports writer James Isaminger of the Philadelphia North American. It was in this interview he claimed that Games 1, 2, and 8 of the 1919 series had been fixed, and the investigation shifted wholly towards the World Series scandal, and we know the end of that story.
So there you have it, folks. It’s funny how history works sometimes. Had Veeck never moved to investigate his Cubs for potentially fixing games, it is entirely possible that the 1919 World Series fix may have remained nothing more than part of the rumor mill. People genuinely did not want to believe that their sport held the potential to be corrupted, but if there is money to be made, somebody is going to try.
-Chris
Modern Vintage Collector
Great stuff man. I just listened to a documentary on this about how the white Sox became the black Sox and how below average the conditions were from their owner. Great read here and appreciate your work.