In 1919, members of the Chicago White Sox "threw" the World Series, intentionally losing to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money. Two years later, after a lengthy investigation, eight players, including the immortal "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, received lifetime bans for their part in the scandal. Debates have raged ever since about whether all of the eight banned players actively "threw" plays or games. Sorry Kid, I Don't Much Feel Like Playing Today settles the debates once and for all by breaking down each player's contributions on a play-by-play basis. Section one addresses Chicago's pitching and fielding, while section two is all about the White Sox hitters; the final section analyzes the overall statistics. Each player is put under the microscope. Each play is dissected and analyzed. You will be the final judge. Journey back to the second decade of the twentieth century to relive the most famous World Series in baseball history.

Sorry Kid, I Don't Much Feel Like Playing Today

By Kelly D. Cleaver Sr.

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Kelly D. Cleaver Sr.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-1719-5

Contents

Introduction: Prelude to a fall from grace......................................5Chapter 1: Eddie Cicotte - But you started this Mr. Comisky.....................9Chapter 2: Lefty Williams - Three games to infamy...............................35Chapter 3: Dickie Kerr - That's Mr. Busher to you...............................58Chapter 4: Joe Jackson - I'm afraid it's so Joe.................................79Chapter 5: Happy Felsh - One of the boys........................................102Chapter 6: Shano Collins - I can hit righties Kid...............................124Chapter 7: Nemo Leibold - At least I was trying.................................137Chapter 8: Ray Schalk - A cracker-jack of a player..............................152Chapter 9: Chick Gandil - Take the money and run................................174Chapter 10: Eddie Collins - Bad time for a bad Series...........................196Chapter 11: Swede Risberg - A hard guy..........................................218Chapter 12: Buck Weaver - A raw deal............................................239Chapter 13: Making A case for Buck..............................................263Section Three: Throwing a Series by the numbers.................................270

Chapter One

Edward Victor Cicotte

But you started this Mr. Comiskey.

Edward Victor Cicotte was born June 19, 1884 in Detroit, Michigan. On September 3rd, 1905 at the age of just 21 years old, Eddie made his Major League debut with the Detroit Tigers. Cicotte went 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA, appearing in just three games. After being released by the Tigers after the season, Eddie re-appeared in the bigs in 1908 with the Boston Red Sox. After four and one half seasons in Boston where Eddie won 51 games with 46 losses, he was sold to the Chicago White Sox (for an undisclosed sum), in mid season on July 22, 1912. Cicotte pitched his remaining eight and a half years in Chicago. Nicknamed "Knuckles" for his famous pitch, Eddie was also a shine ball expert.

Eddie was always a dependable hurler, but really started to blossom in 1917, going 28-12 with a league leading 1.53 ERA, also throwing a no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns on April 14. From 1917 until his suspension on September 27th, 1920 Eddie was 90-48 for a .652 winning percentage. Though Eddie lost eighteen games for the Sox in the war torn season of 1918 (when most of the Sox regulars were away from the club, working under the work or fight order), Cicotte's greatest year was 1919. Knuckles won twenty-nine games with only seven losses to go along with a 1.82 ERA, putting Eddie on track to maybe being someday enshrined in Cooperstown. In Eddie's final season of 1920 which ended prematurely on September 27th when he and seven teammates were suspended by club owner Charles Comiskey, was a year in which Eddie was 21-10 with a 3.26 ERA (which wasn't too shabby for the beginning of the live ball era). Even though Cicotte was one of the game's greatest pitchers, Eddie's salary for 1919 was only $5,500. Compared to the Reds opening day Series pitcher Dutch Ruether, who made $11,000 a year, Eddie felt cheated. Plus he also felt cheated out of a supposed $10,000 bonus if he would have won thirty games in 1917, by owner Charles Comiskey. But to an owner like Comiskey, twenty-eight wins were not thirty, and twenty-eight wins did not merit an extra dime although most historians believe this bonus story to be a myth. What is not a myth though is that Kid Gleason started Cicotte twice in the last week of the 1919 season, including on the 28th of September, two days before the series began on October 1st, when the pennant was already wrapped up (an example of Kid's managerial skills).

The opening day starting pitcher of the World Series is a dream every baseball player dreams of. Eddie Cicotte was no different. Eddie had a dark secret though, under his pillow before game one was $10,000 cash. With the cheapest owner in either league Charles Comiskey, who paid one of the best pitchers in baseball the lowest salary, the $10,000 must have felt like redemption to Knuckles Cicotte. Eddie was to be paid an additional $10,000 dollars before each loss after the first game, for $30,000 dollars total. The winner's share of the series was $5,207.00, losers share $3,254.00. The temptation must have been too much, throw a few games in the Series and collect almost six times your annual pay? Cicotte claims he wanted to pay off the mortgage on his farm, which he did. At what price did he pay when the devil came to collect? In less than four innings (three and two thirds to be exact) his reputation and eventually his career came to an end.

Knuckles pitched well for three innings of the opener, giving up only one run, but the fourth inning will forever be remembered as batting practice for the Cincinnati Reds. Five runs, six hits in only eight batters was the end of Ed's and the White Sox's day. This one inning of baseball ruined a stellar career and immortality among the baseball greats. I always wondered how Eddie Cicotte explained this to his wife and two daughters when they asked "why?" After seeing the $10,000 pay off before game one, Eddie went out and did more than his part. Most people believe that Eddie threw game four also, but after reading the results of that game the reader will probably change their mind. Cicotte got paid off to bag the first game and he did, but when no more money came before his next start, so did Eddie's will to lose.

Eddie Cicotte played alongside other former teammates, after he was banned from baseball for a few years in the outlaw leagues. Done with baseball, Cicotte returned to his home in Michigan outside of Detroit and became a game warden for the state. Eddie died May 5, 1969 at the age of 68.

Here are the play by play results of Cicotte's three games pitched in the 1919 World Series, as if we were sitting in a box seat at field level.

Game One

Cincinnati, OH

October 1st 1919 Redland Field

Bottom 1st inning

It doesn't get any better than this, as 30,511 baseball loyalists turned out today to witness the opening game of the 1919 World Series. The Reds left-hander Dutch Ruether (19-6 1.81) taking on the White Sox 29 game winner, right-handed Eddie Cicotte (29-7 1.82). In one of the most significant at bats in the history of Major League Baseball, left handed hitting 2B Morrie Rath, of National league champion Cincinnati Reds with a .264 season batting average, leads-off the bottom of the 1st, after the Sox failed to score in the top half. Chicago ace Eddie Cicotte pumps a first pitch strike, called by home plate umpire Charles Rigler of the National League. Cicotte then drills Rath with a pitch (HBP) to the right shoulder. Nothing unusual about a hit batter, other than it was the signal to gambler Arnold Rothstein that the fix was on. I always wondered how Rothstein would have felt if Morrie would have popped that first pitch up or grounded out.

With Rath on 1st base and no outs, next up for the Reds is 1B Jake Daubert, with a season average of .276. Daubert another left handed hitter delivers a single (1B) to right center field, sending Rath all the way to 3rd base.

Now coming to bat with runners on the corners and no outs is 3B Heinie Groh, a...