#swede risberg

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[historydailyfrancischappellblack]

A Chicago Grand Jury Indicts Eight Players From the Chicago White Sox on Allegations of Game-Fixing During the 1919 World Series Baseball. September 28, 1920.

Image: 1919 Chicago White Sox team photo. (Public Domain.) On this day in history, a Chicago grand jury indicts eight players from the Chicago White Sox on allegations of game-fixing during the 1919 World Series baseball. White Sox owner Charles Comiskey instantly suspends Chick Gandil, Buck Weaver, Happy Felsch, Swede Risberg, Fred McMullin, Eddie Cocotte, Lefty Williams, and “Shoeless” Joe…

[aj-keller]

Documentary

Above is the Chicago White Sox. This was the best team in the late 1910s. This was the first true cheating scandal in baseball history. Before watching this documentary, I have never heard this story before. I am glad I watched it and if you are a baseball fan, I strongly suggest that you watch this forty-minute video. It is a fascinating story and a real-life lesson on honesty.

The White Sox was run by the owner Charles Cominsky. He was so popular in Chicago that the fans wanted him to run for mayor of the city. He played baseball himself prior to becoming the owner. In 1915, he started to assemble the best team of that time. He started by purchasing Eddie Collins a second baseman. Cominsky paid Collins a record $65,000. He then went out and got the center fielder Oscar Happy Fells. He paid him $15,000.

Cominsky then got the best player of the time in Shoeless Joe Jackson. Joe was given the nickname Shoeless because he once played in sox because his shoes were too tight. He gave his business agent a blank check and told him to go get him. Joe was so good at hitting that Babe Ruth tried to copy his swing. Joe started playing in South Carolina when he was then discovered by Philadelphia who then brought him north to play. He hated the big city and left heading back to South Carolina. He then was offered $65,000 by Cominsky to play for the White Sox which he took. Cominsky also offered to bring Joe's family up too.

The spending did not stop there. In 1916, Cominsky got Lefty Willams a pitcher. He also already had one of the best pitchers in Eddie Saikhan. He then got the best third baseman in Buck Weaver. Then in 1917, he got two more players. He got shortstop Swede Risberg and first baseman Charles Chick Gandil. Who was a boxer on the side. The team was assembled, and they won the American League pennate. They then won the world series against the New York Giants 4-2. Cominsky promised his players more money and champagne if they won the pennate and World Series. He bought them cheap champagne which the players said was horrible and he also did not pay them. He also did not pay for the uniforms to be washed so that is where the name Black Sox comes from.

Fast forward to 1919, the night before the world series first baseman Grandil met with a gambler Joseph Sullivan. Sullivan said if he and his teammates threw the World Series that Sullivan would pay them. This series was actually extended to nine games instead of seven because the war was over, and people really enjoyed baseball. Now the World Series started, and the White Sox were playing the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were underdogs, but people started betting on them because the rumor was going around that the White Sox were going to throw the series. Sullivan offered $80,000 for them to throw the series. Grandil then met with seven other teammates to discuss this. They agreed to do it. Then Bill Burns also offered them money to throw it. They did not have the cash, so they went to Arnold Rothstein. Who was the king gambler at the time?

The series started and the white sox lost game one 9-1. Then they lost game two 4-2. The series then went back to Chicago where Dickey Kerr pitched but he wasn't involved in throwing it, so they won 3-0. They still hadn't gotten their money. Until Grandil was then paid $20,000 which he split with five players. The Reds went on to win games four and five which puts them up 4-1 in the series. The players still did not get all of their money, so they were getting upset. Dickey Kerr pitched again, and they won and then they did not get paid, so they won again making the series 4-3. The day before game 8 Rothstein hired a gangster to go threaten the Lefty Williams to throw the game or they would maul his wife, He then went on to throw the last game making the Reds the world series champions.

After the season a Chicago writer wrote articles exposing the white sox for throwing the series. He then was asked by commissioners to stop and that it was not true. Spring Training came around and Grandil did not report making fans suspicious. The season was coming to a close looking as if the White Sox would get away with this. Then Bill Veck the president of the Chicago Cubs said that gamblers were corrupting his players. Then the scandal quickly led the White Sox to get involved. Cominsky and Rothstein met before this whole trial in an attempt to try and bury all of the evidence. It worked but the baseball commissioner Byron Bancroft Johnson decided to find Bill Burns to testify. Burns then said the truth and the trials were hot again. The eight players then went to a hearing, and they admitted to cheating. Somehow, they were found not guilty and could play. Then baseball hired Kennesaw Mountain to work for them Kennesaw was an ex-judge. He then banned these eight players for life. These players played in small leagues but never in the majors ever again. Baseball then became less popular because of the scandal. Until Babe Ruth came to play and put baseball back on the map.

This video was fascinating and hard to explain. I encourage you to watch this video for yourself. It is very interesting and a good thing to know.

[cecilcooperstown]

Swede Risberg

[bl00dline]

Today, October 1st, 2019, marks 100 years since game one of the infamous 1919 World Series. The players of the Chicago White Sox were bribed to intentionally lose the series, allegedly by gambler Arnold Rothstein (as well as several of his associates). Seven players accepted the bribe, and one knew of the bribe but did not inform anyone else. In 1921, “Chick” Gandil, Eddie Cicotte, “Happy” Felsch, “Swede” Risberg, Claude Williams, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, “Buck” Weaver, and Fred McMullin were banned from professional baseball by baseball’s commissioner, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landus, for throwing the series.

[johncerilli]

102 years ago the powerhouse 1919 #ChicagoWhiteSox won their second #AmericanLeague pennant in three years and then proceeded to throw the #WorldSeries that year — losing to the #CincinnatiReds. Documented in the great book and movie of the same name, #EightMenOut, the #BlackSox scandal almost completely derailed #baseball. Those eight men are Shoeless Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, Claude "Lefty" Williams, "Happy" Felsch and Fred McMullen. The whole sordid event has ALWAYS fascinated me. ⚾️ 💰 (at National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) https://www.instagram.com/cerilli/p/CYA1zTKshNP/?utm_medium=tumblr

[plotmoney9-blog]

Cub Tracks leaves a ring

Svengoolie time, working later than usual because reasons. Jonathon Lucroy, now an Angel, off the checklist. Happy day after Theo Epstein’s birthday. Most of the beat writers and bloggers are still hibernating, it seems. We have pictures instead of words.

Here’s today’s Cubs News and Notes, such as they are. As always * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome).

Cubs history:

1907 - The Mills Commission on the origins of baseball reports that the game was invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. The Commission is convinced by the testimony of Abner Graves, who claimed to be a childhood companion of Doubleday’s. Grave’s story is later “verified” when an old, rotting ball is found among his personal effects; the ball is now in the Hall of Fame. The Commission ignores the fact that Doubleday did not graduate from West Point until 1842. (3)

1926 - The Chicago Tribune breaks a story that the Detroit Tigers have thrown a four-game series to the Chicago White Sox in 1917 to help Chicago win the pennant. Responding to the publicity, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis convenes a hearing on the matter, but dismisses all charges. Landis can find no witnesses to confirm any part of Swede Risberg’s claim. (2)

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading. New from Planet X Publications!

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2018/12/30/18160834/cub-tracks-leaves-a-ring

[deepartnature]

Forget What You Know About the Black Sox Scandal - John Thorn

The 1919 White Sox, before the Black Sox scandal came to light.

"A century ago this week, eight players from the Chicago White Sox conspired with professional gamblers to rig the outcome of the World Series, enabling the underdog Cincinnati Reds — and bettors in the know — to win. The scandal, which was uncovered almost a year later, has come to be seen as baseball’s 'loss of innocence,' the cause of fans’ diminished feelings for the game they once adored and a mortal blow to the nation’s confidence as it entered the 1920s, a  decade of disrespect for elders, contempt for institutions and worship of the fast life and the fast buck. After a puzzlingly inept performance by his White Sox in Game 1, the club’s founder and owner, Charles Comiskey, heard rumors that the 'sporting set' had been looking for a big score and that maybe some of his players had agreed to throw the series. ..."

NY Times

W - Black Sox Scandal

Buck Weaver, left, and Swede Risberg, who were indicted in the Black Sox scandal.

[its-annoyingcollectorpengui-blog]

Black Sox Scandal and Its Effect on America The Black Sox Baseball Scandal, 95 Years Ago

They not only sold [the series]” Abe Attell later claimed, “but they sold it wherever they could get a buck.” Bookies had previously had the Sox winning the World Series over the underdog Cincinnati Reds by as much as three-to-one, but the odds shifted after those in the know began betting heaps of cash on the Reds. The Black Sox Baseball Scandal, 95 Years Ago. Just how the “Big Fix” of 1919 played out remains a subject of considerable debate among baseball historians. Accounts differ, but the scheme may have first materialized a few weeks before the World Series, when White Sox first baseman C. Arnold “Chick” Gandil and a gambler named Joseph “Sport” Sullivan met to discuss the possibility of Sox players throwing the championship. Gamblers had long been greasing the palms of disgruntled ballplayers in exchange for inside tips, but attempting to rig an entire World Series was a rare and perhaps even unprecedented proposition. Gandil later claimed he was initially skeptical that it could work, but he eventually agreed that he and a few co-conspirators would throw the series in exchange for a hefty payout of around $100,000. He soon enlisted White Sox pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude “Lefty” Williams, shortstop Charles “Swede” Risberg and outfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch into the scheme. Third baseman Buck Weaver was in on the early stages of the plot before pulling out, and utility infielder Fred McMullin was cut in after he overheard the players talking about the deal. Power hitter “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was also approached. As Gandil recruited his conspirators, Sullivan and a tangled web of crooks that may have included “Sleepy” Bill Burns, Bill Maharg and Abe Attell began raising the bribe money. New York mob leader Arnold Rothstein may have been a major player, but his involvement has never been proven, and evidence suggests that Gandil and his co-conspirators may have hatched multiple deals with different syndicates. As the championship drew near, the streets buzzed with rumors that several White Sox players were in the pocket of high stakes gamblers. Suspicions that the championship was “in the bag” only increased after the White Sox and the Reds met on October 1 for the first game of what was then a best-of-nine World Series. After hitting a batter with one of his first pitches—supposedly a signal that the fix was on—Eddie Cicotte went on to make a series of uncharacteristic blunders from the mound. Chicago lost the game 9-1, leading the New York Times to marvel, “Never before in the history of America’s biggest baseball spectacle has a pennant-winning club received such a disastrous drubbing in an opening game…” The faulty play continued in game two, when Sox pitcher Lefty Williams gifted the Reds a 4-2 win after walking three batters in a row. The White Sox continued losing over the next few games, and by October 6, the series stood at 4-1 in favor the Reds. Everything was proceeding as planned, yet according to later accounts, many of the crooked Sox players had begun to grow restless.... View more ...

[greatgatsbyallusionproject]

The 1919 World Series

“Meyer Wolfsheim? No, he’s a gambler.” Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: “He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.” (Fitzgerald 57)

The Black Sox scandal was the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Baseball players  C. Arnold “Chick” Gandil,  Eddie Cicotte, Claude “Lefty” Williams,  Charles “Swede” Risberg, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Buck Weaver, Fred McMullin and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson of the White Sox's team. Gandil was convinced to involve his teammates in attempting to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. The court case that indited the players was started by Hugh Fullerton a Sports writer. It was rumored that Arnold Rothstein, a Jewish-American kingpin, was the one who organized the whole ordeal. 

 Fitzgerald uses Wolfsheim in place of Rothstein as the powerful and dangerous gangster capable of  manipulating such an important event in American history.  He is a man motivated by money and power. It also emphasizes the dangerous people and the business that Gatsby involves himself with and exposes Nick too. Knowing who Wolfsheim and alternately Rothstein also provides historical context and importance of gangsters and gambling in the Twenties. 

http://www.history.com/news/the-black-sox-baseball-scandal-95-years-ago

[sportingnewsarchive]

BLACK SOX

Chicago White Sox Swede Risberg, Attorney Ahren, Buck Weaver, Attorney Nash and outside courtroom during the 1921 Black Sox trial. (Sporting News Archives)