#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

[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.