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“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”― Thomas Jefferson
In 1919 World War I was in the rearview mirror of the country and there was a determination throughout the country to embrace the time of peace and to get on with the flow of life.
What better way to do this than with sport that we have often referred to here in the U.S. as the country’s “National Pastime.” During this time some of the most iconic figures in the sport of baseball would end up coming on the scene to transform the culture and to serve as the era of some of the most legendary names the sport has ever known.
However, in the country’s attempt to enjoy the National Pastime in 1919 there would end up being a dark cloud that loomed over the popular sport and that cloud would shed light on the shortcomings of human nature while also teaching us about the scams and corruption that can come about through the desire for money.
Even though the American citizen was ready for a change in the pace of life with having just gotten through a global war, the 1919 World Series was about to create some news headlines that would shock the world and forever change the view and direction of the National Pastime along with the mood of the country.
The 1919 World Series Scandal
In 1915 Charles Comiskey set out to buy the best players to build up his Chicago White Sox team. One of those players is the iconic American legend Joseph Jackson, or who you may more commonly recognize as the great Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Shoeless Joe Jackson was the best hitter of the time and allegedly earned the nickname Shoeless when having played a game in his socks due to his shoes having been too tight during one of his early games in Greenville, South Carolina.
In 1919 nobody would bet against the Chicago White Sox. During this time baseball was more than a sport, but rather a way of life.
However, when it came to the business of baseball Comiskey was one that ran that aspect of the game in his own way and his way wasn’t always a way that was popular among his players. Comiskey was a tight fisted businessman that was notorious for making his players promises regarding their agreements related to their compensation and would frequently not follow through. Sounds familiar with many of our modern day politicians, right?
Even worse, Comiskey was known for directly intervening in some circumstances by not allowing a player to play, particularly if a player was on the verge of earning promised wages based on hitting high benchmarks previously agreed to that would be related to that player’s game performance. In short, Comiskey would do anything to save a buck. (Source: History Channel)
To offer some additional understanding and to further illustrate Comiskey’s cheap nature in 1917 Comiskey had promised his players a bonus if they won him the pennant. They did so and he held up to his end of the deal by rewarding them with a case of cheap champagne and the sports writer Ring Lardner reportedly said that the champagne tasted like piss.
Now given this knowledge of Comiskey it wouldn’t take long for his players to understand this and it would ultimately lead to his team’s demise.
Just prior to the World Series first baseman Chick Gandil and fellow teammate Eddie Cicotte met up with a well known gambler and bookie at the time by the name of Joseph “Sport” Sullivan. Yes, believe it or not gambling was a huge part of the culture of sports at the time just as baseball was a huge part of the culture at large.
Now right here I wanted to interject to point out a very interesting thing that I discovered regarding a conflicting narrative that occurred with this meeting depending on which historical series of events you choose to believe involving what took place with this meeting. I’m about to point to a complete contradiction between two different sources regarding the events that took place among Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, and Joseph Sullivan.
On one hand, if you read the account of this meeting according to Wikipedia the framing of this meeting was that Joseph “Sport” Sullivan was the one that approached the players Gandil and Cicotte to make them an offer of $10,000 per player if they could get about eight players in on a plan to throw the series against Cincinnati. According to Gandil this was a shock to him as he had always seen Sullivan as a gambler, but never took him to be a fixer.
However, according to the History Channel’s account of this Gandil was the one that sought out Sullivan and offered up the idea where he and several of his disgruntled teammates would organize a plan to throw the game if Sullivan could come up with enough money to make it worth the effort.
It was then said that Sullivan would end up offering $80,000 if the players would hold up their end of the deal. Although the Wikipedia version along with many serious baseball fans would want to reject the idea that the players actually initiated the scandal, the reality was that many games were fixed during that time regarding the history of the sport…and other sports as well.
So here you have two conflicting accounts on what happened during that meeting that would kickoff one of the most corrupt sports scandals in the history of all sports. So I wanted to take a moment to point this out as this is common when reading about certain historical events.
However, just like with anything in life we want to be Zenith and one way to do that is understanding the Zeitgeist and circumstances of that time in which we are examining. So on that note, given the fact that gambling was prevalent throughout the sports culture, given the fact that Comiskey was a cheap tight fisted businessman, and understanding that the potential payout of $10,000 per player was a solid amount of money that exceeded many annual salaries of the players to me it is much more logical that the players were the ones who were probably more proactive in organizing the scandal.
This doesn’t even factor in the knowledge that Gandil also had a shady history involving instances of theft and was also known as a brawler. Regardless, gambling at that time was just as much a part of baseball as popcorn and the 90 feet that exists between the bases.
Additionally the owners would turn a blind eye to the gambling as it was something that was difficult to prove not to mention the fact that addressing it would attract a negative press.
The possibility that certain White Sox players might throw the series prompted another gambler and ex-ballplayer named Sleepy Bill Burns to approach Gandil and Cicotte offering them and additional $100,000 to fix the series and now there were two sets of gamblers involved with the White Sox players with a total of $180,000 to sweeten the pot. (Source: History Channel)
Both sets of gamblers went to the one guy that could financially back such a deal in Arnold Rothstein. It was said that Rothstein, a notorious gambler and crime boss, would bet on anything except for the weather and that’s only because that was the one thing he couldn’t fix.
However, once the word had gotten out to the gambling world that the Sox would throw the games the gamblers came out in full force to lay down their bets on Cincinnati to win. As a result all of this started spinning out of control and the $100,000 promised by Burns never arrived and $80,000 fronted by Rothstein dwindled down to only $10,000.
The $10,000 that remained went straight to the pitcher Cicotte as the pitcher was the only one needed in order to secure the fix.
The White Sox dropped the first two games of the series, but the third game wasn’t in the bag. The third game was back in Chicago and Dickie Kerr was up for the next game as the starting pitcher.
However, I need to point out here that Kerr was the only player that wasn’t in on the fix. In fact, Kerr’s performance in game three was magnificent and his performance on the mound kept Cincinnati from scoring. In addition to this a quick turn of events with Gandil saw him do an about face hitting a single to center field scoring two runs ultimately leading to their 3 to 0 victory over Cincinnati.
Because no money had come in to the players they were at this point as disgruntled with the gamblers as they were with their owner Comiskey. The gamblers got the message and paid $20,000 to Gandil to distribute the money among five players.
The next two games would result in Cincinnati winning, but as game six approached it was time for Dickie Kerr to return to the mound once again. As the series was approaching its end the compromised players found themselves in a difficult position.
On one hand if they came clean about the scandal they knew their careers would be destroyed and if they tried to reshape the deal with the gamblers they were probably scared that the retaliation would be brutal as many of the gamblers were known to break a few legs.
The Sox pushed the series to the eighth game, but the series would ultimately end right there. The aftermath of this series would prove to be as drama filled as the series itself.
The Exposure
Now you’ve got to understand that the problem with exposing the fix is that you would lose the faith of the people and the fans.
Chicago sports writer Hugh Fullerton was disgusted about what was going on and as a result wrote a series of articles exposing what he knew about the fix and no Chicago newspaper would touch it or give it any level of meaningful attention.
Fullerton was attacked for his work in trying to shed light on the corruption involved in the 1919 series. Other papers wrote very watered down versions of what Fullerton attempted to bring to light.
Despite this, baseball boomed again in 1920. However, the entire 1920 season was an assault on the players that wanted to play an honest game and there was a growing sense that something had to be done about the gambling influence on the game of baseball.
In September of that year Bill Veeck Sr. The President of the Cubs blew the first whistle. The Cook County Grand Jury eventually called for an immediate investigation into baseball corruption.
Within hours Eddie Cicotte was called by the Grand Jury and he broke immediately along with Joe Jackson. Jackson showed a lot of remorse and left the courthouse trailed by disheartened fans where a young boy cried “Say it ain’t so Joe, say it ain’t so.”
Rothstein traveled to Chicago with his lawyer and lied to the Grand Jury. Comiskey was also feeling the pressure and realized the only way to save the club and his reputation was to destroy all evidence of the fix which would result in the termination of a trial.
Comiskey was a powerful force in Cook County and miraculously all the transcripts of the player’s testimonies had disappeared from the Cook County courthouse. There was now no evidence.
However, baseball’s American League President Ban Johnson despised Charles Comiskey and resented his power and was determined to find someone to testify to put the White Sox on trial. He ended up going all the way to Texas to bribe Sleepy Bill Burns to testify against the White Sox.
Charles Comiskey wouldn’t allow this to happen to his team and ensured that the trial would be rigged. Each day the courtroom was packed with fans and no ball players would testify and no gamblers were ever indicted over their role in the scandal.
The eight indicted ball players would be found not guilty. However, the image of baseball was tarnished and there was a public relations effort to elevate the image of the sport. In the events following the trial even though the players were found not guilty and avoided having to pay the penalty by the rule of law they still had to pay the penalty to the sport of baseball as they would end up being banned from professional baseball for life.
When all the smoke cleared the one player that wasn’t involved in the scandal Dickie Kerr would two years later have a contract dispute based on his payment and agreement with Comiskey. Comiskey refused to pay Kerr and Kerr would also join the rest of the shamed Black Sox group in being banned for life from professional baseball.
The frustrating reality of this is that even a clean player and innocent man suffered an equal fate of exile from professional baseball due to the corrupt actions of others.
Baseball was almost forsaken by Americans if it hadn’t been for one iconic talent that came on the scene shortly afterwards. George Herman Ruth was a talent so great that fans went back to the ball fields to witness this talent firsthand for themselves.
It is said by many that Babe Ruth was the hero that saved baseball and that the vision of a sport returning back into the hearts of Americans was restored by the legend of The Great Bambino.
Now this was a very quick historical breakdown of the 1919 World Series scandal, but I wanted to point to the level of corruption that went on behind the scenes with all of the levers of power that were involved. Comiskey was a prime example of one who had direct interests in making sure he would avoid any accountability in such a scandal, particularly since he wielded tremendous power and influence at the time.
I wanted to shed light on the details of this scandal to give you some insight on how certain corruption can come about among certain parties within a system who share mutual interests.
Granted this was a prime example of how certain players within a system would conspire to engage in some unethical activity because they were both angry and motivated with the circumstances they found themselves in.
In a way the players were involved in the formation of their own version of a sort of mutiny towards their upper management. Granted this rebellion of the team probably wasn’t the most productive, and some would even say it wasn’t the most ethical approach either, but the pushback towards Comiskey and the status quo was for a reason.
At the end of the day the player’s efforts to achieve better pay, better treatment, and to stick it to the man proved to be unsuccessful, or were they?
After The Great Bambino exploded onto the scene the love of baseball was restored in many of the hearts of the American fanbase. As a result Babe Ruth would prove to be such a huge talent and draw to the sport that he was a very well paid player. This example of fair pay and fair treatment of a player based on performance for the sport of baseball would prove to start spreading to the rest of the players throughout the league.
So why did I go to the trouble to give you such a detailed breakdown of the history of the 1919 World Series scandal involving the Chicago White Sox?
Well aside from the fact that history serves as a roadmap for knowledge and the documented experience of human nature I also wanted to use this documented experience of the 1919 World Series corruption to draw some very siginificant parallels to the current modern day environment we find ourselves in as a country with our own severely corrupt set of players inside our own government.
Granted I’m not trying to demonize the eight ball players of the Chicago White Sox because I fully acknowledge their reasons for their actions and they were also in the business of entertainment unlike politicians who are generally in the business of power and corruption.
However, I still want to use the White Sox scandal to draw some parallels between what was going on with the scandal of that series when compared to the scandals involved with the politics of money that we’re seeing right in front of us today.
Comiskey wanted to cover up a scandal that would destroy his ball club and his own influence and reputation. Mirroring this behavior it’s eerily similar to see exactly how Joe Biden has done the same thing today with his corrupt influence and the cover up of his unlawful dealings as well.
Just like Comiskey wanted to make sure the trial of his ball club would never take place Joe Biden was caught on camera specifically calling for the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor into his son’s corrupt dealings with Burisma while using U.S. loan money as the hostage for creating the leverage when doing so. (Source: Meeting Council on Foreign Relations)
Drawing another modern day parallel when looking at the 1919 World Series Scandal you had the formation of a mutiny among players trying to stick it to a corrupt owner due to being abused and taken advantage of, however the fallout of it would end up costing all of those players their careers. In a way I wouldn’t compare the America First populist movement to the players involved in the scandal completely, but there is a parallel to be drawn here.
Like Comiskey abused his players, America First patriots have been abused for years by powerful politicians such as the Clintons, the Bush family, the Obamas, and now the Bidens. Those corrupt leaders are all very similar to Comiskey having grifted off of the sacrifice of American citizens for years causing a loss of hope within the country and what it represents today compared to its original founding.
Similar to Comiskey those politicians only care for their own wealth and power and they would sacrifice their players (aka the United States citizens) in a heartbeat in order to enrich themselves with endless foreign wars, with the out of control abuse of the Federal Reserve, with the medical industrial complex, and with the slide towards Totalitarianism through the potential rise of Centralized Digital Bank Currencies (CDBCs).
Just as the mutiny of the players led to a public exposure of the corruption of gambling and the corrupt cover up of that scandal by Comiskey it also almost led to the American public giving up on the sport of baseball altogether. If it wasn’t for a spark from a major player in Babe Ruth baseball might have been nothing more than a flash in the pan right after the World War.
However, like Babe Ruth came into the sport as a transformative historical figure to spark the energy inside the hearts of Americans the same can be said in historical context for the transformative power of the dynamic personality of Donald J. Trump.
Now when I make that statement you have to listen to what I’m saying. You may be a baseball fan and not care for Babe Ruth. You may despise Babe Ruth for all I know, but you cannot deny the transformational role and impact he had on the sport of baseball.
Likewise, you may or may not care for Donald Trump, but like Babe Ruth you cannot deny his transformational role and impact on both the cultural and political game in our modern day society.
Going back to the comparison of the America First Patriots and the parallel to draw with the White Sox players I would more compare the America First citizens to the likes of Dickie Kerr in this particular instance. This comparison is obvious because Kerr was a clean player doing his job and despite there being a game that was fixed against him he rolled up his sleeves and got the job done for two big wins in the 1919 World Series with his grit and determination. Despite him being a clean player and having won big against all the odds he was still pushed out of the sport of professional baseball.
Although I link the America First Patriots to the likes of Dickie Kerr in this comparison I am also empathetic to the grievances of the eight players that took what many would say was a more unethical approach by getting involved with the fix.
The Wrap Up
The parallels of this moment of history compared to the events of today in terms of the tactics, strategies, and personalities involved stood out to me as a lesson on how the careful observation of history can be a learned and valuable tool.
Even though the comparison I’m making here involves a baseball scandal in one instance and a global and political scandal in the current instance, all the turmoil, the motivations, and the personalities have the same impacts on the respective situations.
Drawing parallel links between a greedy dishonest Charles Comiskey and a Joe Biden, an outside superstar that exerts a seismic impact on the game with personalities like Babe Ruth and Donald Trump, and finally the innocent hard working players that were hurt in the interim transformation of the system like a Dickie Kerr and the America First Patriots are all grounded in the same observable reality.
The reason I went to the effort to make this comparison is because in history there are events and personalities that have profound impacts on the world and the environment of the times at which they occur. The problem is in our modern day society people have become so ignorant of history in general that they cannot even recognize that major events in history are happening right in front of them when they are experiencing them in real time.
This is the goal and very reason I did this particular episode. After all, there is a major shift happening across the world right now that will literally reshape the direction of humanity until the next major turning in human history.
However, it’s my view that we as a citizenry can continue to make poor decisions collectively allowing the status quo to continue to drive us off a cliff, or we can engage in our own mutiny for freedom against the system with the goal of going in the direction of a promising new path.
That path can either be the path of following a poor plan that left the eight men out as we saw with the downfall of the Black Sox, or it can be to follow a new and successfully proven direction like Babe Ruth and Donald Trump were able to demonstrate with their mighty influence and actions on the broken systems that challenged each of them.
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The Mutiny For Freedom