Say It Ain't So, Joe: The 1919 Black Sox Scandal

What does it take to fix the World Series? You'll need players willing to tank the most important games of their careers, a powerful criminal element, and a solid plan. Well, two out of three's not bad. In 1919, a crew of gamblers convinced members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series in order to make a big payday. This was appealing, since their salaries were meager and treatment was dismal. But the plan was weak as creek water, and the whole plot went on to nearly destroy baseball itself. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
And there she is, Elizabeth Dutton.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
There I am, Hey Sarah Burnett. What's it.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
How you doing good? Long time to see I'm here.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I live here now.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Oh nice? So I just had the weekend.

Speaker 4 (00:16):
Yeah, I lost the keys to my place and so
I've been I've been staying here.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
That's what that smell is. Yes, no, no, it's it's nice.
It's like a bouquet. It's like, what is that like
pot pourri? Yeah, it's really nice.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I've been eating pot pourri. Ran out of groceries.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I got that question for you. Beyond that.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Oh yeah, I do know what's ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
What?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (00:37):
So Dosi segundo the third on Instagram. Okay, I like
this third to the next scent of something like hey,
Saren's gonna love slash hate this. And it was the
vulgar Chef this account on Instagram where the guy it
looks like he purade hot dogs and put them into
a cocking gun and just so he could talk about

(00:58):
like laying your cock into and then but he did
it and he.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Ate hot dogs. Yeah, I got hot dog paste.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, and so I was like, this is amazing, but you.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Can't buy it. Oh, so it's just his own private,
twisted masship. But then Lindsay Max on Instagram came through
with something because you like nutella, right I do?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I love nutella? Well, ruin.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
There there's this company. Maxim Fridric teamed up with Louis
Vatan to offer basically nutella a chocolate spread. You can
get Louis Vutan chocolate spread.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Wait what it's.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
French hazelnuts and blue vanilla from Reunion Island blend in
this chocolate spread to create a gourmet journey of delectable smoothness,
making each spoonful of moment of delight imbued with childhood memories.
It's a very like, you know, understated jar, but it's got.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Like a little bit of the logo on there.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
The jar looks very small. It's thirty five euros. One
thing that I was interested in finding out is it
full of palm oil like nutella? Yeah, no, roasted hazelnuts,
hazelnut pieces, peruvy and milk chocolate. But then they don't
tell you what else. And that's thirty nine percent six percent.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's not enough percent.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
No, it doesn't not up and the rest is a
mystery you're building, a Missay.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
We know what that mystery is.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
I don't want to know anyway. Yeah, so Louis Vuitton
a hazelnuts spread. They also do like chocolate bars. So
if you want to spend eighteen euros twenty euros on
chocolate bar.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
That doesn't Honestly, for clout, that is not the worst
mashup you've thrown at me.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
No, it's not.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
It's just you know, it's like this purpose it's you know,
everything branded and I don't know if it's any if
it's any good, you know, but like it's got the.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
Logo on it.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Well that's what you're paying for, right of course. Yeah. Well,
if you got a second, I got something ridiculous for you, Yes, sir,
Now you know how there's no honor among thieves. Yeah, sure,
the same could be said about professional gamblers.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh that's very true.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.
Heisan cons it's always ninety nine percent murder three and
one hundred percent ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yes, yes it is, Elizabeth, Yes.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
It is now right now, it's World Series time okay, yeah,
Now did you watch the series back when the A's
were in it when you were a girl in the
late eighties?

Speaker 4 (03:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
What was that time like in Oakland? And for you personally?

Speaker 3 (03:48):
My brother? Was it the earthquake game?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh right? I mean you've told me that in the past.
It was amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
It was so exciting.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
It was like, you know, here's someone this team that
we've been watching the entire season, going to the games
like we're obsessed with and it was so thrilling.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Who are your favorite players?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
I was big into Dennis Eckersley.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Eck Yeah, loved the T shirts with just the mustache.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Yeah, I have one of those anymore because I don't
like The's anymore. But I still love Dennis Eckersley.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
There you go. I'm still team you have like heroes
like as a kid, right, I mean you're like, oh,
I look up to this guy.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah. We'll keep that energy in mind as I tell
you this story.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Are you going to defleat No?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
No, I'm not going to take away any of your A's.
They've taken away enough from you. I do have one
more World series question for you, though, What do you
know about the Black Sox.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Oh yo yo. I've seen the movie.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Which I eat my now John Sales movie. It's a
pretty good one.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
And I've run into yeah, more black socks they're going
to come. I've run into it in my research on
other stories that we've done.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Okay, right, are Rothstein's yees, you know, bumps into that
keeping him in mind. Now, I've promised them for many
times that I would do an episode of the nineteen
nineteen World Series. It's finally time to take a look
back at the nineteen nineteen World Series between the Chicago
White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. Quick trivia time, just
as a side trip, Can you name the three Major

(05:20):
League Baseball teams that are named for undergarments?

Speaker 4 (05:23):
The Red Sox, the White Sox, and I feel like
I heard this before.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
You'd have to know a little bit of old baseball
to get this other one, because they're no longer named that.
It's now a nickname that's been.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Shortened the Toledo Panties.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Cincinnati really the Reds.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
They were the red Legs or the red stock red
underpants because back in the day, all the teams were
known for their sock color. That's how they differentiated because
they pretty.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Much like the same red panties.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
No not in this case.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
Because they kind of sag their pants you could see
the whale tail coming out of the back.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Also, technically the Saint Louis Cardinals. There used to be
the Saint Louis Browns, which was originally the Saint Louis
Brown Stockings, which just raised all sorts of questions. But yeah, right,
but as I said, all the teams they differentiated themselves
by their stockings. Crazy, that's why they had so many
red legs, brown legs, brown stockings.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
And then the Dodgers were like, look.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Out, well, they were actually originally Brooklyn bridegrooms because a
bunch of jobs players on the team got married the
same year, so the sports writers started calling them the
bride Because the teams didn't used to have names, the
sports writers gave them names, and the names would change
all the time, so like one time a player would
get traded and they're like, okay, we're gonna name ourselves

(06:45):
after this player we just got, so now we're the
Naps or Napoleon.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Lahoy, right, so the groom Zilla's yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Later on they became the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers once the
trolley system was created, and then they get shortened to
the Brooklyn Dodgers and then now the La Dodgers who
are in the World Series. Yeah, anyway, Cincinnati Red Stockings
Chicago White Sox Battle of the Undergarments World Series nineteen nineteen.
The Cincinnati Reds were the National League pennant winners. Chicago
White Sox won the American League. Now, baseball, as you

(07:12):
probably very well know, got its start basically during the
Civil War, right and by the early nineteen hundreds, baseball
is now known as the national pastime. It didn't take long.
Football wasn't even close at the turn of the last century.
It was like all about college football. Back then, there
was no professional football. There were teams.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
They got their fill of brain damage in the Civil War.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
They didn't need they didn't need it. But by in
nineteen nineteen, America's love affair with baseball was challenged. We
almost gave up on baseball thanks to the Black Sox scandal. Yeah,
you see, in nineteen nineteen, the Great War aka World
War One was finally over, and this meant the players
who served overseas a return home, which is about forty
percent of the league. They were in their armed forces. Yeah.

(07:52):
So now baseball it had some down years from nineteen
seventeen nineteen eighteen, but in nineteen nineteen, fans were stoked.
Real Baseball's back, baby love affair back on right. As
part of this new excitement about baseball being back, the
presidents of the two league, the American in the National League,
they decide, what's extend the World Series. Let's just keep
this postseason going. So they went from a seven game

(08:14):
World Series to a best of nine contests. Oh dang, yeah,
and the only time they did this because of what happened. Anyway,
at the end of the season, two teams stand atop
the heap, Cincinnati Reds in the National League Chicago White
Sox in the American League. White Sox were the odds
on favorite to win the series. They'd already won the
nineteen seventeen World Series. They were clearly the better team.
But there was one big problem with this whole arrangement.

(08:36):
The team's owner. Do you know the name of the
team's owner, Charles John Fisher Comisky as in Chmmisty there
you go, Yeah, aka the Old Roman. That was his nickname. Really,
they also called him commie makes senseis it was based
on how he looked and how he acted. He apparently
was a very he loved where sheet didn't come out

(08:57):
of the field. This is crazy to win this one.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
The red panties and I'm the panties.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Get back up there, darn it. Comedy. So he was
a former ballplayer. He became a manager later a team owner.
So he loved baseball, right, But older Rollman was notoriously
tight fisted. He didn't pay pay raises. He didn't pay
his players what they were worth. This is a problem
for players back then because there's something called the reserve clause.
If a player refused their contract, they were prohibited by

(09:25):
the reserve clause from playing for any other professional team.
So basically the old Roman loved that. He's like, you're
taking what I offer you. That's it, right, So him
being a cheapskate becomes the seed that blossoms into the
Black Sox scandal.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
See that's what happens when you're a cheap owner.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Right was Chicago White Sox. This is also a team
that had two very different cultures fused together. Amongst the players,
there were a bunch of like do gutters, like college
boy Eddie Collins second basemen. Then there were the ballers
like Swede Wrisburg and Chick Gandal, who were known to
hang out with like professional gamblers, like yeah, exactly. They
were also kind of like ready to fight, you know,

(10:00):
tough guys. The most popular player on the team. The
star of the team was Shoeless Joe aka Joe Jackson.
You may remember him for The Big Screen played by
Ray Liota and Field of Dreams and by d. B.
Sweeney and Eight Men Out. That's he plays on his
real slow eyed like sharing at candles and stuff. Anyway,
you may have heard the recent news about Shoeless Joe.
I don't know, but in May of this year, the
Commissioner of Baseball, Rob Manfred, decided to reinstate Shoeless Joe.

(10:24):
He ended his band from baseball, really him and Pete Rose.
But why was Shoeless Joe band? Great question, Jesus, Well,
it wasn't just him. There were eight players in total,
the aka the Black Sox, all of whom got banned
from baseball for life, really for proper too, because it
lasted past him dying. But we'll get to all that later. Anyway,
back to the players and why they didn't like and

(10:45):
trust and have an affinity for team owner Charles Kimiski.
One of the stars of the team was a pitching
ace like best pitcher in the league in that year.
For his name was Eddie Sitcott. And back in nineteen
seventeen when the White Sox went to the World Series,
Sicott had a bonus in his contract. If he won
thirty games, he would earned a ten grand bonus. Oh wow,

(11:06):
which is a lot of money. Totally now, well you
wouldn't know this, but by the end of the season,
Eddie Sickett was getting close. He had twenty eight wins.
He was getting real close to getting that, and he
was like, oh, I could buy the farm for the family.
Charles Kimiski talks to the team's manager. He's like, why
don't you bench our star pitcher? And he benches him
in the Pennant chase and then so he won't get

(11:26):
the ten grand bonus. So based on that, Eddie Sicott
decides he'll get his revenge and get paid in the
nineteen nineteen World Series. So whose idea was it to
fix the World Series? I would love another question, Elizabeth.
It was first basement Arnold Chick Gamble you called it.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
I keep thinking like these guys as a total aside,
I would love to have like a time machine and
bring one of them to the future and put him
into a game and watch him just get rocked.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Some of them I think could hang hang, but not
most of them would look like forty seven old alcoholics
out there and had to trot through the meat sweats,
you know. So years later, an interview with Sports Illustrated
nineteen fifty six, Chick Gandle admitted that quote, I was
a ringleader, you know, he is enforcer. Was his buddy
Swede Risburg. They were the pair who like said, you're

(12:16):
gonna be in on this, Yeah I did.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
So.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
The story goes, when it was clear that the White
Sox were headed to the nineteen nineteen World Series, somebody
has the big idea, what if we rig the series, and,
according to Chick Gandle, he met with a professional gambler
named sport Sullivan. Sport Sullivan Ye sports so Chick described
sports Sullivan as quote a tall strap and irishman. It
looked like a cop. So there you can picture up now.

(12:40):
As Chick Gandle tells it, it all started at September
Day in nineteen nineteen, when Sullivan walked up to Eddie
Sicutt and me as we left our hotel in Boston.
As I recall, we were four games in front the
final week of the season. It looked pretty certain that
the pennant was ours. So he and Eddie Sickett and
Sports Sullivan they head up to his hotel room. Sport
pitches them on his plan to fix the World Series.

(13:00):
Back to Gandle, I was kind of surprised when Sullivan
suggested that we get a syndicate together of seven or
eight players that throw the series in Cincinnati. Now, at
first the players were like, I don't know, but as
Chick Gandal tells it, I said to Sullivan, it wouldn't work. Answered,
don't be silly. It's been pulled before and it can
be pulled again. Rumors were the nineteen seventeen World Series

(13:21):
was fixed. Oh so maybe like they came back around, like,
let's do this again.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, let's do it the right way this Yeah, I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
But at that point, Sports Sullivan offers Chick Gandle and
Eddy sic at ten grand for each player who will
go along with the fix.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Oh, like a fight like an MLM totally.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's that bonus that Eddie inc So I know you
love inflation calculators, so god do it. Eighty grand in
nineteen nineteen would be worth one point four million and
twenty twenty five dollars, So basically it's about one point
five It's one million four under in eighty seven thousand
and thirty seven dollars, so about one point five million. Sure,
So that would be roughly one hundred and eighty seven thousand,

(13:55):
five hundred dollars per player. Wow. Yeah, there's a lot
of money to say no to. So the players kept
listening to what Sports Sullivan had to say, and then
they disguised. Let's who would go for the deal? As
Gandal remembers it, second and I tried to figure out
first which players might be interested in. Any of those
who might be, which ones would we care to cut
in on this gravy. We finally decided on Jackson, Weaver, Risberg, Felch, McMullan,

(14:19):
and Williams. Not that we love them, because there was
never much love among the white socks. Let's just say
that we dislike them the least. Oh wow, Like I said,
two cultures on the.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Tens I saw it, man, I have like such vague memories.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Is this like all new? Okay? So all in all
to give faces to names and names to positions. The
star left fielders Joe Jackson. Third basement is Buck Weaver,
the shortstop is Swede Risberg. The right fielder is Happy Felch.
Utility infielders Fred McMullin. He's basically a backup. He's in
because he's dirty. And then number two pitcher, Lefty Williams,

(14:53):
along with number one pitcher Eddie Siccott. Of course, chick handle, yeah,
so Chick said. He and Eddie approached their teammates one
at a time, kind of like suss him out. First
they roped in Happy feltch he was the easiest one.
He's just kind of that guy. Then they got Swede
Wrisberg and Fred mcmowen because they were friends with Chick gandle.
He's like, oh, of course we'll do it, Chick, and
then you know, also both hard cases, kind of crooked.

(15:14):
You get the idea, yea. Then they approached Lefty Williams.
Now he's a Southerner like Joe Jackson. He had honor
and his word that all mattered to him. Yeah, he's
deeply underpaid by Charles Kimisky.

Speaker 5 (15:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
So, lastly, they approached the best hitter on the team,
my man Shoeles Joe Jackson. Once they had him all
on board at least a verbal yes, Chick, Gandle and
Eddie said cut set a meeting with the other players,
and they tell well, here's how Gandal tells it. They
were all interested and thought we should reconnoiter to see
if the dough would really be put on the line.
Weaver suggested we get paid in advance, then if things

(15:45):
got too hot, we could double cross the gambler, keep
the cash and also take the big end of the
series cut by beating the reds. We agreed. This was
a hell of a brainy plan. He gotta love that
they think these are not street savy criminals. The athletes
are going to try to screw their team owner to
enjoy a real pay day. Then they're dumb enough to
think they can take the gamblers the money to throw

(16:06):
the series. Didn't double cross them because they still want
to win the series.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Okay, so now that we've set this one in motion,
let's take a little break and after these messages we'll
meet one of my favorite crimers of all time.

Speaker 5 (16:17):
Oh boy, Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Okay, so where were we? Oh? That's right. The Chicago
White Sox agreed to fix the World Series, but they
haven't agreed to the terms with the professional gambler, Sports Sullivan,
and more importantly, he hasn't delivered any money yet. So
the players are at least smart enough to ask to
be paid in advance, like before you do the deed.
They want to get paid. But then they're dumb again
because they also agree to meet with a second professional

(17:00):
gambler who's also interested in rigging the World Series. So
Eddie Siccott, He's like, I want to get paid for
certain So he sets up a meeting with his second
professional gambler, a former major league pitcher named Sleepy Bill Burns.
Sleepy Bill, Sleepy Bill. Now this is the way the
story goes. Before he spoke with Eddie Siccott, Sleepy Bill
Burns approached the only man he believed could financially back

(17:21):
his plans to rig the World Series, and he knew
just where to find him. He was always known to
be at the Jamaica Racetrack in New York, So sure enough,
when he rocks up. This man is there, so he
goes up and approaches him, and my man is Arnold
the Brain Rothstein crime legend, the Sleepy Bill Burns. He
has an associate with him. They asked to speak with
the Brain about a little business matter he might be

(17:41):
interested in. Right, the Brain just brushes him off. He
tells it me maybe later. I'm watching the Ponies. Can't
you see him watching?

Speaker 3 (17:47):
The pointy of how many people approached him with stuff
like this.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Constantly exactly, Hey, I got a little action. I have
this Boxers in the bag. So the Brain tells Sleepy
bill Burns and his associate, you guys go wait in
the Track restaurant. I'll find you later. They do, is instructed.
Eventually someone comes over to their table, but it's not
the Brain, it's his right hand man, Abe Ho tell
he listens to Sleepy bill Burns' his pitch to fix

(18:11):
the world series. After he hears the plan, he goes
back to the Brain, who's still watching the Ponies and
the criminal mastermind he's like, he listens, He's not that impressed.
He's like, yeah, whatever. So he tells his right hand man,
Abe Tel go back to Sleepy bill Burns and tell
him the bad news. The Brain ain't going for it. Yeah,
but Sleepy bill Burns is stubborn, and he's like, well,
maybe if he hears it from me directly, maybe he
didn't put it right. So he tracks the Brain down

(18:32):
to where he is staying at the Astor Hotel in
Times Square in New York, and he just waits in
the lobby until he comes breezing through in some like
beautiful mohair cashmere coat. Yeah, so, Sleepy bill Burns he
spots the Brain coming, you know, just gliding through the
lobby of the hotel. He walks up on him and
he pitches him his plan to fix the World series
right there on the lobby. The Brain listens, he says, now,

(18:54):
I love this quote. Whatever my opinion is worth, forget
about it. So Wow just tells him straight to his No.
This was almost the end of Let's rig the World Series,
except the Brain's right hand man, Abattel, was a former
prize fighter. What this means is he didn't believe rigging
something like putting the fix in is difficult because he
pretty sure he saw plenty of fixed fights in the

(19:16):
fight game. So he's like, we could rig the series.
So either way. He reaches out to Sleepy bill Burns
and he lies. He tells him the brain changed his mind. Yeah,
he wants to back to fix. He'll put up one
hundred grand for the players. Oh no, now that he
has the brain's backing or at these things he does,
Sleepy bill Burns goes back to Eddie Sikhett and goes,
if you're down fixes on?

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
So meanwhile, Arnold the Brain Rothstein is also approached by
Sports Sullivan. He asks him, hey, if you know, if
you guessed it, would he be interested in fixing the
World Series? The brain is like, why does everyone want
to rig this series? But unlike with Sleepy bill Burns,
this time he listens because he respects Sports Sullivan as
a fellow professional gam He's got some former athlete with

(20:02):
the you know notions. So after he hears the pitch,
the brain says, all right, I'll back your play. So
now you might think, of all these folks have the
same idea about rigging the World Series. Talk will get around.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
The brain isn't bothered by this. In fact, he thinks
it's a good thing because it'll give him plausible deniability
as the brain says, if nine guys go to bed
with a girl, she'll have a tough time proving the
tenth is the father. Wow. So, now that he's officially
backing sports Sullivan's fixed, the Brain sends him to Chicago

(20:34):
to meet with the players to arrange all the details.
He also sends his partner Nat Evans to oversee it all. Right,
So in Chicago, sports Sullivan does as instructed. He meets
with the players. They tell him the same thing as
they said before, we want the money up front. Yes,
Sports Sullivan's like, okay, okay, let me set up a
meeting with the money man. As a ring leader, Chick
Gandal recalls it, a meeting was arranged at the old

(20:55):
Warner Hotel on the South Side, where many of the
players lived. Sullivan introduced his friend is mister Ryan, but
having met this man two years before in New York,
I recognized him as Arnold Rostein, the big shot gambler.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Everyone I would imagine knows who he.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Is, totally especial life. Yeah yeah, and if you think
two years before would have been nineteen seventeen, which.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
The prior Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
So at this meeting, mister Ryan aka Arnold the Brain
Rothstein lays out his plan for the fix. As Gamble
tells it, we were to try our best to win
the first game behind Sikot, who was the league's leading pitcher.
The White Sox were rated as a three to one
favorites in the series, so win in the first game
would boost the price higher. We were then to lose
the series at our convenience. It's simple enough. If they

(21:41):
win game one, the odds go up, brings him more best, right,
they could then lose the series. Everyone cleans up, right,
but they still haven't gotten paid yet. So the player's like, okay,
when are we going to get our was it eighty grand?
One hundred grand? We want our money in advance.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
Yeah, why would you go ahead and throw it? If
then nothing's going to come?

Speaker 2 (21:56):
And they did have to trust these gamblers. So the
brain who hasn't said a word yet in the meeting,
he's just got his people talking. But once the money
talk starts, he chimes in back to chick dandle. He asked, calmly,
what's to assure us you guys will keep the agreement?
We offered him our word, He answered, that's a weak collateral.
It's kind a point that's why I love Ronald Rothstein.

(22:19):
Your word is weak collateral guarantees. Right. He's like, I'm
putting up big money. I can't have a bunch of
ballplayers gave me a word. So the brain comes up
with a compromise everyone can live with. It's gandal tells
it he would give us ten thousand in advance and
pay the remaining seventy thousand in installments over the first
four games, each payment amounting to seventeen five hundred dollars.

(22:41):
That's fair enough to The idea is they get ten
large to split. Then once the series is going, every
time they throw a game, they get paid. The players
are like, cool, cool, we're gonna need to vote on this,
So they go they talk amongst themselves, they vote, They
agree to go through with the fix, but they still
want their money in advance. They're like, we're not certain
about this, you know, like Lefty Williams and Eddies they
got family, and Joe Jackson he's just saying he doesn't

(23:02):
trust anybody, so we want our money. So to make
the believers of the players, the brain pulls out ten
Crisp brand new one thousand dollars bills. Wow, here's the
first ten grand.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
Think about one thousand dollars bill then oh yeah, like
the equivalency of like what kind of bill you'd be
pulling out.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Well, basically ten thousand dollars in twenty twenty five money
would be one hundred and eighty seven thousand, five hundred dollars,
like eighteen thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, an eighteen thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Almost nineteen wow yeah yeah. So so but that's the thing.
If you want you put the money in their hand,
it's much harder to say no, they're going to have
to give that money back. And he knows this. So
the Brain puts the money in their hand and go,
do we have a deal, And they're like, okay, I
guess this is guy's getting paid in advance, right, So
they agree to the fix for only one thousand dollars each.
Now that the fix is on, the Brain starts laying

(23:51):
bets with bookmakers on the Reds to win the World Series.
But he's trying to do it casually so nobody knows
it's him. Otherwise they're going to be kind of suspicious
because he's taking the underdog.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Fortunately, his partner in the fix, his fellow professional gambler.
Sports Sullivan has no honor, so there was supposed to be.
They agreed that they would have forty grand that was
gonna be held in a safe. Right, That's what the
brain told him. He's like, yeah, I'm willing to put
forty thousand in a safe in Chicago. Sports Sullivan will
be in charge of the money. As soon as there's
evidence that fix is on, you'll get paid. Sports Sullivan's like, yeah,

(24:23):
you already gave him ten. So he takes the other
thirty thousand that's left and he bets it on the
Cincinnati Reds. He takes their money and bets it's it
rather than paying them off. He's like, I want to
get I want to get my beak wet, maybe make
myself a little extra money. At thirty grand, it doesn't
even earn any interest, is sitting in a safe, so
he bets it. So now I should say there have
been some doubts about whether or not the Brain really

(24:45):
was the money man for the fix or not right. However,
according to historian Harold Seymour, there were affid David's discovered
in Arnold the Brain Rosstine's files after he died one
of the Affid Davids said, quote, he paid out eighty
thousand dollars for the World Series fix, So I say
that kind of files. Yeah, it's so it's either way.

(25:08):
It's his involvement that makes the players believe the fix
is possible because the brain was that guy. So I
tend to believe Akham's razor style he's the fixer.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Agreed.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Anyway, after this meeting with mister Ryan ak the Brain,
the White Sox players agree to fix the World Series
with Sports Sullivan. But Eddie Sitcott's like, what about Sleepy
bill Burns. So he goes he goes back to me
and goes O, hey, hey, the fix is on, We're going
to do it. And then he's like, but the players
want to get paid, So he tries to get double
dipping with Sleepy bill Burns like he's running the fix,
and so Sleepy bill Burns is like, I bet let me,

(25:39):
let me raise the cash because he didn't get the
money from so the players they think they can finesse
all these professional gamblers and it's all going to work
out for them. Yeah, so innocent. At this point, talk
of the fix starts to spread fast on the streets.
In fact, the day after their meeting with the Brain,
Chick Gamble gets a call from a Chicago reporter wanting
to know what's what. Tells it he heard the series

(26:01):
was fixed. Where'd you hear that crazy story? I said,
and hung up. Now, if you're going to fix something
like the World Series, that's what we in the sports
rigging business call a bright red flag. Yes, right, Because
that same night, Sports Sullivan comes by Chick Gamble's place.
He tells him there's more bad news, since the streets
are talking that the fix is in. The odds of
three to one odds are going down. The bookmakers are

(26:24):
going to make less money, the betters are going to
make less money. But then it gets even worse. Because
word doesn't just spread in Chicago, talk actually reaches Cincinnati.
As Gambal tells it, by the time we arrived in
Cincinnati to open the series, the rumors really flying. Even
a clerk in a stationary store, not recognizing me as
a ballplayer, told me confidentially I had at firstand that

(26:44):
the series is in the bag. No maitrices and bell
hops were talking the same way. Reporters were buzzing about,
asking questions everybody knows. You know, when you got random
stationary store clerks and bell hops telling people to fix it,
come over here, touching the nose. Then you know, on
the sly like it's the sting. Now. I don't got
to tell you this, but that's capital be bad news,

(27:07):
especially for the players who've now agreed to fix the
World Series. So meanwhile, the White Sox players are still
waiting to get paid to throw the World Series. Remember
they wanted their money up front. In said, they got
the Crisp one thousand dollars bills and that's it. Sports
Sullivan wagered the rest of the money. Sleepy Bill Burnes
is like, hey, let me raise the money, right, So
there's no money in advance for them. At this point,
the White Sox players start to get pissed. The night

(27:29):
before Game one of the World Series, they go to
a hotel and they meet with a Battel, the right
hand man of the Brain. They demand what they call
their money before the series starts. But as I think
they should know, until it's in their pocket, it.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Ain't their money exactly.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
A ba Tel, former prize fighter, right hand man of
the Brain. He don't scare easily, doesn't have a bunch
of ball bars.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Deal.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
So instead he tells the players how it is. They
get paid once they throw the games. That's it, he says.
For each game they lose, he'll get them a payout
of twenty thousand dollars. Since it's a best of nine
game series, the Reds need to win five games. Yeah,
that works out to be one hundred grand, right, which
again is one point eighty seven million. For them to
split eight ways, that would be two hundred and thirty

(28:16):
four thousand, three hundred and seventy five dollars in twenty
twenty five dollars each. Now, the players tell a battel
they could definitely throw the first two games. Eddie sickeuts
on the mound for game one. Lefty Williams has got
the He's gonna pitch Game two. Yeah, no problem. We
can't guarantee game three because that's gonna be a little
dicky kerr. So there you go. He's like, well, that's fine,
it's finny. You guys gonna pick back up for game four,

(28:38):
Game five, that's no problem. Yeah, okay, time to play ball.
Is this World Series? Game one of the World Series.
It's October first, nineteen nineteen Eddie Sicutt for the White
Sox pitching versus the Red Star pitcher Dutch Royther Arnold.
The brain rosting wasn't in Cincinnati for the series, but
he was paying attention because he's at the Ensonia Hotel
in New York and they have like this is before

(28:59):
radio got big, so people couldn't listen to the game
on the radio. Instead, he's in the lobby of the
hotel and they got a man there reading the pitch
by pitch from a telegraph machine. Just announce it right,
So people all seated around on these high backed chairs
listening ball one, you know, like right. So they've arranged
a signal that the fix is on. Eddie Sicott is
supposed to walk the first batter of the game, or

(29:21):
he can just hit him with a pitch. The guy
just has to reach first base, right. The fellow reading
the pitch by pitch reports that first pitch has a
strike all right.

Speaker 6 (29:30):
Now.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Now second pitch, oh, it's a bit wild. Oh it
hits the leadoff batter right in the back. Take your base.
The fix is on. This is all the brain wants
to hear. He walks out of the lobby. He didn't
care about baseball.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Yeah, you guys got the rest.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
No, Elizabeth, you want to know how obvious it was
that the fix was on?

Speaker 3 (29:46):
I do want to know.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
In Game one, the pitcher for the Reds, Dutch Routher,
not only throws a six hitter and gives up just
one run, he also goes three for three on the day.
In the batter's box. The pitcher had not one but
two triples and he knocked in three runs. He single
handedly wins the game for the Reds. And it isn't
just him. The Reds have a great game top to
bottom of the line up. They win nine to one.

(30:09):
After the game, the owner Charles Kamisky goes down and
he meets with the White Sox manager Kid Gleason. Sure,
because both men had heard talk around town that the
fix was in. So Cammy asked Kid Gleason if he
thinks his team is are they actually trying to throw
the World Series? And Kid Gleason, you're like, well, he hams,
he haws a little bit. Then he says, I don't know,
but I could tell something is wrong with the team.

Speaker 7 (30:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
He's an optimist, He's like, he's a good hearted guy.
For game two, Lefty Williams is on the mound. He's
going against slim Sally for the Reds.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Slim sald.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
The White Sox players decide we're gonna make game two
less of an obvious fix, but there are still plenty
of hanky moments, like in the fourth inning, Lefty Williams
walks three Reds players and all three wind up scoring.
White Sox lose the game four to two, slightly after
Ray shack the catcher. He he was known to be

(31:00):
something of a hot head, and he isn't in on
the fix. He's part of the good guy's crew. He
confronts Kid Gleason, the manager, and he starts yelling in
his face about how Lefty Williams is ignoring his signs
for his pitches. He shouts, the son of a bitch,
Williams kept crossing me in that lousy fourth inn. He
crossed me three times. He wouldn't throw a curve. Oh oh,
he's heated, So Kid Gleason's like, well, you know, well

(31:22):
he's a good pitcher. Maybe he'll get it back. Game five,
same night, Sleepy Bill Burns stops by Chick Gandal's hotel room.
He leaves some money for the players. They're supposed to
being paid every game. They've thrown two, but it isn't
the twenty grand that he was promised. Instead, he's like,
here's ten thousand dollars. So at least they get something, right,
Slader bill Burns managed to get something. Unlike the brains

(31:43):
right hand man Aba Tel, he's nowhere to be seen.
Oh really, At this point, the players are owned forty
grand from aba Tel and Sports Sullivan. Yeah, so they've
thrown two games, Elizabeth, do you think the players got
that money? Absolutely no, no, they did not, because Sports
Sullivan decided to bet the money on the series and
he won't get his until they throw the whole series,
so even if he did want to pick exactly. Meanwhile,

(32:06):
Sleepy bill Burns, the other one fixing the series. He
wants to know if the players are planning on throwing
Game three, So Chick Gamble tells them, yeah, we're gonna
throw Game three. Based on that, Sleepy bill Burns bets big,
like all the money he's made so far on the game.
What he doesn't know is that Gamble. The players are
pissed that they're not getting their money, so they decide,
you know what, forget it. We're not throwing the game, right,

(32:26):
We're gonna teach these gamblers a lesson. If they don't
give us our money, they lose money.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
It's too obvious too to just lose everything.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
That's a good point too.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
Yeah, you mix it up a little bit of dram there.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Well if they do. In game three, the pitcher is
that little Dicky Kerr, and he's a young kid. He
knows nothing about the fix. He's one of the good guys.
He goes out there, he throws a damn fine game.
He gives up just three hits. The White Sox win
the game three to zero, and Gamble actually ends up
knocking in two of the three runs. Oh wow. And
because he bet on the loss, Sleepy Bill Burns loses
it all. He's knocked out of the fix.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Oh there goes all their money.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
So now they can't One of the gambler's supposed to
be paying them can't pay them because he lost all
his money. Right, But they're like, he teaches you guys
a lesson, you should be paying us, Like, don't do
you not understand how it fix works? Now? The record
at this point in the series is two to one
in favor of the Reds. At this point, the players
are getting pissed at chick gandal because they keep asking
when are we gonna get our money when we get paid? Yeah,
He's trying to keep them calm. He's like, hey, it's fine,

(33:21):
I got this handle. Just be patient. And if they
get loud, he's like, sweedet Wrisper go over and talk
to him, and he's like, don't you bother him. You know,
he's like the tough guy. Now, before game four, chick
Gandle meets with Sports Solivan. He's like, hey, look the
guys they want their money. You almost twenty grand for
this game or else? The fixes off you, all right?
Where aready busted? Sleepy Bill Burns? The Sports Solomon's like, hey,

(33:41):
I don't have a right this second. But he's like,
all right, well I'll get you your money. So where
he gets it is anyone's guest. But he manages to
get money to chick Gamble before game four starts. Really
at first, Game four was a good game. The score
remain tied at zero until the fifth inning, and that's
when Eddie Siicott, now back on the mound, decides not
to make one but two obvious errors that allow the

(34:03):
Reds to score. Final game score Reds two, White Sox zero.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
After that game, Lefty Williams is gonna start Game five.
Goes to Chick Gamble's hotel room. He wants his money.
He's like, I want to We're gonna get paid because
I remember Gamble's the ring leader. He's dispersing the funks
that all the players they aren't meeting with these Gamblers.
He's doing it all right. So Lefty Williams remembers the
clandestine meeting. There were two packages, two envelopes lying there,
and he says, this is your dough now. Gamble told

(34:30):
me there's five for yourself and five for Jackson and
the rest has been called for. So he's like petering
out to whoever gets mad and he gives here's five grand.
Shut up, go out, you'll do the fix.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Game five, Lefty Williams takes the mound. This game wasn't
an obvious debacle, but there were moments, so like when
Happy feltch the outfielder, he dropped a fly ball in
the sixth inning. Then he throws it to Swede Wrisburg,
who's covering second, and he misplays the throw, the ball
gets away from him, so they're both like bungling. That
same inning, Happy Felch misplays a second shot to the outfield,

(35:03):
misses the ball three runs score. White Sox lose the
game five to zero. At this point, sports writers are talking, right,
They're starting to be like, you think the fixes? Are
you kidding me to fix? Definitely? No one could be
in the series and play this bad wet series is
now four to one in favor of the Reds. Now
Typically we would think, oh, you won the series, but
remember it's a best of nine series. The Reds still

(35:25):
need to win the fifth game, but before the series
is over, the talk of the fix is now everywhere.
Odds from the bookmakers have plummeted. The gamblers are having
a hard time making money, but worse than that, they
stop paying the players altogether. There's no more money after
game five. So the White Sox players decide, you know what,
We've been double crossed by these gamblers. So, following Buck
Weaver's original call, they say, to hell with the gamblers.

(35:46):
We're gonna win the series.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
So now they're going to try to screw Onald the
Brandon Rosstein, who bet on them to lose the series.
So in Game six, the White Sox, they go out,
they ball out, and they win the game final score
five to four. For Game seven, they do the same thing.
They win that one four to one. So now the
record for the series is four to three in favor
of the Reds. But if the White Sox can win
Game eight, they can force a game nine. They can

(36:09):
still win this thing, right, and if they do that,
they'll screw over all the gambles who have been on
them to lose the fixed series, chief among them Arnold
the Brain Rothsteam And they must have forgotten who they
were dealing with. Yeah, exactly, because after the White Sox
win games six and seven, so Hoods come and they
threaten Eddie Siicott and Lefty Williams. In fact, one of
the Hoods tells Lefty Williams he's got a pretty young wife.

(36:30):
Sure would be a shame if anything happened to him,
because you know, you're hard headed, right.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
They're not just gonna be like, oh, we're really disappointed
you guys didn't do it at the end of the day,
Like yeah, come on.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
No, Like they're like, I'm gonna kill everything you love
everything yeah, if you cost my boss money. Yeah. So
Lefty Williams he gets the start in Game eight. What
do you think he does, Elizabeth. Does he go out
there and ball out or does he throw it?

Speaker 3 (36:50):
He throws it?

Speaker 2 (36:51):
Well, after these messages, I'll tell you how this all
shakes out.

Speaker 6 (36:54):
Yeah, and we're back, Elizabeth.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
You're ready to hear how the White Sox become the
Black Socks. Yes? Please, So, after his visit from the hoods,
Lefty Williams clearly gets the message. He goes out there,
takes the mound, and he saves his wife's life. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
I mean, I think that's the most important thing.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
It's waits wild. In the first inning, he throws just
fifteen pitches, and with those fifteen pitches, he allows four
hits and three runs. He only manages to get one
out before he's taken out of the game by the
manager Kid Gleases, so he technically pitches one third of
an inning. That's it. Right after that, it's an uphill
road for the White Sox. Some of them are still

(37:52):
trying to win. The good guys. Some of the bad
guys are still trying to win because they haven't been threatened.
So they managed to score five runs. The bad news
is the Cincinnati I'd scored ten runs. That was that
Cincinnati Reds win the World Series.

Speaker 5 (38:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Now, if you ask their manager Pat Moran, which some
sports writers did, hey, do you think the fix is in?

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (38:11):
He said he believed that there was no fix, and
his team naturally triumphed. As he put it, quote, if
they throw some of the games, they must be consummate
actors for nothing in their playing gave me the impression
they weren't doing their best.

Speaker 4 (38:22):
No, you don't want to get out there, like, the
only reason we won is because they blew it for
these guys, are you know, be rated team?

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
No, you want to gass up your own guys.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
You got to me, absolutely have to. You're like, my
guy's been out there to play their parts out.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Now for a more neutral stance, there's the umpire for
the game. Billy Evans. Sports writers asked him you think
the fix was in? Now? Originally he was like, no,
what are you talking about? But then a year later,
when news finally broke that the World Series had indeed
been fixed by gamblers. At that point, the empire for
the series, Billy Evans said, well, I guess I'm just
a big dope. That series looked all right to me.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Oh okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
But also if you asked the official scorer of the
World World Series if it was rigged, he said he
only saw one play that seemed suspicious to him. Really now,
but there was one guy who was very honest and
was around baseball, the former star pitcher Christy Mathewson, who
was known to be a straight shooter, like all around,
like grown up boy scout, and he didn't smoke, didn't drink.
He was just straight arrow. He says he saw at

(39:18):
least seven plays there were clear evidence the series was fixed. Yeah,
so the sports writers like see, okay, Christy won't lie
to us right now. The most obvious ballplayers involved in
the fix were Eddie Sicott, Lefty Williams, Chick Gandle Sweet, Wrisberg,
and Happy Felch. Their play was indicative of the fix.
The others were not so obvious. So Fred McMullin. He
was a backup, so he didn't even have much impact

(39:38):
on the game. He only had two at bats in
the entire series and a hit, so he got one.
He went yeah, five hundred. Meanwhile, Buck Weaver and shoeless
Joe Jackson, They actually had really good games and they
did show any obvious signs that they were in the fix.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Like, Joe Jackson batted three seventy five over this eight
game series. He scored five runs, had six RBIs. He
had the only home run in the series and in
the field single air. Same for Buck Weaver. He batted
three twenty four during the series, which is the second
highest batting average on the team. He also had no errors.
He played his heart out, so did he and Joe
Jackson both have a change of heart about the fixed
World Series. Hmm, well, Elizabeth, you know how often the

(40:15):
crime isn't why people get caught. Instead, it's the cover up.
The really ruined Watergate comes to mind. Oh yeah, this
was baseball's watergate. After the White Sox lost the World Series,
talk is still everywhere that the game was fixed and
naturally arnold. The brain Rosstein name keeps getting mentioned a lot,
but no one has any proof. However, almost everyone's certain
something ain't right about this, but there's still just no

(40:36):
hard proof, and a fixed World Series is a huge scandal.
It could threaten the sports. Baseball was basically a young
professional sport that he has just gotten rid of. The
Federal League was there's a competition, yea. And so they're
trying to like, you know, keep things going, and they've
just gotten back from the war. They're trying to be like, oh,
let's get this going. It's like basically after a player strike,
they're trying to get the people to come back to
the ballparks. And plus for a lot of people, you know,

(40:59):
good and bad, they get eventually involved in this cover
up because this is America's past time. They got to
protect baseball. Yeah. So after the series, Charles Kamiski he
starts facing questions from the sports ride like, comy, come on,
did you did you know about the fix? He tries
to squelch, and you talk of a fix? What fixed
any you guys? Come on now, bye, guys. They bawled out.
The questions persist, so the cover up isn't working. So

(41:20):
eventually he releases a statement to the press to the
effect of I believe my boys fought the battle of
the recent World Series on the level as they've always done,
and I would be the first to want information to
the contrary. If there be any I would give twenty
thousand dollars to anyone unearthing information to that effect, He's like,
I want proof, I want receipts. Don't come at me.

(41:41):
But by the way, twenty grand that would be about
three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty twenty
five dollars. Good money. It's a lot of motivation for
somebody to go find something. He also Kamiski hires a
private eye to do some digging as well. Private eye
is like, okay, let me dig into their finances. So
he just starts going through everybody but Buck Weaver. Nobody
thought by Weaver was dirty. His finding's inconclusive. No one

(42:02):
can find evidence. Yeah, Elizabeth, you know how baseball's their
winter baseball meetings between owners. Yes, so the rigged World Series,
of course, is the talk of the meetings. So it
starts bubbling back up to make matters worse. Though at
that same time, as Chicago sports writer, he publishes a
story in a New York paper because Chicago paper's like,
we can ye, not touching that. So the paper as
it runs, the headline is big League Baseball being run

(42:25):
for gamblers with ballplayers and the deal. Oh and then
before any facts are found out or any evidence emerges
of the fix. The manager of the White Sox, Kid Gleeson,
is in New York and that's where he learns the truth.
It's July following year in nineteen twenty. Kid Gleeson, he's
in this bar in New York. He runs into Arnold
the Brain Rothstein's right hand man, A ba tell the

(42:46):
former prize fighter.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
The two get to talking. Ab Hotel tells Kid Gleason,
you know, I always respected you, and I feel bad
about you losing the World Series, or as he put it,
you know, Kid, I hated to do that to you,
but I thought I was going to make a bundle
and I needed it. Whoa, so Hay Betel confesses that
Arnold the Brand Rostein was the money man who made
it all happen, you know. And Kid Gleason's furious because

(43:08):
he's this decent guy. So he tries to find a
sports writer who will write up this story that it's
Arnold a braind Rosstein he fixed the World Series. But
all he has for proof is some drunken confession from
a former prize fighter that's not real evidence. No, No
one runs with the story. It looks like the truth
will never come out because mostly most of Major League
Baseball they just want the scandal to go away. Team
motors don't want to talk about it. Players don't want

(43:29):
to talk about the cover up is working. Why spoil
a good thing?

Speaker 3 (43:33):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
But then that same year, in nineteen twenty, the White
Sox are back in the lead to win the pennant
and go back to the World Series because they're still
a good team. And that Elizabeth is when an odd
turn of events brings the scandal back out into the light. Yeah,
turns out my team, the Chicago Cubs, are involved. There's
a Cubs Phillies game on August thirty first, and there's
talk the game was fixed. It was a clear fixed game.

(43:55):
This time a grand jury gets convened. No criminal charges
being talked about. The assistant state attorney in Illinois says,
subpoena is out to a bunch of folks in baseball. Yeah.
One ballplayer he's called to testify. He's in New York
Giants pitcher Rub Benton. In his testimony, he says, my
old teammate, Sleepy Bill Burns, he sent me a telegram
and said the White Socks were going to lose the

(44:17):
nineteen nineteen World Series. He said the fix is in.
He also said in the telegram he specifically named players
Chick Gandal, Happy Felch, Lefty Williams, Eddie Sitcott said they're
all in on it. This is now finally some evidence
this stunts a wagon. Eventually, since it look like the
White Socks are headed back to the World Series, they
gotta be stopped otherwise this is a series going to

(44:38):
be fixed again. Baseball's now panic because I was like, okay,
you know you're putting all of our money on the line.
A couple days later, a Philadelphia newspaper publishes a story
based on an interview with this guy, Bill marag. I
didn't mentioned his name, but he was the associate of
Sleepy Bill Burns when they first approached Arnold Braglastein at
the racetrack and they had to sit at the dinner table. Yeah,
that's this guy. In his interview, he tells a reporter

(45:00):
from a Philadelphia newspaper all that he knows, he spills.
Guess he was still mad about Sleepy Bill Burns getting
screwed over by Chick Gandle and now losing all the
money and getting pushed out of the fix. So now
once he dumps, there's hard proof of the fix. At
this point, Eddie Siicott comes forward and he goes and
he testifies to the grand jury. He confirms what everyone suspects.

(45:23):
He's subpoenaed. He appears before the grand jury, spills his guts,
airs out his guilty heart. He tells the grand jury,
I don't know why I did it. I must have
been crazy. Wrisberg gandle McMullen were at me for a
week before the series began. They wanted me to go crooked.
I don't know. I needed the money. I had the
wife and the kids. The wife and the kids don't
know about this. I don't know what they'll think. Right.

(45:46):
At this point, he starts to cry. Yeah, he's like
a brick, just like I don't know what I've done, right,
He says, I've lived a thousand years in the last
twelve months. I wouldn't have not done that thing for
a million dollars. Now I've lost everything, job and everything.
My friends all bet on the socks. I knew, but
I couldn't tell them. We'll save them from it, I know, yeah,

(46:07):
but I mean.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
Like god, what it would weigh on him.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (46:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
So the next to come forward is shoeless Joe Jackson.
He testifies his involvement and he admits to take him
but by the way, it's well known that he's getting subpoenaed.
So like the could people like a happy feltch and
Chick Gandle. They're like, hey, don't you go talk, don't
you squeal? Right, he goes anyway, he admits to taking
I got five grand from the gamblers, and he says
he told his wife what he was doing and she

(46:31):
told him it was an awful thing to do. She
started crying when he told her. He still went through
with it. So Joe Jackson testifies that the players have
been double crossed by the gamblers. He'd been promised twenty grand,
but he only got five grand. But by then it
was too late. They had already you know, they were
in it. And he also testified that he confronted Chick
Gandle and Chick Gandle's like, what are you gonna do,
Holly for a cop?

Speaker 4 (46:52):
So, I mean that's the thing is you get this
opportunity and if you if you're not thinking straight and
you're just thinking of the money, there's you're not looking
down the road that there's no way out of this,
no going back. There's no going back, and it's not
going to end no matter how it shakes out. Sure,
there's always going to be a problem for you, not
for them, but for you.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah, you're the one who's out there on the diamond. Yeah,
who's gonna face all the glared You're going to disappoint everybody.
No one's upset by Arnold the Brain Rothstein doing some
hanky stuff.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Well, and the thing is, you think about throwing a game.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
You know, you're trying to You're you're covering your end
of the bargain, but you don't know what's going on with.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
The other team.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Yeah, totally, you know.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
And so it's like there are flukes and that not
everyone on.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
The team is in on it, and so you know,
it is a it's a dangerous game.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
You're playing dicey proposition.

Speaker 7 (47:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Yeah, Now, well, Arnold the Brain Rostin allegedly ended up
making about four hundred grand on the Fixed World Series. Yeah,
which I know you want to know, Yes, seven point
five million in twenty twenty five dollars. Most of the
other gamblers weren't so lucky like Aba Tel his right
hand man. He didn't make out sleepy Bill Burns. He
lost it all in game three, right, So pretty much

(47:57):
the only one who really cleaned up was Arnold.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
And Brain Roste you know the course with him.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Why they call him the brain. Yes, the real losers,
as you pointed out, are the players Joe Jackson's. He testifies,
we were double crossed. He also testifies that before he
agreed to speak with the grand jury, the other players
are like, you, poor simp, go ahead and squawk. We're
just gonna say you're a liar.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
So he says that right, and then he started. He says,
also Sweede Wristburg, he was the muscle for the cover up.
He was like threatening all of us, and Joe Jackson
tells the grand jury Risburg threatens to bump me off.
Oh yeah, like murder, claims now right. And then when
when he walks out of the Chicago courthouse, this disappointed
kid comes up to shoeless Joe and he says, it's
very famous quote in baseball history. But rather than me

(48:38):
tell you about it, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close
your eye, like you to picture it. It's early afternoon
in Chicago, and you are right now standing among a
small crowd. You were just running some errands, had to
get your laundry, pick up something from the tayler. When

(49:00):
you saw the crowd and asked what the deal was,
someone told you that shoeless Joe Jackson's inside the courtroom
testifying to a grand jury about the series fix. You
aren't in a rush, but you are a baseball fans.
You decide, I can get home a little later, I'll
stick around and see what's what. It doesn't take long
before the crowd gets excited. Someone closer to the courthouse
turns and shouts he's coming out. Some local street kids

(49:23):
push past you to get a clear view, unblocked by
the much taller adults. The Chicago sports writers also muscle
their way in close. You're sort of shunted off to
the side, but you still have a clear view of
the steps of the courthouse. And then you see him
with your own eyes. Shoeless Joe steps out, moves through
the door. He smooths a hat onto his head. He's

(49:45):
buffeted by these big, burly bailiffs. They're there for his protection.
After he spills what he knows to the grand jury.
Everyone knows Chicago has a growing gangster problem. But at
this point it's really too late. He's already said what
he knows, no putting that genie back in the bottle.
You watch the famous star of the Chicago White Sox
as he draws close to the crowd waiting on the
courthouse steps. Just before he can bound down the steps,

(50:06):
one of the local street kids, pushing forward, stands just
before Shoeless Joe. The kid looks up at his hero.
No one knows what Shoeless Joe just said to the
grand jury, so the kid asks what everyone's thinking. The
street kid looks his hero in the eyes and utters
the now famous words, it ain't so Joe, is it?
Shoeless Joe Jackson's face falls, shame colors his eyes darker,

(50:30):
but he doesn't break eye contact with the kid. Instead,
he just says, yeah, kid, I'm afraid it is. The
sports writers push Penn to stenopad and record the famous
moment in baseball history. And you were there, Elizabeth, to
see it all. Aren't you glad? You ran those errands?

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Amazing as I am.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Okay, So, now that the scandal is out in the open,
it's been confirmed by the star of the team. It
goes yeah, yah, it's official White Sox through the series.
After that, Charles Kamiski sends a telegram to the now
disgraced Black Sox players and in no uncertain terms, he
tells them, you and each of you are hereby notified
of your indefinite suspension as a member of the Chicago

(51:10):
American League Baseball club. That's why the Chicago White Sox
did not win the pennant in nineteen twenty, because he
got rid of the team, and why they did not
go back to the World Series based on the grand
jury testimony. The next year, in nineteen twenty one, the
eight disgraced ballplayers and a bunch of the gamblers involved
in the fix are all put on trial for rigging
the nineteen nineteen World Series. I'm talking like they're looking

(51:31):
at five years in prison for evidence. The prosecution has
a bunch of signed confessions for the trial, and yet
somehow those signed confessions all disappear really years later. Chick
Gandel says it was Arnold the braind Rosstein who made
them disappear, of course, but no one knows for certain.
What we do know is that by the nineteen twenties,

(51:51):
the syndicate in Chicago had bought off judges, lawyers. They
had cops and bayliffs on the payroll. That's the nineteen
twenty Chicago we all know and love. Okay, maybe it's
just me who loves it.

Speaker 4 (52:02):
But anyway, I love nineteen twenty Chicago. I love twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Same. I love Chicago same. Anyway. The trial lasts fifteen days.
None of the players end up testifying, as Chick Gandal
recalls it, upon advice of our attorneys, none of us testified,
and without our testimony, state had no case. As a result,
everyone on trial is acquitted. As Chick Gandal tells it,
when the jury finally found us not guilty, there was

(52:28):
loud cheering in the courtroom. The jurors even carried us,
a few of us out on their shoulders. Oh what
a scene. In fact, the judge was even seen to
be smiling, like nobody wanted them to be guilty.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
So, now here's where the villain of the story comes
in, in my opinion, Judge Kennesaw mountain Lands.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Oh not Judge Kennisaw mountain Lands.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
As a former federal judge, he was a teddy Roosevelt guy.
He would help bust the trust. So he gets named the
first commissioner of baseball because everyone's like, oh, he'll do it.
He's a hard nosed guy. He decides, oh yeah, watch,
I'll be a total hard ass so to say the
honor of baseball. He decides, you can't have fixed games.
That's bad business. We can't have the suspicion of fixed games.
So one of his first official actses he suspends the

(53:11):
Black Sox from baseball for life. They're all banned. This
is to scare any other player from ever trying to
pull the same stunt. Sure, now America's pastime is saved.
And yes, he may have been right and his actions
may have saved baseball. I still don't like Judge Knissan
mountain landis why, Elizabeth, great question you because as commissioner,
he was also the man who kept baseball segregated. Yep.

(53:34):
He banned Major League teams from playing against Negro League teams,
even his exhibition games, because he feared that if they
lost too often to black players, it would be an
embarrassment to the white race. So Disney Dean and Daffy
Dean's exhibition team can't go play Satchel page in Josh Gibson, right,
because they get so. Yes, Judge canisaw Mountain Landis is
no hero of mine, even if he saved baseball. And

(53:56):
that Elizabeth is how the Chicago White Sox became the
Black Sox's ridiculous takeaway here.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
I think it's interesting when you're saying he saved baseball
in that instance, but he almost didn't save it by
keeping it segregated totally. You know, it saved baseball to
bring everybody together to play.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
As a professional sport.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
Yes, well, and if we're going to call it America's pastime,
you know, there's what I love about baseball is it's contemplative.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
And there are these really like thrilling times.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
No time limit, no time god.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
Well now they have like little clocks, but I mean, yeah,
you don't know, and like just innings go until God
knows when, which I think is fantastic. But also there's
like you don't have to have special equipment to play it,
you know, with a stick and the ball and like
you know, and you can it can involve a bunch

(54:46):
of different kids and and people can get together and play.
You can just throw the ball back and forth. But
it's something that uh connects a lot of people. And
I mean you can look at other sports or like
that soccer is like that each need a ball. There
you go, any any of the kind of unifying sports
I think are so important. And then then the notion
that you have it come to the brink of destruction

(55:07):
with greed, Yeah, which you know happens over and over again.
You see it over and over, but then you know
to save it, but then not want to save it
again and it winds up, you know, getting saved by
integrating the league's.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah, Jackie Robinson really saves baseball.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
Really does, really does and kind of helps save for
the in some small way America, right, Like we have.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
To be saved from ourselves constantly, over and over and
over again. What's your ridiculous takeaway?

Speaker 2 (55:33):
I got, Well one you reminded me of that baseball
has no time limit. The guy who wrote the book
Shoeless Joe, which became the movie Fielder Dreams, he has
another book called the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. It's a beautiful
book about if you like baseball. I read it when
I was like a young man, like a teenager, and
I loved it. He has his game. It takes place
in Iowa. It's an exhibition game, and it just lasts forever.

(55:56):
The game goes on for days because they never and
it just keeps going and like your children are being born.
It's ridiculous. But my actual ridiculous takeaway is this. It's
a fun fact that I learned after he was banned
from baseball. Do you know where chick Gandal went? Of
course you don't. I didn't either. No one knows. But
I learned that after chick Gamble moved here to Oakland

(56:17):
every thirty five years, he worked as a plumber. So
you may have known someone whose family once hired him
to unclock their away. Wow, So there you go. Came
all the way home. So you're in the mood for
a talkback.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
I am always in the mood for a talk bog.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Oh, oh my god.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
I went get hey, Elizabeth Zaron and producer d This
is Brian from Saint Louis. I was listening to your
latest episode earlier today and when you were discussing whether
it was You've got another thing or another think coming,
what I thought of was the Judas Priest song you've

(57:02):
got another thing coming, which came out in nineteen eighty two.
I don't know where if that's where the saying came from,
but you never know. It's ridiculous either way, you guys,
keep up the good work.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Thanks, thank you.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
I think that's that is exactly what I always think of,
and I think that's what makes me think it's another
thing coming.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
But it's a much older saying you'll hear like the
old thirty shorter forties movie.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
Rob Halford says, it's another thing. Okay, okay, biker boy,
let's do this, and.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Now for me, that is what it is. That is
what it is. As always, you can find us online
a Ridiculous Crime on social media mostly it's Instagram and
Blue Sky and now we also also, by the way,
on Instagram you can see the pictures of these stories
we tell. We put up a bunch of great photos
and images and also in the stories as well.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
Yes, and the posts.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
Now we have are also an account Ridiculous Crime Pod
on YouTube, and there you can if you prefer listening
to your podcast or YouTube, go there, enjoy it and
please like, subscribe, leave a comment. We do love to
hear from y'all. We have a website, Ridiculous Crime dot com.
You can go there, get yourself some merch, and we
obviously love your talkback, so please go to the iHeart app,
download it, leave a talkback and maybe you get to

(58:10):
hear your voice here. We'd love to hear it. Oh,
and you can email us if you want. If you
want to keep it old school, you go talk about
tap to tap, bebop, pop oop and send it off
Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening and
we will catch you next crime. Ridiculous Crime is hosted
by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produce and edited by

(58:33):
Arnold De Brain, Rostein's left hand man, Dave Kustin and
starring Annalys Rucker as Judith. Research is by og Brooklyn
Trolley Dodgers, Brissa Brown and Jabbari Davis. Our theme song
is by the Padre of San Diego Thomas Lee and
the former jose Canseaco Baseball Camp all star Travis Dutt.
Host wardrobe provided by Body five hundred, guest Haarn, makeup

(58:54):
by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre. Executive producers are Kid Gleason's
Drinking Buddies, Ben Bowen.

Speaker 7 (59:00):
And No.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Ridicous Crime.

Speaker 5 (59:10):
Say it one more time Ridiquious Crime.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.