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NOTES FROM THE SHADOWS OF COOPERSTOWN
Observations from Outside the Lines
By Two Finger Carney (carneya6@borg.com)
#344 DECEMBER 14, 2004
THE SERIES OF DECEMBER 1919
Last issue, the news was bad, I lost one of my cats. This time around, the news is all good. Perhaps the best news of all is that I am finally discussing a contract with a publisher, one which I think will prove to be worth waiting for.
But the other good news is that I have solved -- with lots of help, as usual -- another minor mystery of the events surrounding the 1919 World Series. Hats off this time to Nicole DiCicco and Evelyn Begley, for plucking out of the NY Public Library, a slew of articles by Hugh Fullerton.
The series he wrote for the NY Evening World in December 1919 is among the key documents for any researcher of the topic of the fix and the cover-up.
What follows, pieced together with my own research, is what may well be the first detailed look at that series. Everyone has some idea about one or perhaps two of the articles that appeared in the series. (Actually, Asinof may have read the whole series before writing Eight Men Out, but he skimmed in his book.)
In what follows, I have injected a few comments, but tried hard not to overdo that. Knowing what happened, nine months later -- and what did not happen before then -- made it hard to resist not injecting more. What happened, of course, was that what Hugh Fullerton wrote about softly in December became national headlines. What did not happen, was Comiskey or anyone else in baseball doing anything except pretend it was business as usual. Spring training, opening day, nearly a whole 'nother pennant race, all proceeded as scheduled. Turnstiles clicked. Right up until September 28, when the man who perhaps initiated the Fix, Eddie Cicotte, went before a grand jury and told his story.
Stories told by ballplayers to grand juries are in the news again today, 85 Decembers after the 1919 series. Back then, reporters pounced on leaks and embellished, and a fellow named Shoeless Joe Jackson was said to have confessed his guilt. That went down in history. When his testimony became public, much later, it revealed that he did not really confess -- in fact, he said he played to win every game. The grand jury foreman backed that up. But it was too late.
Today, an "unnamed source" has leaked information about some of today's stars, who testified in confidentiality to a grand jury. And the media is still the media -- they ran with the leak, giving the public no clues about the credibility of the source. So what if reputations are damaged? They're only ballplayers! What have we learned in 85 years? Scandal still sells papers (and today, boosts ratings). Journalism? "You make the call."
THE NYEW DECEMBER 1919 SERIES
Chicago Herald & Examiner reporter Hugh S. Fullerton knew the Fix was in, before the 1919 World Series started, and he was -- as best I can tell -- the only person who tried to blow the whistle before Game One, to prevent the gamblers from getting away with it.
The night before the Series started, Fullerton wired all the papers with whom he was syndicated: ADVISE ALL NOT TO BET ON THIS SERIES. UGLY RUMORS AFLOAT. In 1935, Fullerton said this message was sent as a "black face precede to [his] story" and he was hoping to "warn the fans that something queer was coming off" and they should refuse to wager. As cautiously as he worded it, only two of forty papers printed the precede. But that was enough to put Fullerton on the record as the first whistleblower.
A close and loyal friend of Comiskey, Fullerton knew that Comiskey knew. And he was so sure that Commy would rise to the occasion and remove the guilty players from baseball, that he predicted in his October 10 article after the Series ended, that seven Sox players would not be back when Opening Day rolled around.
Fullerton also knew that Comiskey did not just offer a reward, to attract information about the Fix; he also hired a detective agency to collect evidence. What Fullerton did not know was Comiskey's intention -- to conceal any evidence he found, and bury the Fix as deeply as he could, lest his franchise be ruined.
When he returned from a vacation after the Series, Fullerton met with Comiskey at least once, before leaving Chicago for New York. Fullerton dodged an assassination attempt before he left, which he never mentioned in print until eight years later.
While several sources -- possibly relying on Charles Alexander and Eliot Asinof -- mention the "series of articles" written by Fullerton in December 1919 (with or without Christy Mathewson's diagrams), most of the books on the 1919 Series and on Mathewson refer only to a single article in the New York Evening World, December 15, 1919. No diagrams accompany the text. The Evening World itself, on February 24, 1920, suggested with some pride that baseball's taking off-season action against players ["three unnamed stars"] for gambling
was no doubt inspired by special articles written by Hugh Fullerton .. several months ago, which pointed out that baseball was headed toward the rocks because of gamblers' activities and suspicion that the last World Series ... had been tampered with.
To write about the Fix after the Series was not an easy choice for Fullerton. "I feared that my branding of the games as fixed might have wrecked a life friendship with Charles Comiskey." Fullerton sought out Commy and found him, a broken and bitter man. "Keep after them, Hughie, they were crooked. Some day you and I will prove it."
Life went on, but the Fix refused to be swept neatly under the carpet. The Chicago Herald and Examiner had printed what turned out to be Fullerton's final words for them on October 10, but did not follow up. Nelson Algren: "[Fullerton's] own paper, roaring daily ... about corruption in public life, fled like a hare when confronted by the need for simple honesty." But they were not alone, the press had no interest in damaging baseball's image. Besides, like stock market reports, boxscores sold papers.
Fullerton, discouraged and disillusioned by this development, felt like he wanted to quit writing baseball. He went to the managing editor of the New York Evening World, John H. Tennant, saying, "I'm sick and tired of writing about a game that has gone crooked. That Series was fixed." Tennant then directed him to write a special series on it. Fullerton said that a Mr Daly of the Morning World also instructed him to investigate, as the paper had a report from St Louis about gamblers influencing the Series. Tennant reportedly said, "It's hot, but this story has to be told." (Lieb) Even toned down and with names of players removed, the series was a blockbuster.
Monday, December 15
So Fullerton's byline appeared under the article, "Is Big League Baseball Being Run For Gamblers, With Players In The Deal?" not in Chicago, but in New York, on December 15, 1919.
The World Series was only two months down in history. The two leagues had met, and adjourned, not dealt with the issue at all; to Fullerton, their silence was inexcusable.
Fullerton wrote not so much about the fixed Series, as about the fact that so many people in so many different cities are talking about the apparent success of gamblers in fixing the Series -- but baseball officialdom was not doing much about it. He is clearly bothered that baseball's reputation as a clean sport has been sullied, more than ever before. And it pains him.
As forcefully as he can, he calls on baseball to settle things. If the fix was in, the guilty need to be punished. If they are found innocent, wonderful -- baseball's reputation is restored. He is putting baseball on trial. He focuses on the American League, which, "smirched with scandal, held [their annual Fall] meeting, wrangled, fought and blackguarded [attacked with abusive language] each other, and separated without an effort to clear the good name of the sport." He is dismayed that the American League has closed its eyes and ears, hoping the whole thing will just go away.
Some of the owners wanted, like Fullerton, a full investigation. And "some are for keeping silent and 'allowing it to blow over.' The time has come for straight talk. How can club owners expect writers, editors and fans to have any faith in them or their game if they make no effort to clean up the scandal?" He then fires these strong words at a specific target: "If one-quarter of the charges that Ruppert, Comiskey, Frazee and Huston made against President Ban Johnson of the American League are true, Johnson should be driven forever out of baseball. If they are not true, the men making the charges should be driven out." Fullerton was allied with Comiskey, an enemy of Ban Johnson. This contingent of dissatisfied American League owners would unite a year later with the National League owners to remove Ban Johnson from power and replace the three-man National Commission with a Commissioner.
Fullerton seems to be as upset about Cincinnati manager Pat Moran's charges that certain persons tried to get his players drunk before the first Series game, as he is about the gamblers' nasty business. And he takes Moran to task for keeping that quiet, because it meant the crime went unpunished.
Fullerton sees the charges against the seven White Sox players as "more directly injurious" to baseball than those against the owners. Why? "The public has for years had little faith and much disgust in the officials and club owners." Players being accused of cheating is not new, either. What has Fullerton so incensed is that "never before have players been so freely charged." And that the crime is going unpunished.
Fullerton is not grandstanding, he is a reluctant crusader.
I have steadfastly refused to believe this [the conspiracy to fix the Series] possible. Some of the men whose names are used are my friends and men I would trust anywhere, yet the story is told quite openly, with so much circumstantial evidence and with so many names, places and dates, that one is bewildered.
Fullerton considers Comiskey an honest man, but he is sure that Commy knows the whole story, "knows perhaps more than anyone else." He applauds Comiskey's offer of a $10,000 reward and his hired detectives. Just as he fought against the belief that baseball could be rigged, then that the Series was rigged, so Fullerton seems to cling to the hope that Comiskey will act -- ban the guilty players. He points to the feud raging in the American League as the only thing that has prevented Comiskey from investigating all charges.
Then Fullerton explains why he seems to be the only writer out on this particular limb. "For nearly two years I have been working to discover some evidence of what has been going on." He is not referring here to the 1919 Series, but to the gambling rumors that had been plaguing the game. (Earlier, he referred to Hal Chase's activities, which Christy Mathewson would not tolerate, when he managed the Reds.) A Boston gambler had told him that the syndicates "had men" on every team. Fullerton scoffed, but sure enough, some of the players named wound up in trouble. In July 1919, a Chicago gambler took Fullerton aside and questioned him seriously about the honesty of baseball. "I told him it was straight." He knew the gambler was also a fan, and his suspicions were aroused.
Hugh Fullerton had also had suspicions about several World Series before 1919. (Writing for the Chicago Times October 16, 1912, and right after Boston won a Series from Brooklyn, Fullerton wrote: "There is a bitter taste remaining in the greatest series of games ever played, for today Boston boycotted its ball club and the rumor that the series was fixed and all prearranged ran through the town. Half the people believed it.") Perhaps for Fullerton October 1919 was just the last straw.
Finally, Fullerton gives his eyewitness report on the gambling scene he observed on the eve of the 1919 Series. He was told as soon as he arrived in Cincinnati that the first two games were a sure bet. Yet the heavy betting was not convincing -- Fullerton knew gamblers "considered themselves wise" but are also "the biggest suckers in the world" when they hear tasty rumors.13 Nevertheless, Fullerton went to Mathewson with what he'd heard, and Matty ridiculed the rumors. But they were both so suspicious by now that they sat together and took notes of every play in the Series that seemed like it might be crooked. They found seven.
His last exhibit for this trial on paper is this:
Twenty minutes before the final game in Chicago started, I was taken aside by a gambler, who told me to plunge. I was mad by that time, and demanded that he come through with some proof or shut his mouth, that he was a crook and accusing others. He laughed and remarked:
"You ought to have cleaned up on it -- tipping one team and playing the other."
I was mad all the way through, but wanted to learn something, so I asked:
"What do you know about to-day?"
"It'll be the biggest first inning you ever saw," he said.
These things, and worse, are printed in the Western cities. The club owners know all about them.
And he has this concluding line: "The baseball authorities must go to the bottom of the entire matter of gambling."
Tuesday, December 16
The NYEW followed up the next day with an article, "Col. Huston of Yankees Favors Gambling Crusade." The part-owner of the New York AL team was in sympathy with the NYEW stand regarding gambling in baseball. He declared that "no stone should be left unturned to rid the game of evil" and noted that the Yankees spent "large sums of money" annually to keep down betting at the Polo Grounds.
This article had no byline; it referred to Fullerton's article the day before, repeating some of his charges. Huston also added that the gambling rumors were nothing new. He and Col. Ruppert employed detectives and private investigators to "smash any public betting that may show its head at the Polo Grounds."
Wednesday, December 17
"Scandal of World's Series in Baseball Will Not Down; Here is a Way to Settle It." Fullerton's Monday article has acquired the label "blockbuster" over the years, but it was his Wednesday article that perhaps deserves that adjective even more. In it, Fullerton gave baseball a plan for uncovering the conspiracy that he was certain had ruined the Series.
Fullerton begins by stating that after two months of work by his detectives, Comiskey has been "unable to find evidence of dishonesty" among the White Sox, in the recent World Series. He has had detectives at work "since the night of the second game of the series in Cincinnati when one of the best known gamblers in the country [Mont Tennes] went to him and told him the stories that were being circulated through the underworld of sport."
Comiskey and Gleason have both worked hard, but have been unable to prove or disprove anything. This is not good enough for Fullerton. He demands a verdict: guilty or not guilty. "Mr Comiskey, unaided, probably cannot discover the truth. It is not the seven players who are indicted by common gossip that are on trial. It is the good name of baseball and the honesty of hundreds of players who are not mentioned."
Fullerton feels the recent meetings of owners started "a concerted movement ... to put the silencer on the story of the series. To drop the matter and follow the policy of 'allowing the public to forget' is probably the worst possible thing that could happen to the sport in the United States."
He then suggests that Judge Landis -- who would not become Commissioner for another year -- be asked to get involved. Fullerton praises Landis for saving "the organized part" of baseball by not ruling on the Federal League case until the owners came to their senses and settled out of court. Landis loves baseball. "I happen to know that Judge Landis has been keenly interested in the current stories of the World's Series. He has heard the entire story and was shocked and grieved."
Landis, Fullerton believes, could hear the players, and the gamblers. "In fact, I think the gamblers concerned will tell him more in confidence than could be drawn from them on the stand under oath. They trust him. He need not mention the source of his information without their consent."
Who should Landis interrogate? Gamblers named "Karl Zork, Ben and Lou Levi of Des Moines, Eddie of Boston, Tim of Des Moines, Abe Attell, Bill Burns, Joe Pesch, and Redmond" [Harry Redmon]. Then, question Mont Tennes, "chief of the gambling fraternity of Chicago," and Arnold Rothstein. Then, Comiskey's detectives, manager Kid Gleason, writers Jimmy Crusinberry and Ed Wray of St Louis, as well as Fullerton himself ("I will volunteer to appear and tell all the facts I know"); and finally, ballplayers Ray Schalk and Eddie Collins. (Years later, Fullerton said that even if Landis had just met with Bill Burns, "all of the facts" would have come out, months before the 1920 season started, instead of in its final days.)
Thursday, December 18
"Comiskey Has Been On Point of Dropping Several Men." Fullerton thinks the fans are aroused, and "demands for an entire cleaning up of baseball and a thorough investigation of the scandalous charges made in connection with the recent World Series are pouring in."
Fullerton is having two big laughs: first, from the charges that he is making the charges of "crookedness" -- "I never said or insinuated that the seven ball players accused by common report are guilty" (although saying that they probably would not be back for Opening Day is close). Again, baseball "MUST investigate and either throw out the men or exonerate them completely." What nags at Fullerton is silence, "whitewashing."
The other laugh Fullerton has is from the accusation that he is an enemy of Comiskey and an ally of Ban Johnson. "That will get a laugh even from Johnson. Comiskey broke me into baseball. He was my first friend in the game. We have stuck together in everything -- and always will."
Fullerton goes on to list what Comiskey has done so far. He has offered a reward "for proof of crooked work." He has been at the point of dropping "a number of players -- not because he found them guilty, but because of the talk about them." But he has held off, waiting for positive evidence. "He is going to secure it. The row over the Carl Mays case has delayed his operations."
Comiskey, according to Fullerton, "is badly broken in health and growing old." The trip around the world almost ruined his health, and now the Mays case and his feud with Johnson is impairing it.
Fullerton devotes the rest of this article to the Mays case and the jockeying among owners in the American League. Some owners are trying to sell their teams "on a rising market," but Comiskey will not sell; his team and ballpark are his monument.
The same day, the NYEW ran an article under this banner: "Frazee and Grant, Hub Club Owners, Favor Any Reform to Curb Gambling." The owners of the Red Sox and Nationals believe baseball is honest, but there should be no limit to any action to keep it clean. Frazee was responding directly to Fullerton's charges.
The national commissioners were polled for their views. Heydler (NL) was not ready to comment and "intends to be out of town on a holiday vacation" the rest of the month. Garry Herrmann was expected to quit his post "within a few days." Ban Johnson "is so engrossed with affairs of his own organization" that he has no time for National Commission business, "no matter how pressing it may be."
Immediately following the above article is "American League Has Not Begun an Investigation of Reported Gambling" -- at least that's what AL secretary Harridge reported. The issue "probably would be taken up" at the next meeting. "Disclosures made by Hugh Fullerton have evidently caused every one to draw into their shells." Comiskey repeated that his investigation "had proved the reports to be groundless." The rumor that Ban Johnson had started an investigation right after the Series "was denied at his office."
Friday, December 19
"National Commission Chairman to Stamp Out Baseball Gambling." Garry Herrmann -- "If I remain at the head of the National Commission" -- pledged to "wage a hot fight against betting in ball parks." He cannot believe that his Reds did not win the last Series fairly. Pat Moran had wired Herrmann, denying that gamblers had gotten two Reds pitchers drunk.
Saturday, December 20
"Judge Landis Asked to Take Charge of Investigation." Fullerton called on Landis and Comiskey to take action. He is encouraged that "practically every owner and manager" are all eager to clean up baseball. "Some object to any further expose of the recent world's series and the attendant scandal which has become an annual part of the show."
Fullerton says that the most direct charge is not connected with the series.
It is the claim made last July by a professional gambler to another that he had three of the Chicago White Sox on his payroll and that they would, for a consideration of $200 a week each, throw one game a week as selected by him.
But Fullerton hastens to add, "This may not have been true." The gambler who heard it, did not believe it and "refused to enter into it." Fullerton's digging has suggested that this story is "the starting point from which all the scandalous stories have spread."
Again he declared that "a complete investigation" was necessary, and nothing less will suffice. Fullerton asked Judge Landis if he would accept "the responsibility of conducting an investigation if the powers of baseball are willing to submit the entire matter to him and assist him in bringing witnesses before him."
Fullerton has asked Comiskey "to use all his influence" to bring the investigation about. "There is small use to ask Ban Johnson" because Johnson feels anything he does
would instantly be construed as an attack by him on Comiskey. Johnson has been the strongest opponent of gambling ever since he has been in office. One of the big things in which I have always stood by him has been his fight against the gamblers, and some of Johnson's troubles with club owners have grown out of his activity.
Fullerton has been assured that Johnson "would have taken steps in this scandal immediately after the series" but for his troubles with three club owners, "which would have resulted in a misunderstanding of his motives."
Letters have been pouring in for Fullerton. Most "scoring" him and a few offering evidence, which he is trying to investigate. Much is hearsay. One mentioned the name of a player new to the scandal.
He has no proof, "but one thing is certain: Gamblers stated that they had 'put over' the thing and they solicited capital from others on the ground that they could control the players." This "solicitation" was not just before and during the Series, but during the season as well, and "the Chicago White Sox were not the only team mentioned."
Two days before, Fullerton thought the owners and managers were behind him. Now he writes "the powers of baseball appear to have overlooked the peril."
Fullerton then reviews rumors of fixes in previous World Series. After the 1910 Series (Cubs-Athletics), Fullerton "investigated the thing for a week." He found that the rumors were started by men "who were betting the other way." In 1912 (Red Sox-Giants) rumors had Tammany politicians fixing things; again, an investigation showed the rumors were started by men "backing Boston heavier than ever."
When Fullerton heard the rumors before the 1919 Series, he thought gamblers were "working the old gag." But this time, the money was being wagered in the direction that the rumors ran.
In fact the first really suspicious thing that became public was when a gambler went to a club owner and told him the men who were betting the big money were crooked and advised him to take a look around. He was suspicious, not of the players, but of the men who were gambling, and he stated frankly that anything they bet on heavily was crooked or they believed it to be so.
In 1908, 1909, and 1910, according to Fullerton, "a certain clique of Pittsburgh gamblers was extremely active. They formed the friendship of a number of the Chicago Cubs." But their aim was to find out pitching rotations, and when Frank Chance, the Cub manager, found out, he "purposely misled them at every opportunity until they grew tired of betting on false information."
Fullerton ends with a kind of peace offer. He is encouraged that the owners are changing their attitudes. "If they can drive out the gamblers there is no further danger of attempts to tamper with the players."
Happy New Year
In the January 2 World, Fullerton "Wishes Magnates a Scandal-less New Year." Ironically, in September 1920 the greatest scandal in baseball history would make headlines.
But in January, Hugh Fullerton could sit back and write "an Interesting Open Letter to the Club Owners," as the sub-headline put it. He also addressed it to the National Commissioners.
Fullerton stated his belief that Charles Comiskey "is taking serious and honest steps toward cleaning up all the scandal concerned with the World's Series." Meanwhile, the warring factions in the AL seemed to be moving toward a peace settlement.
Urging the owners to follow through on their pledges to clean up baseball, Fullerton characterized 1919 as a year "of financial prosperity and prostitution of the sport to finance."
He repeated some of the main points that he made in the series of articles that appeared in December. "Whether any player or team has acted dishonestly it is not for me to say. If I had proof of any crooked dealing I would shout it."
Fullerton responded to those who were blaming himself and other writers for starting the stories about the fixed Series. "These stories were not started , nor were they circulated, by baseball writers. They started before the series was played, were circulated during the series, and were so widespread in the West that detectives were employed to watch players."
Fullerton argued that it was Comiskey's offer of a reward for evidence of a Fix, that "placed the scandal before the public. Up to that time I never had mentioned it." (Apparently his October 10 article stating that seven White Sox players would not be back next season, did not count.)
The National Commission had done nothing, and its credibility was gone; if it pronounced all players innocent, no one would believe them anyway.
"Comiskey is conducting a deep investigation. One thing the fans may rely on his that Comiskey will go as far as he can to dig up the truth." (And that was true; but Fullerton thought that Comiskey would then reveal that truth, instead of burying it even deeper.)
Perhaps aiming at Ban Johnson, Fullerton wrote, "One member of the commission at least knew about the stories that were going around the morning of the second game of the series." (Later, Fullerton would write that he confronted Ban Johnson before Game One, after talking with Comiskey; both had already heard the stories. Neither acted. Not with a record take on deck.) "Had he done his duty he would have started the investigation then and there. He did not." Fullerton sees the policy of silence 'for the good of the game' at the bottom of it all."
Fullerton recalled taking a two week vacation, hunting and fishing, after the series, then returning to a Chicago where everyone knew the stories of the fix. He was "questioned by some one every few feet on the streets. When I protested ignorance they smiled. Twice I was accused of 'being in on it.'"
Responding to a club owner who had demanded that he prove his charges, Fullerton wrote that he has never made any. He is upset that this owner wants things "kept quiet for the good of the game."
It would not hurt baseball even if the men accused should be found guilty. If they were kicked out the fans would believe the owners honest in their efforts to keep the sport clean. Remember that only seven out of more than 200 are even accused by gossip. Are not the others entitled to protection?
Fullerton insists that his motive is not to hurt baseball. Nor is he reacting with "animus" because his dope for the series went wrong. No, he wants to prevent the Reds from being robbed of the honors they won. For twenty-seven years, Fullerton had argued that "it is impossible to make baseball crooked." Players may lose games on purpose, but they cannot get away with it for any length of time. He even argued this during the recent World Series. "How can a writer who wants to be fair and honest continue writing baseball unless it is proved to be fair and on the level?"
Finally, Fullerton takes this parting shot at the magnates: "You have made a good start to the new year. Keep it up. The one big thing to do is to make the sport the thing. So long as the gate receipts are more important than winning games there can be no real reform."
* * * * *
In 1924, Fullerton gave Comiskey credit for keeping him active in pursuit of hard evidence. They corresponded in January 1920, when Fullerton had become discouraged; Comiskey motivated him to keep at it for six or seven more months. Comiskey testified at the 1924 Milwaukee trial that Fullerton had told him that he was "detailed by the New York World to go out and run down the rumors of crookedness." Comiskey said that he told Fullerton, "I have nothing substantial." When Fullerton was disheartened, Comiskey said that he told Hugh to "keep on it." The scandal so bothered Fullerton that he refused to do baseball in the summer of 1920. How can a writer who wants to be fair and honest continue writing baseball unless it is proved to be fair and on the level?