In 1919, members of the Chicago White Sox "threw" the World Series, intentionally losing to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money. Two years later, after a lengthy investigation, eight players, including the immortal "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, received lifetime bans for their part in the scandal. Debates have raged ever since about whether all of the eight banned players actively "threw" plays or games. Sorry Kid, I Don't Much Feel Like Playing Today settles the debates once and for all by breaking down each player's contributions on a play-by-play basis. Section one addresses Chicago's pitching and fielding, while section two is all about the White Sox hitters; the final section analyzes the overall statistics. Each player is put under the microscope. Each play is dissected and analyzed. You will be the final judge. Journey back to the second decade of the twentieth century to relive the most famous World Series in baseball history.

Sorry Kid, I Don't Much Feel Like Playing Today

By Kelly D. Cleaver Sr.

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Kelly D. Cleaver Sr.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-1719-5

Contents

Introduction: Prelude to a fall from grace......................................5Chapter 1: Eddie Cicotte - But you started this Mr. Comisky.....................9Chapter 2: Lefty Williams - Three games to infamy...............................35Chapter 3: Dickie Kerr - That's Mr. Busher to you...............................58Chapter 4: Joe Jackson - I'm afraid it's so Joe.................................79Chapter 5: Happy Felsh - One of the boys........................................102Chapter 6: Shano Collins - I can hit righties Kid...............................124Chapter 7: Nemo Leibold - At least I was trying.................................137Chapter 8: Ray Schalk - A cracker-jack of a player..............................152Chapter 9: Chick Gandil - Take the money and run................................174Chapter 10: Eddie Collins - Bad time for a bad Series...........................196Chapter 11: Swede Risberg - A hard guy..........................................218Chapter 12: Buck Weaver - A raw deal............................................239Chapter 13: Making A case for Buck..............................................263Section Three: Throwing a Series by the numbers.................................270

Chapter One

Edward Victor Cicotte

But you started this Mr. Comiskey.

Edward Victor Cicotte was born June 19, 1884 in Detroit, Michigan. On September 3rd, 1905 at the age of just 21 years old, Eddie made his Major League debut with the Detroit Tigers. Cicotte went 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA, appearing in just three games. After being released by the Tigers after the season, Eddie re-appeared in the bigs in 1908 with the Boston Red Sox. After four and one half seasons in Boston where Eddie won 51 games with 46 losses, he was sold to the Chicago White Sox (for an undisclosed sum), in mid season on July 22, 1912. Cicotte pitched his remaining eight and a half years in Chicago. Nicknamed "Knuckles" for his famous pitch, Eddie was also a shine ball expert.

Eddie was always a dependable hurler, but really started to blossom in 1917, going 28-12 with a league leading 1.53 ERA, also throwing a no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns on April 14. From 1917 until his suspension on September 27th, 1920 Eddie was 90-48 for a .652 winning percentage. Though Eddie lost eighteen games for the Sox in the war torn season of 1918 (when most of the Sox regulars were away from the club, working under the work or fight order), Cicotte's greatest year was 1919. Knuckles won twenty-nine games with only seven losses to go along with a 1.82 ERA, putting Eddie on track to maybe being someday enshrined in Cooperstown. In Eddie's final season of 1920 which ended prematurely on September 27th when he and seven teammates were suspended by club owner Charles Comiskey, was a year in which Eddie was 21-10 with a 3.26 ERA (which wasn't too shabby for the beginning of the live ball era). Even though Cicotte was one of the game's greatest pitchers, Eddie's salary for 1919 was only $5,500. Compared to the Reds opening day Series pitcher Dutch Ruether, who made $11,000 a year, Eddie felt cheated. Plus he also felt cheated out of a supposed $10,000 bonus if he would have won thirty games in 1917, by owner Charles Comiskey. But to an owner like Comiskey, twenty-eight wins were not thirty, and twenty-eight wins did not merit an extra dime although most historians believe this bonus story to be a myth. What is not a myth though is that Kid Gleason started Cicotte twice in the last week of the 1919 season, including on the 28th of September, two days before the series began on October 1st, when the pennant was already wrapped up (an example of Kid's managerial skills).

The opening day starting pitcher of the World Series is a dream every baseball player dreams of. Eddie Cicotte was no different. Eddie had a dark secret though, under his pillow before game one was $10,000 cash. With the cheapest owner in either league Charles Comiskey, who paid one of the best pitchers in baseball the lowest salary, the $10,000 must have felt like redemption to Knuckles Cicotte. Eddie was to be paid an additional $10,000 dollars before each loss after the first game, for $30,000 dollars total. The winner's share of the series was $5,207.00, losers share $3,254.00. The temptation must have been too much, throw a few games in the Series and collect almost six times your annual pay? Cicotte claims he wanted to pay off the mortgage on his farm, which he did. At what price did he pay when the devil came to collect? In less than four innings (three and two thirds to be exact) his reputation and eventually his career came to an end.

Knuckles pitched well for three innings of the opener, giving up only one run, but the fourth inning will forever be remembered as batting practice for the Cincinnati Reds. Five runs, six hits in only eight batters was the end of Ed's and the White Sox's day. This one inning of baseball ruined a stellar career and immortality among the baseball greats. I always wondered how Eddie Cicotte explained this to his wife and two daughters when they asked "why?" After seeing the $10,000 pay off before game one, Eddie went out and did more than his part. Most people believe that Eddie threw game four also, but after reading the results of that game the reader will probably change their mind. Cicotte got paid off to bag the first game and he did, but when no more money came before his next start, so did Eddie's will to lose.

Eddie Cicotte played alongside other former teammates, after he was banned from baseball for a few years in the outlaw leagues. Done with baseball, Cicotte returned to his home in Michigan outside of Detroit and became a game warden for the state. Eddie died May 5, 1969 at the age of 68.

Here are the play by play results of Cicotte's three games pitched in the 1919 World Series, as if we were sitting in a box seat at field level.

Game One

Cincinnati, OH

October 1st 1919 Redland Field

Bottom 1st inning

It doesn't get any better than this, as 30,511 baseball loyalists turned out today to witness the opening game of the 1919 World Series. The Reds left-hander Dutch Ruether (19-6 1.81) taking on the White Sox 29 game winner, right-handed Eddie Cicotte (29-7 1.82). In one of the most significant at bats in the history of Major League Baseball, left handed hitting 2B Morrie Rath, of National league champion Cincinnati Reds with a .264 season batting average, leads-off the bottom of the 1st, after the Sox failed to score in the top half. Chicago ace Eddie Cicotte pumps a first pitch strike, called by home plate umpire Charles Rigler of the National League. Cicotte then drills Rath with a pitch (HBP) to the right shoulder. Nothing unusual about a hit batter, other than it was the signal to gambler Arnold Rothstein that the fix was on. I always wondered how Rothstein would have felt if Morrie would have popped that first pitch up or grounded out.

With Rath on 1st base and no outs, next up for the Reds is 1B Jake Daubert, with a season average of .276. Daubert another left handed hitter delivers a single (1B) to right center field, sending Rath all the way to 3rd base.

Now coming to bat with runners on the corners and no outs is 3B Heinie Groh, a right handed batter with .310 season average and the Reds top power hitter. Groh hits a deep fly ball to Joe Jackson in left field for an RBI sacrifice fly (SF-7), scoring Rath with the first run of the Series, and putting the Reds up 1-0.

With one out and one run in, the great Cincinnati Hall of Famer (1962), left handed hitting CF Edd Roush with a NL leading.321 season average, steps up to the plate. Before Roush can do any damage though, Jake Daubert is thrown out trying to steal 2nd base, C Ray Schalk to SS Swede Risberg (CS 2-6) for out number two. Roush then draws a base on balls (BB), and he promptly steals 2nd base (SB).

Cicotte then entices .269 right handed hitting LF Louis "Pat" Duncan, to ground out to Swede Risberg at short stop (6-3), ending the 1st inning.

Cicotte's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0

Bottom 2nd Inning

Chicago tied up the game 1-1 in the top of the 2nd inning. SS Larry Kopf, a .270 switch-hitter, leads-off the Reds half of the 2nd. Batting left handed against the right handed throwing Cicotte, Eddie strikes-out Kopf on three straight pitches (K), for the first out of the inning.

Next up for the Reds is Alfred "Greasy" Neale, a .242 hitting right fielder. Greasy, another left handed hitter, bounces a routine grounder to future Hall of Famer (1939) 2B Eddie Collins, who throws to 1B Chick Gandil (43), for out number two.

Now with two down, Reds left handed hitting C Ivey Wingo, a .273 hitter, lofts a high lazy fly ball to straight away center which CF Happy Felsch gloves (F-8), ending the bottom of the 2nd inning.

Cicotte's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Total 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0

Bottom 3rd inning

After giving up the 1st inning run, Eddie seems to be settling into a groove. Leading off the bottom of the 3rd inning, Pitcher Walter "Dutch" Ruether, a hard hitting (.261) left handed batter; works Cicotte for a base on balls (BB).

Now back to the top of the order, Morrie Rath drops down a nice sacrifice bunt back to Cicotte, who throws to Chick Gandil at 1st base (SAC 1-3), moving Ruether into scoring position.

With one out and Ruether on 2nd, Jake Daubert lifts a fly ball to left field that "Shoeless" Joe Jackson takes care of (F-7), for the second out of the inning

With two away and Ruether still on 2nd base, Heinie Groh for the second time in as many at-bats, fly's out to Jackson in left field (F-7), putting an end to the bottom of the 3rd.

Cicotte's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

Total 3 1 1 1 2 1 1 0 0

Bottom 4th inning

The Reds 4th inning started innocently enough, as Edd Roush leads-off in a 1-1 ballgame, with a rather deep fly that CF Oscar "Happy" Felsch hauls in (F-8), making the first out.

With one out, Pat Duncan lines a shot over 2B Eddie Collins head for a base hit (1B).

Next batter Larry Kopf, lays down a bunt that Cicotte quickly pounces on to force Duncan out at 2nd base, Cicotte to Risberg (FC 1-6), with Kopf taking 1st base on fielder's choice.

Now with two down and Kopf on 1st base, the inning and Cicotte's day goes completely down the drain. Greasy Neale bounces a ball up the middle that Swede Risberg knocks down but he could not make the play on Kopf, going for an infield single (1B). Could Risberg have made the play? Only he and God know for sure. But what is for sure is that if Swede could have come up with the play, the 4th inning would have been over with no runs scored and the game still tied at one apiece.

With runners now on at 1st and 2nd base and two out, Ivy Wingo lines a single (1B) into right field scoring Kopf and sending Neale to 3rd. When RF John "Shano" Collins' throw to the plate trying to nail Kopf was too high for Chick Gandil to cut off, Wingo takes 2nd base.

This brings up the Reds pitcher Dutch Ruether, with runners on 2nd and 3rd base. Still with two out, Dutch smashes a vicious liner up the gap in left center field scoring Neale and Wingo. Ruether making it into 3rd base with a stand-up two run triple (3B), giving the Reds a 3-0 lead.

With three runs already in, Morrie Rath next doubles (2B) over 3B Buck Weaver's head down the left-field line, for an RBI scoring Ruether. The Reds now hold a 4-0 advantage.

Jake Daubert then sends Cicotte's next pitch into right field (1B), scoring Rath with the fifth run of the inning. Daubert also taking 2nd base on yet another RF Shano Collins throw to the plate that allowed a runner to move up into scoring position. Right-hander Roy Wilkenson (1-1 2.05) then comes into the game replacing Cicotte, as his day ended in a loud Cincinnati applause. For the record, Wilkenson got Heinie Groh to fly out to Happy Felsch (F-7), to finally end the frame. All five of the Cincinnati runs scored with two outs.

Cicotte's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

2/3 6 5 5 0 0 0 0 0

Total 3 2/3 7 6 6 2 1 1 0 0

After retiring 3rd baseman Heinie Groh to end the disastrous 4th inning, Roy Wilkenson worked the next three innings, giving up two runs (one earned); with the Reds taking an 8-1 lead. White Sox fielding plays of note with Roy Wilkenson pitching-Swede Risberg made a great stop on Larry Kopf's grounder (6-3), to end the bottom of the 5th inning. In the 6th, Swede snatched Morrie Rath's liner and turned it in to an inning ending double play (DP L-6-4), catching Greasy Neale sleep walking off the bag. In the 7th, Chick Gandil made a huge error when he dropped Buck Weaver's throw, on a sacrifice bunt by Edd Roush (SAC, E-3), allowing Heinie Groh to take 3rd base. Groh scored making the score 7-1, when Risberg and Eddie Collins couldn't turn a double play (FC 6-4). Still with only one out, Swede and Collins then turned a double play (DP 6-4-3), to end the 7th inning.

Wilkenson's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

3 1/3 5 2 1 0 1 0 0 1

Right-hander Grover Lowdermilk (5-5 2.78) then came in to mop-up the 8th, giving up the 9th and final run, to make the final score 9-1. White Sox fielding plays of note with Grover Lowdermilk pitching- None.

Lowdermilk's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

1 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0

WP-Ruether (1-0) LP- Cicotte (0-1)

Game One Summary

No doubt he bagged it.

Being the opening day starting pitcher of the World Series is something every pitcher dreams of; and Eddie Cicotte was no exception. Unfortunately for Knuckles, when he hit Morrie Rath with the second pitch of the game, he set in motion a set of circumstances that would lead to the downfall of seven other ball players, all of their own doing with the exception of one player (Weaver). The Cincinnati Reds jumped out to a 1-0 lead after one inning, and they would not get another hit until the dreadful 4th inning. The next eight batters would seal the fate of the Chicago White Sox and the career of one Edward Victor Cicotte.

But it could have been a whole lot different. If Cicotte had been a little quicker getting the ball to Swede Risberg (or Risberg a little faster on the pivot) on Larry Kopf's sacrifice bunt, the 4th inning might have ended in a 1-6-3 double play. Instead Kopf was safely on at 1st base as the inning continued. The very next batter, Greasy Neale hit a ball up the middle that Swede probably should have made the play on, instead going for an infield single. That too would have ended the 4th still tied 1-1. After that the inning went right down the drain. Ivy Wingo singled in Kopf from 2nd base, Shano Collins poor throw to the plate allowing Wingo to go to 2nd base. Dutch Ruether, who was a decent hitter, then cracked a two run triple. Morrie Rath also lined an RBI double to left, and Jake Daubert brought in Rath with a single to right, ending Eddie's afternoon.

Down 6-1, the White Sox would not recover. By all accounts Cicotte was pitching so much differently in the 4th inning than the first three. Eddie was paid $10,000 the night before and he certainly earned his money in the 4th. Swede Risberg didn't disappoint his benefactors in the 4th either. But Like Joe Garagiola said, "Baseball is a funny game," and after game one there were six other White Sox players laughing like hyenas. I would bet my life though, that Buck Weaver was not laughing. Not even a giggle.

Game Four

Chicago, Ill

October 4th, 1919 Comiskey Park

Top 1st inning

By the time the fourth game of the 1919 World Series rolled around, Chicago find themselves only down two games to one, after the Sox Dickie Kerr's three hit shut-out win (3-0) yesterday. Eddie Cicotte is sent back out to the hill today to redeem himself, after he got pounded in the Series opener. Cincinnati counters with Jimmy Ring (10-9 2.26), a 6' 1" right hander. Ring will try and give the Reds a three games to one lead in the best of nine Series. Cincinnati's Morrie Rath leads off the game before 34,636 mostly Chicago fans with a sharp single (1B), to left-field. After losing game one with a monumental beating in only 3 2/3 innings of work, word was out that Ed's arm was shot. But was it?

Cicotte comes right back by getting Jake Daubert to ground to 2B Eddie Collins, who flips the ball to SS Swede Risberg forcing Rath at second, then throwing to 1B Chick Gandil for a very welcomed (and rare) double play (DP 4-6-3).

Knuckles next gets the hard hitting Heinie Groh to pop-up to SS Risberg (F-6), for the final out of the 1st frame. A very different Eddie Cicotte is on the mound today for Chicago.

Cicotte's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Top of the 2nd

National League batting champion Edd Roush steps into the batter's box to face Cicotte, leading off the top of the 2nd inning with the score still tied 0-0. Roush lifts a soft fly ball out to left, which LF Shoeless Joe grabs (F-7) for the first out of the inning.

Next up for the Reds is Pat Duncan, who hits a short fly into right, which "Cocky" 2B Eddie Collins races back on, making a fine catch (F-4) for out number two.

Cicotte dispels all rumors that his arm is shot by striking-out Larry Kopf swinging (K), ending an extremely quick 2nd inning. Eddie is pitching right now like a man on a mission.

Cicotte's Pitching Line

INN H R ER BB K HBP WP E

1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Total 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Top 3rd inning

Locked in a 0-0 early pitcher dual, Cincinnati's Greasy Neale starts off the bottom of the 3rd inning by grounding out to Buck Weaver at 3rd base (5-3).

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Sorry Kid, I Don't Much Feel Like Playing Todayby Kelly D. Cleaver Sr. Copyright © 2011 by Kelly D. Cleaver Sr.. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.