9/11 and the 1919 Chicago Black Sox World Series Conspiracy

[Galileo]

9/11 and the 1919 Chicago Black Sox World Series Conspiracy

By Rolf Lindgren and Dr. Kevin Barrett

To many, a large conspiracy involving unthinkable actions cannot happen. And if it could, the people involved would never get away with it, especially if they seem too incompetent to pull it off. But the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal is proof that this is not true.

In 1919, the World Series was the pre-eminent sporting event in the United States and baseball was America’s national pastime. It had produced legends like Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson, with Babe Ruth just getting started. Only professional boxing, horseracing, college football, and the Olympics, provided any compe ion at all to baseball’s dominance in the sporting world. And the 1919 Chicago White Sox, champions of the American League, were viewed as a superteam, almost invincible, and certain to beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The White Sox had won the World Series in 1917 and 1918 was a war year. Now, in 1919 the mighty White Sox had the legendary outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson, with a career .356 batting average. The White Sox led the league in batting average and runs scored. They had Hall-of-Famers at second base (Eddie Collins) and catcher (Ray Schalk). For star pitchers, they had Eddie Cicotte with a 29-7 win/loss record, Lefty Williams who went 23-11, and Hall-of-Famer Red Faber as well. Even the team’s owner, Charlie “Commie” Comiskey, is in the Hall of Fame. They had above average players at all positions, including Buck Weaver at third base, a man who belongs in the baseball Hall of Fame, but isn’t, because he was smeared by this scandal.

Given all this, it was unthinkable that the White Sox would throw the Series to gamblers, but they did. Exactly three weeks before the Series began, first baseman Chick Gandil began his plan.

Gandil’s conspiracy was simple. He met with gambler Sport Sullivan and agreed that the White Sox would throw the Series for $80,000, with it all paid before the first game. Gandil eventually got $80,000 and it was paid to the players in the conspiracy. No one was caught in the act, the Series was lost intentionally, the players collected their World Series purses, gamblers made lots of money, and the players played the following season. Then, when eight players were indicted, all were acquitted at trial. No gamblers were ever charged.

Sounds pretty smooth, but this conspiracy proves that even a poorly organized, botched conspiracy can succeed. The first problem was that when Gandil met Sullivan, he didn’t have any players lined up to be in his conspiracy! The second problem was that Sullivan didn’t have $80,000! But the conspiracy went forward. Besides the fact that gambling itself is illegal, we will now do ent all the conspiracy leaks, screw-ups, su ious actions, and red flags that intuition might make you think would have exposed the conspiracy, either before it started or at least in the act. Once you understand this, you’ll have an easier time understanding why the perpetrators of 9/11 have not been caught yet.

Pre-Series Leaks, Screw-ups, Su ious Actions, and Red Flags

1) Shortstop Swede Risberg, who had been recruited into the conspiracy, and Chick Gandil were talking about the World Series fix right in the White Sox locker room, and were overheard by backup utility infielder Fred McMullin. Luckily (for them), McMullin joined the conspiracy. But since McMullin didn’t play much, he was not needed in the conspiracy, and the more people involved, the greater the security risk.

2) On September 21, ten days before the Series started, Gandil held a meeting in a hotel room with the seven other players recruited into the conspiracy. The problem was, one player at that meeting, Buck Weaver, never participated in the conspiracy, just attended a couple meetings, and so became an obvious security risk. Another player, Jackson, was illiterate, basically a manipulated dupe, who never threw any games. Jackson signed his name with an “X”. The eight players at the meeting were Gandil, Cicotte, Risberg, McMullin, Williams, Weaver, Jackson, and centerfielder Happy Felsh (note - Wikipedia claims Jackson was not present). Each player would get $10,000. It was remarked that the players left the hotel in small groups, rather than together--the only security precaution ever taken by the players during the entire conspiracy!

3) Gambler Sleepy Bill Burns, not associated with Sullivan, heard rumors that the Series was fixed and approached Eddie Cicotte, who admitted that there was a conspiracy. Cicotte said the money had not materialized. Burns then said he could come up with the money instead, to fund the conspiracy. Burns then told his gambling associate Billy Maharg about the plot, thereby increasing its size. Neither Burns nor Maharg had much money, so their attempts to raise it from other gamblers were serious security risks. Now two different gambling groups were involved in the conspiracy at the same time! Sullivan was also trying to raise the money, so he was also a security risk.

4) After Cicotte told Gandil about Burns, Gandil told Burns he would throw the Series for $100,000 -- an obvious case of double-dealing!

5) Burns and Maharg finally set up a connection with another gambler Abe “Little Champ” Attell, who was an associate of another gambler Arnold Rothstein. Rothstein was the one gambler in the operation who had substantial money. The problem for the conspiracy was this; Gandil, who represented the players, had to work with Burns, Burns worked with Maharg, Burns & Maharg worked with Attell, and Attell worked with Rothstein, a very complicated situation!

6) Rothstein, when first approached by Attell with the plan, didn’t think it would work, said he wasn’t interested, and wouldn’t provide money. So when Burns got word of that, he contacted still another gambler, National League baseball player Hal Chase. By the time he was approached by Burns, Chase had already heard rumors that the Series was fixed!

7) Attell then did his own double-deal. Three days before the Series began, he went to Burns, and told him that Rothstein had changed his mind. Attell said he represented Rothstein and would get Burns the $100,000. Burns then told Gandil everything was set, and Gandil told the players everything was set. Of course, nothing was set.

8) Sullivan, meanwhile and independently, also contacted Rothstein about the plot. Rothstein decided to enter the conspiracy, backstab Attell, and work with Sullivan instead. Rothstein had another of his associates, Nat Evans, using the name “Brown”, meet Sullivan.

9) Despite the money not coming through, $10,000 for each player, Jackson then demanded that he be paid $20,000. Gandil agreed, even though he didn’t have the money.

10) Rothstein finally agreed to forward Sullivan $40,000 before the Series and $40,000 after the Series if the White Sox lost. Rothstein gave “Brown” $40,000 to give to Sullivan. Rothstein then placed bets on the Cincinnati Reds for a total of $270,000, with individual bets as large as $90,000.

11) Chicago newsman Jack Lingle gave Gandil a jingle and told him “The word is out the Series in the bag!”

12) “Brown” gave Sullivan the $40,000, but Sullivan kept $30,000 for himself to gamble with, and only gave $10,000 to Gandil! Furious, Gandil had to give all $10,000 to Cicotte because he was the starting pitcher for game one of the Series. The original deal called for $80,000 before the Series started. Gandil and Sullivan got into an argument about double-dealing and bad faith. No agreement had been made for which order the games would be lost.

13) In an obvious similarity to the 9/11 put options and foreknowledge, the Series odds opened at 8-5 with the White Sox favored. But by the time the Series started the odds were even or in some cases favoring the Reds! The change in odds also cut into the gamblers profits.

So up to this point, two days before the Series had even started, we have eight players, at least seven gamblers, and at least one newsman either involved in, or with direct knowledge, of the conspiracy. And that’s just the beginning!

Leaks, Screw-ups, Su ious Actions, and Red Flags on the Day Before the World Series Started

1) A businessman-gambler named David Zelser heard rumors about the Series and approached Attell. Attell, needing cash, cut him into the deal, further expanding the conspiracy again. Zelser agreed to be called “Bennett”.

2) Attell told another gambler, George M. Cohan, that the Series was fixed, after Cohan bet $30,000 on the White Sox. Cohan then told his partner Sam Harris.

3) Attell approached still another gambler, Monte Tennes, with the same double-dealing baloney that he had used with Burns and Maharg. He told Tennes the Series was fixed and he was backed by Rothstein money.

4) The New York Times reported that there was a huge swing in the Series gambling odds.

5) Gandil had to contact yet another unknown gambler to get his bets down in favor of the Reds, adding yet more risk to the conspiracy.

6) Right in Eddie Cicotte’s hotel room, seven White Sox players (excluding Jackson), met with Burns, Maharg, Attell, and “Bennett”. Attell told the players he had $100,000 from Rothstein (a lie). He told them he was instructed to give them $20,000 after each loss for a total of $100,000 (another lie). The World Series in that year was a best-of-nine, so you had to lose five games to lose the Series.

7) In the meeting, it was agreed the White Sox would lose games one and two, since Cicotte and Williams were the starting pitchers those games. They also agreed to lose game three because rookie pitcher ey Kerr was starting. They didn’t like Kerr because he was a “busher”. They agreed to win game four for Cicotte, instead.

8) Gandil, after the meeting, went into a Cincinnati cigar store (the first game of the Series was in Cincinnati). The anonymous man at the counter said to Gandil “Well, this is gonna be one lousy Series…” Gandil said “Whattaya mean by that?” The man said “I hear Chicago is gonna throw it!”

9) At 11:30 P.M. the night before the Series started, Gandil’s hotel room telephone rang. A voice in a threatening tone said, “Just make sure everything goes according to plan, that’s all!” Click.

10) Nationally known sportswriter Hugh Fullerton of the Chicago Herald and Examiner heard gambling and conspiracy rumors. He had written a series of nationally syndicated articles analyzing the World Series, comparing the teams position by position, and concluded that the White Sox were much superior to the Reds and would easily defeat them. He ran into Burns at the hotel the White Sox were staying at and invited him for a drink. Fullerton asked Burns how he was betting. Burns said he was sinking all of his money on the Reds and then added “Get wise, Hughie, and do the same!”

11) Fullerton then met with Hall-of-Famer Christie Mathewson, former manager of the Reds, and one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history (Mathewson won 373 games and threw three shutouts in the 1905 World Series). After discussing all they knew, Mathewson said National League President John Heydler had whitewashed gambling investigations before, including an instance where Mathewson had caught Hal Chase red-handed.

12) Fullerton sent a wire to every major newspaper in the United States that said “Advise all not to bet on this Series. Ugly rumors afloat.”

13) Fullerton and Mathewson agreed to sit together and watch every game of the Series. They would circle every play that seemed su ious.

14) Nationally known newsman Ring Lardner from the Chicago Tribune told Fullerton and Mathewson he saw Reds game one pitcher Dutch Reuther getting wasted. Fullerton called Reds manager Pat Moran. Moran told him there was a plot by gamblers to get the Reds pitchers drunk. So we now have the insane situation that contradictory conspiracies were going on at the same time!

Given how ridiculous things were, professional baseball should have launched an investigation at once.

Leaks, Screw-ups, Su ious Actions, and Red Flags on the Day the World Series Started

1) White Sox owner Charlie Comiskey heard the gambling and conspiracy rumors. He claimed he didn’t believe them, so he did nothing. White Sox manager Kid Gleason heard them as well. He claimed he didn’t believe them and did nothing.

2) Just before the game started, Lardner told Kid Gleason “Just came to wish you good luck, Kid. That’s all.” According to Gleason, Lardner’s tone was funeral.

3) Just as the game was about to start, Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball told coach Gleason “I don’t wanna play!”

By the time the actual World Series began, this was one of the most ludicrous conspiracies in recorded history!

OCTOBER 1, 1919, THE WORLD SERIES BEGINS

The compromising events and actions multiplied as the Series started. The White Sox lost game one of the Series 9-1. They also lost games two, four, five, and eight, and lost the World Series five games to three to the Cincinnati Reds. The White Sox had to play baseball to lose and fool fiery, eagle-eyed catcher Ray Schalk. They had to fool the rest of their own innocent teammates, their coaches and managers, the other team and their coaches, the umpires, the team owners, a skeptical press, and the fans, all in broad daylight (WTC 7 was blown up in broad daylight). There were many red flags. While Williams was pitching in game two, an airplane flew over the stadium and threw out what looked like a body, with its arms and legs flailing as it plunged into the outfield. It turned out to be a dummy. The White Sox screwed up and won game three, even though they were supposed to lose it, and some gamblers in the plot lost their shirt, including Burns and Maharg. They lost game four, which they were supposed to win, another screw-up. They won game seven, a presumed loss, since Cicotte was starting. And Lefty Williams, the starting pitcher for game eight, received threats to kill his wife, if he didn’t lose. Williams gave up 4 runs in the first inning, and the White Sox lost clinching game eight 10-5. Williams finished the Series with a pathetic win/loss record of 0-3, while Cicotte was 1-2 and two errors. During the season, Cicotte and Williams had a combined record of 52-18. In the Series, they were 1-5. Rookie pitcher ie Kerr was 2-0.

Swede Risberg batted a pathetic 2 for 25, a batting average of only .080, with four errors. Happy Felsh hit only .192, with two errors, and Chick Gandil hit only .233, with one error. Jackson hit .375 and Weaver hit .324, neither making an error. Jackson also hit the only home run in the entire eight-game Series. Jackson and Weaver did not participate in the conspiracy.

Officially, as far as the White Sox were concerned, as far as the American League was concerned, and as far as professional baseball was concerned, there was no conspiracy in the World Series, and no real investigation was done.

If matters had stood that way, the official story today would be that the 1919 World Series was legit, just an upset, only marred by “conspiracy theories”. In this sense, the Black Sox conspiracy is no different than 9/11. Both showed overwhelming cir stantial evidence of conspiracy that only needed to be investigated and officially do ented. The principle here is that anyone, no matter how idiotic, can get away with a conspiracy when not investigated.

But at the conclusion of the 1920 season, eight players were indicted by the feds (no gamblers). A lot of evidence was officially presented. Although the players involved were acquitted at trial, it is the unanimous conclusion of history that six players and many gamblers did participate in a huge conspiracy, an unspeakable conspiracy to anyone involved in the sports world.

During a dramatic episode, when Shoeless Joe Jackson was leaving the courthouse, a small boy clutched his sleeve. The boy said, “Say it ain’t so, Joe, say it ain’t so.” Jackson replied, “Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is.” The boy responded, “Well, I never would have thought it.”

In hindsight, the players deserve a modi of sympathy. They all claimed to be underpaid, and judging by the baseball standards of the time, they were. The average pay of the six crooked players was less than $4000 per season.

That’s the one difference between the perpetrators of the Black Sox conspiracy and the 9/11 conspiracy; the 9/11 perpetrators do not deserve any sympathy. The 9/11 perpetrators say they want to secure a military empire and oil in the Middle East, but all they have sown is death, destruction, and higher gas prices.

Let history remind you:

When it looks like a conspiracy, walks like a conspiracy, and quacks like a conspiracy, it’s a conspiracy!

Aftermath:

After the trial, in an obvious PR move, eight White Sox players were kicked out of baseball, despite no real investigation. Even the innocent players were kicked out. Shoeless Joe Jackson was a dupe who, like Buck Weaver, should be in the Hall of Fame.

Alleged confessions, including one by Jackson (signed with an “X”), had “disappeared” during the trial. In 1924, they turned up in the office of Charlie Comiskey’s lawyer! This is proof that baseball and the feds worked to cover up the conspiracy rather than expose it. This “investigation” was no better than the 9/11 Omission “investigation”.

Arnold Rothstein, who made several hundred thousand dollars on the Series, was murdered by a gambler in 1928. He named the murderer on his deathbed, but the murderer was never prosecuted. Rothstein said that anything could be fixed, from checkers to World Wars. When asked why he decided to join the conspiracy, even after it had been compromised, Rothstein quipped, “If nine guys go to bed with a girl, she’ll have a tough time proving the tenth is the father!”

Chick Gandil lived to the ripe old age of 82 when he died in 1970. Gandil made $35,000 on the Series directly from the gamblers, plus whatever he made on his own bets. He eventually collected a total of $80,000, $70K from Sullivan and $10K from Attell. After he gave $10K to Cicotte, Williams, Risberg, and Felsh, and $5K to McMullin, he still had $35K for himself. Weaver and Jackson received nothing because they didn’t throw any games (Wikipedia claims Jackson received $5K).

The last surviving player from the 1919 World Series was Big Edd Roush. He lived until he was 94 years old and died in 1988. Roush was the only Hall of Fame player on the 1919 Reds.

The Future:

We will soon weigh in on the NBA refereeing and gambling conspiracy. Details here:

NBA is FIXED!
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98742

References:

The major source for this article is the book Eight Men Out; The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof, especially chapters I and II;
http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Men-Out-.../dp/0805065377

The book has also been made into a movie, with Charlie Sheen playing Happy Felsh, Studs Terkel playing Hugh Fullerton, and Michael Rooker playing Chick Gandil. Edd Roush visited the movie set shortly before his death (the movie does not follow the book exactly on details):

http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Men-Out-...ref=pd_sim_b_1

Wikipedia Version of the Black Sox Scandal
http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sox_Scandal

1919 Chicago White Sox Statistics
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CHW/1919.shtml

Rolf Lindgren is a 9/11 Truth Activist from Middleton, Wisconsin, and is a WTC 7 Expert. He works as a Loan Officer and holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was the Polling Director for the Michael Badnarik and Aaron Russo presidential campaigns in 2004, and is a long-time member of the Libertarian Party. Rolf is a defender of Galileo and James Madison.

Dr. Kevin Barrett is a candidate for Congress in Wisconsin's 3rd District running on a "peace and truth" platform. He has taught languages, literatures, and religious studies at several colleges and universities. For information suggesting that 9/11 was an even more elaborate and outrageous conspiracy than the Black Sox scandal, visit http://www.barrettforcongress.us

[Galileo]

UPDATE!

90 years later, experts still unraveling Black Sox mystery

USA TODAY

CHICAGO — While it may not generate the instant buzz of the latest Pete Rose speculation, baseball's ultimate gambling scandal has researchers and aficionados reinvigorated as it approaches its 90th anniversary.

Forty-six years after the publication of 8 Men Out, the Black Sox story continues its hold on history lovers as more details of the complex case are revealed in bits and pieces.

This week, a Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) committee on the Black Sox holds its first meeting at the organization's annual convention in Washington, D.C. The committee, which has about 95 members, was formed last fall in anticipation of this year's opening of newly revealed do ents in the case at the Chicago History Museum.

THE REST:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...BlackSox_N.htm

[scottspurs]

Shoeless Joe Jackson was a great player tainted by this.