1919 Black Sox

Post-Dispatch archives: Flood deserved to be honored

The big scoreboard in center field at Busch Stadium kept rolling the slow-motion highlights of so many past and present Cardinals heroes.

It was the sixth inning of Tuesday night's MLB All-Star Game, and the red sea of Cardinal Nation stood and cheered as all those old stars came alive on the video screen, traveling from one decade to the next in a dizzy blur.

As baseball parties go, this was the perfect final touch for this Cardinal-centric All-Star celebration. But even the best parties have a few surprising no-shows and disappointing omissions, and this video tribute only highlighted the fact that one of the most historic names in St. Louis baseball history was neither present nor accounted for.

And no it wasn't the defrocked home run king Mark McGwire, who remains in self-imposed exile, far away from those inquiring investigative eyes. Big Mac was out of sight and out of mind by choice and necessity. No, the man whose presence was missing - and most surely needed - from the All-Star party was the late Curt Flood.

Mention Flood's name around the All-Star clubhouses, and the reactions are mixed with touches of vague recognition.

"He was the first (baseball) free agent, right?" asked a smiling Mark Teixeira with a hint of uncertainty.

"He's a guy who helped us get to where we are today," said a more serious Ryan Howard. "I am kind of young, so my knowledge of him is really from my parents who told me all about him and what he did."

Baseball tried so hard to get it right this weekend and for the most part it did.

All the right touches were there. The All-Star party was off to an impressive start with the warm embrace of Albert Pujols and Howard during Monday's Home Run Derby, and the red-carpet parade through the heart of downtown on Tuesday afternoon, then the emotional sight of Stan the Man rolling in from right field during the pregame festivities.

They brought back all the living Cardinals Hall of Famers to stand at home plate and greet President Obama. But for all of the legendary figures in baseball who were honored during this splendid stretch of baseball nostalgia, perhaps the most significant figure in modern baseball once again was ignored.

Nearly 40 years ago, the former three-time All-Star outfielder shook up the baseball establishment by the simple act of refusing to recognize the Cardinals' right to trade him without his consent.

A few months later, he filed a federal lawsuit to challenge baseball's reserve clause, appealing it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Flood ultimately lost the case, ruined his career and destroyed his personal life, but his courageous sacrifice led to an eventual upheaval of baseball's indentured servitude, and five years later there was free agency.

1919 Black Sox Scandal. Can you explain how it worked?

: William Thomas "Sleepy Bill" Burns and Billy Maharg. Burns was an ex-major league pitcher and was the connection to the players. Maharg was the gambler with the connections underground. With big money and even bigger dreams, those two men approached two of the White Sox players, Pitcher Ed Cicotte and First Baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil, about fixing the Series.

The players realized it would take more than just two of them to ensure a proper fix, and, after speaking to a few of their teammates, added six more to their rank: Pitcher Lefty Williams, Centerfielder Happy Felsch, Shortstop Swede Risberg, Thirdbaseman Buck Weaver, Utilityman Fred McMullin, and one of the best and most popular stars ever, Leftfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. In order to pay off eight men, however, Burns and Maharg would need to come up with some more cash, and fast. They hit up "The Big Bankroll" Arnold Rothstein for a much needed loan, along with about half a dozen others. In the end, the gamblers bet nearly half a million dollars on the Reds, while agreeing to pay the players $100,000 to split.

Baseball players salaries were modest in those days — even for the times — so, split up, each player was going to take home years’ worth of pay. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to pad their wallets. Money talks; they listened and were convinced. And so what if it was illegal? No one would ever find out.

More at :http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/blacksox.htm

You can Google this but the Black Sox worked with a gangster to throw the world series to get more money.The owner of the sox would not pay his players enough money so the team decided to throw the games for I believe 10 grand.Out of all the players Shoeless Joe Jackson was the only one who didn’t participate in this.But being he was part of the team who did he was not elected to the Hall of Fame.

To elaborate on one point of Yaw’s excellent answer, Ed Cicotte was a key man in the drama. He was a likely HOF type, alledged to have invented the knuckler, and a fabulous pitcher. His contract that year called for a huge (by the standards of the day) bonus if he won 30. The owner, Chas Comiskey was probably the cheapest man in the history of baseball, and when Cicotte got too close, he instructed his manager to shut him down for the rest of the season to avoid the bonus. The animosity that Cicotte and the whole team felt for Comiskey opened the door for the payoff and led to the confusion exhibited by investigators, jurors, and fans when it came to identifying those that had actively participated in the scheme, and those that had merely turned a blind eye to what was going on out of sympathy with Cicotte.

Eight Men Out, The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

The Chicago Black Sox trial, a primary source account

Burying the Black Sox, how baseball's cover-up of the 1919 World Series fix almost succeeded

Blackball, the Black Sox, and the Babe, baseball's crucial 1920 season

The Fix Is in, A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals