Why is Baseball Fixed?

billhill999 said:

They have been playing this game for over 100 years now, if it was fixed, somebody albeit an umpire, player, owner, whatever would have said something along the way.

STFU, and go find another hobby, like dog fighting.

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sherwood said:

Yeah, and the CIA is following you around too. Be careful and say nothin to nobody.

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Fix Is In![/FONT]

Say it ain’t so, Joe.
Say it ain’t so!

Kid, I’m afraid it is.

The disbelieving query of a young fan and the response of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson outside the Chicago federal courthouse where Jackson was on trial with seven players and seven gamblers for fixing the 1919 World Series.


Wagering by gamblers on the outcome of baseball games is an activity as old as the professional game itself. The only blemish on the otherwise perfect record of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's first recognized all-professional team, was a tie with the Troy Haymakers in a game influenced by gamblers. Before the 20th century few players were implicated in gambling schemes. Throughout the dead-ball era, however, an alarming number of games were thrown for profit (or the prospect of profit) by on-field combatants. This practice reached its zenith during the 1919 World Series when eight members of the American League champion Chicago White Sox intentionally dumped games against the Cincinnati Reds. A shocked public discovered that its National Game and celebrated heroes were, like the politics and business of the era, susceptible to bribery and corruption. Although exonerated by the courts, the eight "Black Sox" were banished for life from professional baseball by Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's first commissioner, appointed in 1920 by team owners to "clean up" the game.

Surrounding Landis are some of the era's most notorious performers, men who were either involved directly in the Black Sox scandal of 1919 or who knowingly engineered of took part in other fixed games. Hal Chase,

baseball's black prince, was the most corrupt player of all time, engineering and profiting from an abundance of crooked games. Although a fine-fielding first baseman and a legitimate star during his career (1905-1919), Chase confounded his managers and teammates with his ability to play "just hard enough" to conceal timely on-field mistakes that determined a game's outcome. Chase's reputation was so well known that members of an opposing team would taunt, "Well, Hal, what are the odds today?" Amazingly, the teflon-coated Chase was never officially reprimanded or barred from play. He is rumored to have played a role in the 1919 World Series fix although his involvement was never proven.

Chick Gandil, first baseman for the White Sox, instigated the World Series fix by letting gambling friends know that the games could be thrown for a price. Although few of the conspirators actually received money for throwing games, Gandil apparently pocketed $35,000 and did not report to the team in 1920. Barred for life. Pitcher Eddie Cicotte baffled batters with an arsenal of trick pitches, winning over 200 games in his big league career. As the star hurler of the White Sox, he was among the first contacted by Gandil about the fix. Cicotte received $10,000 on the eve of the Series, but no more. When asked why he participated in the fix, Cicotte replied, "I did it for the wife and kiddies." Barred for life. Slugging outfielder Joe Jackson (.356 career average) claimed he tried his best throughout the Series despite knowledge of the plot. "Shoeless" Joe and Eddie Cicotte confessed to the fix and implicated the others. Barred for life. A movement to have Jackson re-instated and admitted into the Hall of Fame has gathered steam in recent years. Arnold Rothstein [I provide card], one of the most infamous big-time gamblers in American history, bankrolled the fix and profited handsomely. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's narrator remarks of the fictionalized Rothstein, "It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people." Rothstein was later shot to death during a card game.

Former boxer Abe Attell [one of RBR's boxing cards] acted as Rothstein's primary bag man. Attell escaped clean from the fix, becoming a minor celebrity at sporting establishments like Toots Shor's restaurant in later years. "Sleepy" Bill Burns, a crap-shooting, card-playing journeyman pitcher (1908-1912), learned of the fix while in Cinicnnati selling oil stock. He cleaned up on the first two games of the series, but lost it all when little Dickie Kerr, one of the "Clean Sox," won game three. Heinie Zimmerman, the anointed "goat" of the 1917 World Series between the Giants and White Sox, was barred for life by Landis after he and Hal Chase attempted to induce teammates to throw the final game of 1919. Pitcher Jean Dubuc was barred for life for his failure to report Zimmerman and Chase's scheme. [/FONT]



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It's easy. Just a slight hesitation on the player's part will let a man get to base or make a run. I did it by not putting a thing on the ball....[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A baby could have hit 'em....[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]...I've lived a thousand years in the last twelve months. I would not have done that thing for a million dollars. Now I have lost everything....[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I'm through with baseball. I'm going to lose myself if I can and start life over again.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Indicted Chicago White Sox player, Eddie Cicotte's testimony before the grand jury investigating the fixing of the 1919 World Series. [/FONT]
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Loren78 said:

In baseball it is Post Season that has been fixed in the past(04 Red Sox) (1919 White Sox) (88 Dodgers)
(86 Mets) etc etc...

Regular Season is tainted to a certain degree...I'd estimate only about 30 pecent of the games are rigged...-300 type games where the favourite is a big public team...Season is too long to rig so many games...same with the NBA...they fix the Totals on a regular basis but the sides are a small percentage of the fixes....Season is just too long for that kinda thing..

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