Deposition hints that Cubs threw 1918 Series

Another parallel could be to college football in the 1980s -- everything was crooked but reformed (somewhat) when they brought out the death penalty for SMU/Black Sox.

 

There was also a game-fixing scandal involving Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb when both were player-managers late in their careers (Speaker with Cleveland and Cobb with Detroit). Former Tigers pitcher Dutch Leonard wrote to Detroit owner Frank Navin, and later American League president Ban Johnson, in 1926 and accused Speaker and Cobb of fixing a 1919 game.

They were never formally disciplined by the league, but both resigned from their managerial jobs. Cobb had been with the Tigers for 22 years, but finished his career with two years in Philadelphia. Speaker left the Indians and played a year in Washington and a year as Cobb's teammate with the Athletics.

Neither ever managed again, and I don't think that's a coincidence.

 

Yeah, Chase was a pretty bad offender. The best Yankee until Ruth came along, he was run out of New York when the team got sick of his less-than-honest play. He kept it up with the Reds in 1918 and his manager, Christy Mathewson, suspended him for the rest of the year. In part because of his dealing with Chase, Hugh Fullerton consulted with Mathewson over who may or may not be in on the fix during the 1919 series.

 

Chase was also the guy who hooked up Bill Burns and Billy Maharg with Arnold Rothstein --- or at least Rothstein's bag man, former boxer Abe Attell --- to get the money to pay off Cicotte before the 1919 World Series.

Burns and Maharg were both former big-leaguers-turned-gamblers, but had no contacts in New York, which is why they went to Chase, who had played there. (Burns and Maharg were portrayed by Christopher Lloyd and Richard Edson in the "Eight Men Out" film).

 

It could be argued the Cubs have thrown the last 66 seasons as well.

 

To call Maharg a former big-leaguer is to use that term extremely loosely. He was one of the scab Tigers who played the one game against the A's in 1912 after the team went on strike to protest the suspension of Ty Cobb, who had beaten up a crippled heckler in the stands. Maharg also was a "trainer" (which could mean anything back then) with the 1916 Phillies, who let him into one meaningless game in September for a couple of innings (roster rules weren't as strict back then. Heck, if umpires weren't available, players would sub in).

One of the sad things about it is, Chase was actually a tremendous player, when he was trying to win. If they had All-Star Game back then, he would have been a perennial player. At the end of his life, although he wouldn't admit to anything specific, Chase, who was impoverished, admitted that he had made a lot of mistakes.

 

Based on a lot of stuff I've read, Chase was universally regarded as the greatest fielding first basemen of his time.

 

James had quite an extensive analysis of this in the first Historical Abstract and found little statistical evidence to support this -- Chase's fielding stats were middle-of-the pack.

(My guess is Chase was the 1910s equivalent of Derek Jeter -- makes a couple spectacular diving plays everybody remembers, then they forget the 50 easy ground balls that dribble through the infield one step past his glove.)

James also concluded Chase was probably the most crooked player who ever lived -- there was evidence he was dumping games for years. (If you think about it, a first baseman probably has as much ability to influence game outcomes as any player except the pitcher and catcher.)

As well as (noted by Snabler above), in addition to his own efforts to fix games he himself was playing in, Chase was a friendly guy who was always willing to introduce people, people like gamblers looking to fix games and players willing to fix them.




"Pleased to meet you; hope you guess my name. But, what's puzzling you, is the nature of my game."