Infamous America - BLACK SOX Ep. 4 | "The Fix"

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

The World Series plays out as rumors of a conspiracy run wild through the inner circles of baseball. Suspicion rises. Tension builds in the White Sox clubhouse. The gamblers double cross the players. The players double cross the gamblers. In the end, no one wins. Special thanks to the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee for assistance in this production. For more details, visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Social media: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy Maharg were broke. They were busted. They were wiped out. They'd worked like crazy to find the money to pay a group of White Sox players to lose the World Series, but now it had all backfired. And the worst part was, the teams had only played three games. Just one third of the way through the series, the fix was unraveling, the players were furious, and both sides felt double-crossed.

With all the animosity and backstabbing, there was no way to predict what would happen next. What happened next, and what happened in the first three games, would be analyzed and scrutinized for the next 100 years. Even then, the only thing everyone could agree on was, it was a crazy series. My relentless sleep problems have always come from an overactive mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another,

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to get 20% off your first order. And they have a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. Mood.com promo code infamous. From BlackBarrel Media, this is season two of the infamination America podcast. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of one of the most

infamous events in Major League Baseball history, the Black Sox scandal. Previously on the show, the Chicago White Sox won the American League pennant and earned a birth in the 1919 World Series. But a group of players on the team spent much of the final month of the season conspiring with gamblers. On the eve of the series, those players agreed to lose the upcoming. Fall Classic. The price tag was $100,000. This week, the players make good on their promise. It's finally here, the 1919 World Series. This is Chapter 4, The Fix. Of all the people who waited anxiously for game one of the 1919 World Series to begin, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Kamisky might have been the most nervous. A week before the series, his team,

team had been the favorite to win. But sometime before game one, Charlie Kamiski heard disturbing rumors that his team was going to lose the World Series. The fix was in. At the moment, Kimisky did nothing. He settled into his seat to watch the game. He had no way of knowing if the rumors were true, so he waited and watched. Then Eddie Seacott, who was normally a master of control, hit the first Cincinnati batter with a pitch, and Kamiskyy Kempisky. He's heart must have skipped a beat. It was an ominous sign. Game 1, October 1st, Redland Field in Cincinnati.

Attendance, 30,511. In the bottom of the first inning, Chicago pitcher Eddie Seacott hit Cincinnati's second baseman Mori Rath with the second pitch, and that pitch has been one of the most debated moments in World Series history. Some people believe it was a signal to the gamblers that the socks were going to go through through with the fix. But even if it wasn't a signal, it was still out of character for Eddie, and it was a suspicious beginning to the series. Two batters later, the Reds drove Mori Wrath home for the game's first run. At the end of the inning, the Reds led one to nothing.

The White Sox struck back in the second inning, thanks to three men who were supposedly in on the fix. Shulis Joe reached second base on an error and then a bad throw. Happy four. Felsch and Chick Gandal moved him around the bases and ultimately sent him home to tie the game one-to-one. The game remained tied through the third inning, but then the fourth inning happened. It was a dagger for Chicago, and it must have looked good to the gamblers. The White Sox secured the first out of the inning easily. Then Cincinnati hit a single to get a runner on first base. The next batter hit a grounder into the infield.

Eddie Seacott grabbed the ball and threw it to Swede Risberg at second base. Swig tagged the bag for a force out and then tried to turn a double play, but it failed. This was the second big controversy of the series. Some people said Eddie hesitated before he threw the ball to Swede, and others noted that Swede stumbled over the bag at second while trying to throw the ball to first. It could have been an easy double play in the end of the inning. But instead, the Reds had a man on first with two outs, and now the shelling began. The Reds hit back-to-back singles that scored a run.

Now the score was 2 to 1, with two men on base. Then the last man in Cincinnati's batting order, the pitcher, Dutch Ruther, stepped to the plate. He belted a triple to deep left-center field that scored two more runs. Now the score was 4 to 1 with a man on third base. This is the moment in the movie Eight Men Out when John Cusack playing Buck Weaver at third screams at Eddie Seacott, played by David Stratherin, saying, Eddie, he's the goddamn pitcher.

Now, Mori Rath, the lead-off hitter, was back at the plate. He promptly smacked a double, and the score rose to 5 to 1. The Reds hit another single, which drove Mori Rath home to make the scored 6 to 1. And that was the end of the day for Eddie Seacott. In the middle of the fourth inning, Chicago manager Kid Gleason yanked him out and put in Roy Wilkinson.

Wilkinson gave up two more runs, and then his replacement, Grover Loudermilk, gave up the final run of the game. The White Sox lost 9 to 1. After the disastrous outcome in game 1, white Sox fans likely drowned their sorrows in saloons all over Chicago, a privilege that wouldn't last much longer, as you'll see in the next episode. At the same time, the White Sox players gathered in the Sinton Hotel in Cincinnati

to receive their first big payoff. They had lived up to their end of the deal. They had lost game one in spectacular fashion, and now they expected to be paid. The gambling faction led by Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy Mahargue, and backed by money from Abe Attell and David Zelser owed the players $20,000 for losing game one. When the players came to collect, they were stiffed. Attel and Zelser had placed lots of bets with whatever money they had,

but their profits were smaller than expected. Now, after Chicago's loss in game one, the odds had shifted in favor of Cincinnati. They now claimed they were worried about their cash flow, so they reneged on their promise to the players. They said the money was all out on bets. They would hopefully get it back after the next game. You can imagine the players were probably not happy,

but they still agreed to go through with the fix in game two when the promised payoff would theoretically be $40,000. And of course, that payoff didn't happen either. At this point, it's likely some of the players had received payoff money, but which players and how much were not entirely sure. and Chicago manager Kid Gleason reportedly confronted his team sometime between games one and two. He had almost certainly heard the worst kept secret in baseball, and he probably implored his players to stay on the straight and narrow.

Game two, Thursday, October 2nd, Redland Field in Cincinnati. Attendance, 29,698. For three innings, Chicago and Cincinnati were locked in a zero-zero-te. tie. Lefty Williams was on the mound for the White Sox, and like Eddie Seacott, Lefty was known for his control. So Chicago fans probably felt shell-shocked after the fourth inning when Lefty suddenly fell apart and appeared to hand the game to the Reds. Lefty walked two batters and then gave up a single that gave Cincinnati the lead one to nothing. Then he walked a third batter and allowed a triple, which put Cincinnati up three to nothing.

By the end of the fourth inning, Lefty Williams had walked four batters in the game and given up three runs. In the sixth inning, he walked another batter and gave up a fourth run. In the seventh, Chicago finally got on the board with two runs, but both were entirely due to throwing errors by the Reds. Chicago manager Kid Gleason took Lefty out of the game in the ninth inning, but the damage was done. The White Sox lost the game, four to two. In the clubhouse after the game, catcher Ray Shalk reportedly confronted Lefty about his terrible performance, and it may have turned physical. After consecutive debacles by the starting pitchers, Ray was probably furious.

Eddie and Lefty had repeatedly crossed him up on pitches, and now he knew something was very wrong. But if Ray took any action beyond confronting Lefty, we're not aware of it. The lone bright spot for the Sox in game two was that the hitting was actually pretty good. Joe Jackson went three for four with a double. Buck Weaver went two for four with a double, and Ray also went two for four. The Sox had plenty of hits, they just couldn't score.

They went 0 for seven with runners in scoring position, and all seven of those failures were by players involved in the fix. That night, several players met with Sleepy Bill Burns, who was essentially the middle man between the players and the money man of Abe Attell. The players were now owed $40,000 for losing the first two games, and Bill Burns had more bad news. He had only been able to wrangle $10,000 out of Abe Attell, 10,000 total.

Two games in a row, the players had been shortchanged by Burns and Attell. Tension in the clubhouse was already bad, and tempers were surely starting to rise, and suspicions were starting to grow. But even with all that, Chick Gandal still assured Bill Burns that Chicago would lose Game 3. But none of them counted on a 5'7 rookie pitcher.

He was about to ruin Bill Burns and throw the gamblers into a panic. Game 3, Friday, October 3rd, Kamisky Park in Chicago. Attendance, 29,000, 126. Game 3 was the first in the first in the first, White Sox home stadium of Kamisky Park, and after the embarrassing outings by Eddie Seacott and Lefty Williams, it was Dickie Kerr's turn to take the mound. Richard Dickie Kerr was a

diminutive left-hander, but Chicago manager Kid Gleason saw a spark in the youngster. Don't overlook that midget, he said. He's a wonder, a better pitcher, in fact, than I had figured. And now, Gleeson gave him the starting role in game three. But it's important to remember that this is probably the latest point at which Red Faber would have been scheduled to start a game. Red Faber was the pitching star of Chicago's 1917 World Series victory. He tied an all-time World Series record by winning three games that year. If he had been healthy in 1919, he might have started game one, which meant the burden of starting three games in the extended series would have fallen to him

instead of Eddie. And even if he hadn't started in game one, he would have been a very game. available as a solid reliever when Eddie and Lefty struggled. But Red wasn't healthy. He had contracted the influenza virus before the season and had been up and down all year. He didn't play a single second of the 1919 World Series. Catcher Ray Shalk maintained forever afterward

that the fix would not have been possible if Red had been healthy. As it was, Dickie Kerr took the mound and turned the fix upside down. But he sure didn't seem to do it alone. In the second inning, with the game tied zero-zero, Shulis Joe hit a single. Then Happy Felsch reached base on an error. Then Chick-Gandle hit a single that scored Jackson and Felsch.

Just like that, the socks were up two to nothing, thanks to three guys who were supposed to be trying to lose. Then catcher Ray Shulk laid down a sacrifice bunt that should have moved Gandal to third, but Gandal was thrown out in the most of the most of the first. suspicious play of the game. Some people argue he could have beat the throw if he'd given a better effort. In the fourth inning, Swede Risberg hit a triple and Shalk laid down a squeeze bunt that scored Risberg. The Sox took a three-to-nothing lead, and that was all they would

need, because Dickie Kerr was fantastic. He threw a complete game shutout and allowed just three hits and one walk. Now compare that to Eddie and Lefty in games one and two. Eddie, allowed seven hits, two walks, and six earned runs in game one. Lefty allowed four hits, six walks, and four earned runs in game two. In game three, Chicago finally looked like the team many people had bet on a week earlier, which was devastating to Bill Burns and Billy Mahargue. Billy Mahargue was now officially done with the 1919 World Series. Chick Gandal had assured he and Bill Burns that the socks would lose, so they bet all their remaining money on Cincinnati to win. Chicago's win cleaned them out. Billy boarded a train and went back to Philadelphia.

But Bill Burns, Abe Battell, and David Zelser were not done yet, despite the crippling setback. It looked like they had been double-crossed by the players, but they were still willing to resume the fix if they could get the players back on board. After game two, the players, the players, and the gamblers had a falling out. Now after game three, the gamblers tried to rally Midwest support for the fix to try to get everyone back on the same team. Attell and Zelser relied on a loose coalition that included Ben Franklin from Omaha, Ben and Lou Levi from Indianapolis, and Carl Zork from St. Louis. The problem is, as we sit here 100 years later, we still don't know exactly what they did, if anything. And even more mysterious,

than the actions taken or not taken by this group are the actions taken by Sport Sullivan and Nat Evans who represented Arnold Rothstein. We know they met with the players in Chicago before the series, and we believe Sullivan had between $80,000 and $100,000 with him. The money came from Arnold Rothstein, who had sent his business partner Nat Evans to supervise the deal. The players demanded $80,000 up front before the series began, but they didn't get it. Sullivan put nearly 30,000 down on bets, and he might have given the remainder to Chick Gandall to distribute to the players. If that happened, we don't know how much Gandall gave to his teammates.

Maybe he split it up evenly. Maybe he kept it all for himself and lied to his teammates about it. It seems certain that more money was given to the players than the three payoffs we know about for sure, but how much and who it came from and who received it are still uneasurable. answered questions. You've heard about two of these payments, $10,000 to Eddie Seacott before game one, and $10,000 to the group after game two. Now it's time to hear about the third, the one that ruined the careers of Lefty Williams

and shoeless Joe Jackson. Game 4, Saturday, October 4th, Comiskey Park in Chicago. Attendance, 34,363. Cincinnati led Chicago two. games to one as Eddie Seacott took the mound for the second time in the series. If you were a gambler, you probably didn't know what to expect by game four. The socks had looked bad in games one and two, but they had dominated in game three. So which Chicago team would show up in game four, the good or the bad? For the first four innings, it looked like the good,

and for the last four innings, it looked like the good. But in between was the fifth inning. After it was all over, people called it the fateful fifth. The score was tied zero to zero and Eddie had been solid. He had allowed just two little singles. The fifth seemed to start just like the other four. The socks made the first out easily, and it looked like they would make the second out easily as well, but then they didn't.

The second Cincinnati batter hit the ball right back to Eddie on the pitcher's mound, but Eddie bobbled it. Then he threw a wild ball toward Chick-Gan, at first base. Gandal couldn't field it cleanly, and the Cincinnati batter sprinted around first and made it to second. The next Cincinnati batter knocked a single into left field. Shulis Joe grabbed it off the grass and rifled it toward home plate to keep the guy on second from scoring. But Eddie Seacott tried to cut off the ball in mid-air. He reached up, but didn't catch it. The ball deflected off his glove and rolled away. The Red scored one more run and now had a man on second.

The next batter ripped a double into left field and scored the man on second. Mercifully for Chicago, they made the next two outs without giving up another run, but like games one and two, all it took was one inning for the socks to dig a hole they couldn't climb out of. The Reds won two to nothing and increased their lead to three games to one. Eddie's back-to-back errors set off alarm bells all over the baseball world. It really looked like the socks were not playing to win. But it wasn't all Eddie's fault. He received no help from his offense.

Chicago managed just three hits in the game, one from Joe Jackson, one from Happy Felsch, and one from Chick-Gandle. Chicago manager Kid Gleason was beside himself. He said later, they shouldn't have scored on Eddie in 40 innings. To the gamblers, it must have appeared the fix was back on, and that night, it paid off for shoeless Joe and Lefty Williams. According to Joe, he was promised $20,000 for his part in losing the World Series.

Through the first three games, he hadn't been paid a dime. But now, after game four, his friend Lefty Williams knocked on his hotel room door. Joe never attended any meetings with players or gamblers. He received all of his information from Lefty. Lefty received most of his information from Chick Gandal, who was the middleman between the players and the gamblers. Chick told them the gamblers had double-crossed them and reneged on their payments. It was true, but maybe just up to a point.

Joe was suspicious of Gandal. He thought there was a good chance Gandal was holding out on them and keeping more than his fair share, and he was probably right. We'll probably never know how much money Chick Gandal made on the fix, but estimates range as high as $35,000. As a reminder, his salary was $4,000 per year, and only $3,500 this year during the shortened season. When Lefty walked into Joe's room after Game 4, he had a measly $10,000 with him in a dirty envelope. Gandal had given

him the envelope and told him to split it with Joe, and Lefty did as he was told. Lefty had been promised $10,000 all by himself, but unlike fellow pitcher Eddie Seacott, he failed to demand it up front. Lefty and Joe split the 10,000, and it was the only payoff they received. And now, with $5,000 in cash in their rooms, they had to explain to their wives where it came from. Learia Williams was irate. Katie Jackson was disappointed. But it was done, and they couldn't change it now. Game 5, Monday, October 6th, Comiskey Park in Chicago. Attendance, 34,379. Rain delayed game 5 for a day, but when the gates opened at Comisky Park on Monday, the largest crowd to witness the 1919 World Series filed into the stadium. It was the last game in Chicago before the series

shifted back to Cincinnati, and White Sox fans desperately hoped for a win. The Cincinnati Cincinnati Reds used their fifth different starting pitcher of the series. Meanwhile, Chicago manager Kid Gleason sent Lefty Williams back out for his second start in four games. This time, though, Lefty played well. The game was a pitching duel through five innings, but then, as in previous losses, fielding errors cursed the White Sox. This time, center fielder Happy Felsch was in the spotlight. Cincinnati's pitcher smashed a double to center.

Happy made a bad throw toward the infield, and the pitcher hurried to third base. The next batter drove him home with a single, and the Reds took the lead one to nothing. Later in the inning, the Reds had two men on base, and the batter blasted a ball to center field. It went over Happy's head. He chased it down and launched it toward the infield. The two Cincinnati runners raced toward home plate. The first one scored and the second slid into home at the same time the ball arrived. Chicago catcher Ray Shalk tried to tag the second runner, but the man was called safe.

Ray went ballistic. He screamed and bumped and shoved the umpire until he was ejected from the game. By the end of the sixth inning, Ray Shalk was in the clubhouse and the Reds were leading four to nothing. They added one more run in the ninth and finished the game with a five-to-nothing victory. Chicago was shut out for the second game in a row. The White Sox hadn't scored a run in 22 innings, and now they trailed the Reds four games to one. If they didn't win the next one, the series was over. Game 6, Tuesday, October 7th, Redland Field in Cincinnati.

Attendance, 32,06. When the games shifted back to Cincinnati, Reds fans were treated to the most exciting game of the series, even though they didn't like the outcome. Dickie Kerr returned to the mound for the socks while the Reds finally used a pitcher for the second time in the series. Kerr had been marvelous in Game 3, and it was still Chicago's only win, but now his shutout streak ended.

The Reds had not scored in game three, but now they grabbed two runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth to take a quick four-to-nothing lead. But the runs were not entirely Kerr's fault. Shortstop, Swede Risberg committed his second of two errors in the game, and it led to the fourth run scored. Those two errors brought Swedes total to four in the series. The Reds could have scored more in the fourth, but Shulis Joe made a long throw from left field that caught a runner at home plate. The throw was actually a little wide of home plate, and catcher Ray Shult grabbed it and lunged back over the plate to tag the Cincinnati runner before he could score.

The play likely saved Chicago's chances in the game. The Sox had not scored in 26 innings, but that changed in the top of the fifth. They finally cobbled together one lonely run in a sequence that included two walks and two fly balls that allowed runners to advance, but at least they were on the board. And in the sixth, they finally looked like the offensive juggernaut that had led the American League for most of the season. Buck Weaver slapped a double into shallow left field. Shoeless Joe laid down a bunt single that scored Weaver.

Happy Felch followed with a double that scored Joe. Two batterers later, Ray Shalk hit a single that scored happy, and just like that, the game was tied four to four. It stayed that way for the rest of regulation, and now everyone braced themselves for extra innings. The socks were up to bat in the top of the tenth, and Buck Weaver started the show again. He hit a double to start the inning, his second of the game.

Joe Jackson laid down a bunt, and now the socks had men on first and third. Happy Felch struck out, and then Chick Ghandle, the ringleader of the fix, stepped to the plate. Three bad swings would have ended the rally, but Gandal took a cut and slipped a ground ball into center field that scored Buck Weaver.

Swede Risberg was up next, and he had a line drive into a double play that ended the inning, but the Sox now led five to four. Rookie pitcher Dickie Kerr then retired the Cincinnati batters, and Chicago celebrated a come-from-behind victory. The series could have ended right there. The Reds led four games to one. It would have been their fifth win, but the Sox bought themselves one more day. So was the win a fluke or a sign of an incredible?

incredible comeback. The next day, Chicago fans thought they had the answer. Game 7, Wednesday, October 8th, Redland Field in Cincinnati. Attendance? 13,923. With the Reds leading four games to two, the smallest crowd of the series watched the White Sox try to keep their hopes alive in the final game in Cincinnati. A snafu in the ticket office kept some fans from buying tickets, but others simply chose not to. Most fans bought tickets in a block that included games one, two, and six. Game

seven was sold separately, and apparently many people thought it wasn't worth another investment. Chicago manager Kid Gleason made a lineup change in Game 7. He moved Happy Felsch from center field to right field and brought in John Shano Collins to play center. Happy had made so many errors over the past two games that Gleason couldn't trust him in center anymore, but he also didn't want to take him out of the lineup. John Collins was from Charlestown, Massachusetts, and the players called him Shawno as a nod to his Irish heritage. Shawno was the lead-off hitter, and the strategy worked well.

He hit a single to begin the game. Second basement Eddie Collins sent Shawano to second with a sacrifice, and Joe Jackson sent him home two batters later. Chicago scored a run in the first inning for the first inning for the first. first time in the series. At the end of the first, the Sox had a 1-0-0-0 lead. They added a second run in the third inning thanks to Shano Collins and Joe Jackson again, and now they were ahead two to nothing after three innings. In the fifth, Eddie Collins, Buck Weaver, Joe Jackson, and Happy Felch combined to give the Sox two more runs, and now they led four to

nothing. The Reds broke the shutout in the sixth inning with one run, but that was all they could manage. The tables seemed to have turned. The socks were solid in the field and at the plate, and the Reds were plagued with errors throughout the game. Chicago won four to one, and now with back-to-back victories, they were just one game away from tying the series. They trailed four games to three,

and the series was about to return to Chicago. The players who were in on the fix had been paid a fraction of what they had been promised. In Game 7, certainly appeared like they were playing to win. Eddie Seacott had pitched a complete game and delivered his best performance of the series. It was the performance that had been expected of him in games one and four. Chicago manager Kid Gleason was thrilled. He told the Chicago Tribune,

You see, this isn't the same ball team that was playing for me in the first three or four games. My gang is all back playing ball again. The Sox staved off defeat two games in a row. If they could win the next one, the series would be tied four to four, and it would set up a winner-take-all game nine at Comisky Park. Chicago fans hoped Lefty Williams would follow Eddie's lead and deliver his best stuff in game eight. Game 8, Thursday, October 9th.

Kamisky Park in Chicago. Attendance, 32,930. Eddie Seacott had pitched his third game of the 1919 World Series in Game 7. Now it was Lefty Williams' turn for a third appearance as he took the mound in game 8. Eddie had rebounded from two poor performances, and Chicago manager Kid Gleason hoped Lefty would do the same. It took exactly two batters for his hopes to die. The Cincinnati lead-off hitter popped the ball up for an easy out to open the game.

But the next four batters hit two singles and two doubles. One third of the way through the first inning, the Reds had a three-to-nothing lead, and that was the end of the world series for Lefty Williams. Bill James replaced Lefty and allowed one more run. At the end of the first, the Reds led 4-0. They added a fifth run in the second inning before the socks finally struck back. In the bottom of the third inning, with Chicago trailing 5-0, shuless Joe Jackson hit a home run to right feet.

field. The hometown fans likely leapt to their feet and cheered their slugging hero as he rounded the bases, but it turned out to be the only bright spot for Chicago for the next four innings. Cincinnati added a run in the fifth to make the score six to one. In the sixth inning, manager Kid Gleason pulled the plug on his second pitcher of the game. He replaced Bill James with Roy Wilkinson, and combined, the pair gave up three runs in the inning. At the top of the seventh inning, the Reds led 9 to 1. The score held until the top of the 8th when they added yet another run to make it 10 to 1. But at that point, White Sox fans thought they saw a little glimmer of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

Chicago's bats came alive, and a rally began. Second Basement Eddie Collins hit a single. The next man up, Buck Weaver, hit a double. After Buck, Shoeless Joe hit a double that scored Collins and Weaver. Two batters later, Chick-Gandle ripped a triple into right field that scored Joe. But the rally fizzled out after the flurry of hits, though Chicago had cut Cincinnati's lead in half. They now trailed 10 to 5. But that was the end of the comeback.

Cincinnati pitcher Hod Eller shut down the White Sox in the ninth inning and clinched the victory for the Reds. Cincinnati won the 1919 World Series, five games to three. The Cincinnati Reds outscored the Chicago White Sox 35 to 20 in the series. Cincinnati's batting average as a team was 255. Chicago's was 224. But even though Chicago's team average was low, two players had great averages for the series. Ironically, they were both involved in the fix.

Shoeless Joe hit 375 and notched the only home run of the series, which ended up being the final home run of the dead ball era. Buck Weaver hit 324, and he was responsible for four of the team's 10 doubles in the series. Rookie Dickie Kerr was the most successful pitcher for Chicago. He won both of his starts. Veteran Eddie Seacott won just one of his three starts, and Lefty Williams set a record. For more than 60 years, he was the only pitcher to lose three games in the World Series.

The record has been equaled by only one other player, George Frazier of the New York Yankees, in 1981. Game 8 was the worst performance of Lefty's career. He faced just five batters. For 60 years, a legend has persisted that a hitman connected to the gamblers threatened Lefty before game 8, but there's almost no evidence to support the claim. As far as we can tell, the story came from a boy who live next door to Lefty. Forty years after the World Series, the neighbor said Lefty's wife told him that Lefty had been threatened before the last game of the series.

Then the author of Eight Men Out, Elliot Asanoff, created a fictional character named Harry F to dramatize the event in his book. All we have is the word of a neighbor speaking 40 years after the fact, and there's no evidence to suggest Lefty was in danger. Lefty said later he was trying to win the game, but the fix just weighed heavy on his mind, which is probably closer to the truth. So now with the series complete, it was time to tally the payoffs. Pitcher Eddie Seacott was paid $10,000. Fitcher Lefty Williams was paid $5,000.

Left fielder Joe Jackson was paid $5,000. Center fielder Happy Felsch was paid $5,000. Shortstop Swede Risberg might have made between $5,000 and $15,000. Same with Fred McMullen. Third baseman Buck Weaver never took a dime. And lastly, there's first baseman Chick-Gandle. It's always been assumed he kept the most money for himself, maybe as much as $35,000, but it's impossible to know for sure. No one knows how much the gamblers made on Cincinnati's win. And in one final twist, some of the gamblers tried to make back money they had lost early in the

series by bribing Cincinnati players late in the series. Cincinnati pitcher Hod Eller, who closed out the series for the Reds, told his manager, Pat Moran that he had been offered $10,000 to lose game eight. He said he turned down the money and threatened to punch the gambler in the face for having offered it in the first place. The Reds thought they won the series fair and square, and gambling was so common in the sport that most people wouldn't raise much of a fuss over attempts at bribery. But this time it was different.

This time the rumors of a sizable conspiracy were persistent and specific. Just one day after the series, a newspaper stated seven Chicago players would not be back on the team next year. The article didn't say why, but everyone could guess. and then the investigations began. Next time on the show, players suspected in the fix see their names in print for the first time. White Sox owner Charlie Kamisky offers a reward for information about the conspiracy

and begins an investigation. And as rumors swirl around the White Sox throughout the off-season, Major League Baseball undergoes pivotal changes. Exactly one year after White Sox players made a deal with gamblers to lose the world series, baseball would never be the same. All that is next time on Infamous America.

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