The rabbit holes that Hufford dove into ultimately led him to Cooperstown, N.Y., where he gathered with 15 other likeminded enthusiasts on Aug. 10, 1971, to form the Society for American Baseball Research. Fifty years later, SABR’s purview remains grounded far more in the pursuit of objective truth of baseball than the “sabermetrics” movement that breached mainstream circles after Brad Pitt’s turn as Athletics General Manager Billy Beane in the Oscar-nominated “Moneyball” flick.
“The one commonality is a love for the game of baseball,” said Andy Strasberg, the vice president of San Diego’s SABR chapter and the Padres’ former vice president of marketing. “It’s not just stats — exit velocity or ERA or batting average. It’s everything from old ballparks to baseball movies to art.
Bill James posts two very good articles on relief pitchers. The first looks at how teams came to see relievers as specialists, not just failed starters or starter/relievers. Teams, for a long time, failed to realize a good reliever could help win the pennant. Here James writes about the 1950s:
The point I am trying to sell you is, you had to beat these guys over the head with a tire iron to get them to understand the significance of a good reliever. It had been 30 years since Firpo Marberry; it had been almost 20 years since Joe McCarthy divided his staff into starters and relievers; it had been seven years since Joe Page emerged, it had been four years since Jim Konstanty was the NL MVP, and they still didn’t get it. They still thought of relieving as a transitional stage into or out of the starting rotation. If a pitcher pitched well out of the bullpen, like Ike Delock or Don Mossi or Sandy Consuegra, they would move him into the starting rotation, see if he could handle a “real” job. Hoyt Wilhelm was moved into the starting rotation in 1959. Turk Farrell, one of the best relief pitchers in baseball in 1957, 1958 and 1960, moved into the starting rotation for several years. When he lost effectiveness, he moved back into the bullpen. Many times they were GOOD starting pitchers. Hank Aguirre, after good years in the bullpen in 1960-61, moved into the starting rotation in 1962, and led the American League in ERA.
BillJamesOnline.com
In the second article, he uses the point system he developed to rank relievers to come up with a list of the greatest bullpen aces. One other thing that comes from the data is that from the 1960s through the first decade of the 2000s, better management of relief pitchers led to more repeating from year to year as the top relievers in the game. Managers haven’t prevented injuries to starters, but they get a lot more seasons out of top relievers.
MLB reclassified the Negro Leagues as major leagues. I have tended to think of these leagues as minor leagues with major league quality players, more like the Pacific Coast League of the day, and some other high minors. Unlike those minor leagues, the Negro Leagues were not drained of their talent by majors, until the late 1940s. I am not an expert on the minors, however, so I will leave it to others to discuss the quality of these leagues over time.
As a follow-up the to This Date in 1920 project, a friend sends along this film of the Yankees playing at the Indians that year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN6158XUm9g
The point of the film is to demonstrate how a high speed camera can generate a slow motion film to analyze swings and pitching deliveries. Note that this film is highly edited, and the captions do not always match what actually happened. Some highlights from my friend, who believes the game was played on June 15, 1920:
4:17 announcing the starting lineups
4:24-26 top of 1st? [maybe also top of 3rd or of 5th] Part of a Wally Pipp plate appearance. [If it’s the top of the 5th, there should be a runner at 1st, but maybe he’s very close to the base].
8:03-04; 8:17-23. Ray Chapman triple, bottom of the 5th. Ignore the intervening nonsense in the caption at 8:05 and what is either staged action or some pre-game action with a throw over the first baseman’s head. There was another triple hit during the game, but the play-by-play at BBref describes that triple as going to RF, not LF/CF as this one did.
7:42 – 7:45. Bottom of 5th, Wambsganss groundout, 3B to 1B; Tris Speaker holds at 3rd, and Larry Gardner advances to second. Ignore the subsequent caption and what is either staged action or pre-game action. Among other things, note that the second baseman in the first shot after the caption is not moving as he would if this were real and there don’t seem to be other fielders in sight, and in the second shot the second baseman is not even visible.] It is possible that there was a close play at first, but this film does not represent the real action there.
5:48 -5:55. Bottom of 7th. Hannah (C) picks off Wambsganss at 3B.
4:56 – 5:30. Top of 8th. Ruth strikes out. I question whether the 5:31-35 field-level shot is from the same AB, because it seems that the catcher here is throwing the ball long after Ruth has left home plate, but at 5:28, he has thrown it back while Ruth is still in front of the plate, walking to the dugout.
8:24 – 8:31 field-level shot seems like actual game footage, but I can’t narrow it down. Ruth did not hit a home run that day, despite the coy reference to a “home run swing.” The scene with the street urchins is obviously staged.
Other interesting things:
With opposing runners at 3rd and facing a 6-2 and then 8-2 deficit, Huggins had the infield in during the bottom of the 5th (even with one out and a runner on first) and the bottom of 7th.
5:42 – is that Ring Lardner?
6:01 – Carl Mays’ delivery (in warm-up)
6:33 – Jack Quinn going to his mouth during his practice (he was a legalized spitball pitcher).
7:17 – Tris Speaker BP. I don’t think that I had ever seen film of Speaker.
7:30 – Wally Pipp BP. Nicely pulled. He’s bigger than I had imagined him to have been.
I wonder whether this film is the only one showing Ray Chapman playing (as well as some of the others shown here, such as Hannah, the Yankees’ catcher).
Also, at 7:45, maybe the first use of replay to demonstrate an incorrect call by the umpire.
If you stop the film at 6:19, you can see why it was tough to pick up Carl Mays’s delivery. At this point, he is a full extension, ready to swing his right arm forward with the ball. He is crouched down, however, hiding the ball until the last second. This delivery contributed to the death of Ray Chapman.
On the Ruth slow motion swing, note that his back foot comes off the ground. In 2013, The Washington Post made a film comparing Bryce Harper’s swing to Ruth’s, and I believe they used this slow motion footage of Ruth for the comparison.
The review of the 1920 season is now available as a Kindle book. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy so far! It would make a nice virtual stocking stuffer for the baseball fan in your life.
The Day by Day Database now contains post-season batting and pitching lines back to 1992. Note that this includes Derek Jeter’s full career, in which he played a whole extra season’s worth of games (158). His .308/.374/.465 slash line in very much in line with his career regular season stats, .310/.377.440. He got on base a little less in the post-season, but made up for it with power.
The major league owners meet on November 12, 1920, and make front page news with their decision. Without league presidents, or anyone to record the deliberations of the session, the final agreement differs from the Lasker plan in a very important dimension (emphasis added):
Peace was restored in organized baseball to-day when Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis accepted the offer extended unanimously by the sixteen American and National league clubs to become the head of the board controlling the game.
Judge Landis’s acceptance was with the understanding that he was to keep his place on the bench, where his salary is $7,500, and that he should have “one-man control” of baseball, having no other persons on the board of control with him. His salary as supreme arbiter in all baseball disputes will be $42,500, with an allowance of $10,000 a year for expenses. He agreed to server for a term of seven years.
New York Tribune
There would be no one to balance Landis’s power, no representation that was promised to the minor leagues. Landis was in essence a dictator, a position that would be very popular in the world over the next 20 years.
Big league scouts will tell you that the minor fields are absolutely barren of major league prospects. The playing strength of the lower classes of the minor leagues has deteriorated to an alarming degree. This can be attributed directly to the fact that the major leagues no longer have the privilege of drafting minor league players.
The Class AA and Class A of minor leagues two years ago were able to swing the minor league into an attitude of defiance that resulted in a mutual abrogation of the peace agreement between the major and minor promoters. While draft privileges were denied the majors, the higher minor clubs retained said privilege on leagues of lower classification. The bait to the little fellows was a big scale of draft prices.
But drafting almost immediately became a lost art. The Class AA leagues, which got first crack at the major league discards, were able to present strong line-ups by watching major league requests for waivers. They were the clearing house of the discard of the National and American leagues. The small minor leagues, which had depended upon the sale of players to make both ends meet, soon found a closed market, and the closed market was speedily reflected in the discontent of the low salaried players in the leagues of low classification.
Of course, there’s no mention that maybe there should be no drafts and no waivers, just free agency for players, which would solve most of these problems. It seems fitting that almost 100 years to day later, the major leagues assume full control of the minors, as the National Association goes out of business. The eroding of the minor leagues as independent organizations started well before this, and continued slowly for the next fifty years until the great majority of clubs were simply farm teams for the majors. You do not go to a minor league game to see competitive baseball. You go to see stars of the future working on their game.
One hundred years ago today, the majors the 1920 season ends with baseball transformed into the game we know today. The AL and NL owners became partners with a commissioner serving their needs and driving gambling from the game. Babe Ruth demonstrated the drawing power of power hitting. The death of Ray Chapman brings about the era of the clean ball, already begun in this season with a ban on applying substances to balls (with a few exceptions).
Thank you for reading. I learned much about baseball of the day, the sports writing of the day, and the characters of the game. Hope you enjoyed it also.
To put it most generously, there has been a complete backdown and actual surrender to the big eleven by Mr. Johnson and his “loyal” five. This backdown came when the Johnsonian influence failed to realign the forces of minor league baseball behind the “loyal” five. A coup was planned to have Secretary John H. Farrell ditched as secretary of the National Association. When this coup failed and the minor league announced a policy of strict neutrality in the fight among the major league club owners, the hope of the “loyal” five went a-glimmering.
The story goes on to detail leaked information of the deal, including a majority vote to settle interleauge issues and acceptance of Kenesaw Mountain Landis as head of the board of control. The five AL teams will get to nominate the second major league representative to the board. Six minor league representatives head to Chicago to await the results of the conference among the sixteen major league owners, then name the minor league representative to the board.
On November 10, 1920, the chance for a settlement of the differences among the major league clubs comes in dramatic fashion:
The agreement to make a desperate last-minute attempt to avert a baseball war came at a meeting of the directors of the American League to-day, and was one of the results of conferences between owners of the rival major league factions. The peace news was announced in dramatic fashion in the middle of an address Garry Herrmann, owner of the Cincinnati Nationals , was delivering to the minor league meeting.
Mr. Herrmann, former chairman of the National Commission, was interrupted by a messenger, who handed him a note which he opened and slowly read. Then he announced that the conference of the club owners had been agreed upon for Friday.
New York Tribune
The conference will be among the sixteen owners only; no lawyers nor stenographers, and no league presidents. It turns out the owners don’t want a twelve team league.
The National Leaguers frankly admit that they do not want a twelve-club league unless it is forced upon them to organize it, and that it would be a joke. Mr. Herrmann said that it would be ridiculous to form a league with two clubs in three cities.
The minor leagues express their skepticism about the invitation to share power:
After hearing the pleas of the National League representatives, the minor leaguers went into executive session and voiced their suspicion of the professed “affection” expressed for the by the two forces involved in the major league fight. they warned their associates, from among whom a committee will be appointed to confer with the majaor leagues, not to cede any of the rights of the minors in working out a reorganization plan. They took the position that, while they might act as bearers of the olive branch in the threatened baseball war, they would not go so far as to scorch their own wings.
In a second article on the sports page, the owners of the Giants, Red Sox, and Yankees talk about the negotiations, and how it is their belief the five AL holdouts have surrendered to the Lasker plan. This still calls for a committee of three, with Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the chair, but:
If the five “loyalists” come in under the Lasker plan there will be no war. The other eleven will then be prepared to go on as before with two eight-club major leagues and with Judge Landis head of the board of control. The second man of the board will be elected by majority vote of the sixteen club owners and the third by the minor leagues. However, Messrs. Stoneham, Ruppert and Frazee believe Judge Landis quite big enough to handle this job all alone, and would be willing to have him act as a board of one of the minors and the opposing five if they were agreeable.
On November 9, 1920, American League President Ban Johnson addressed the National Association of Minor Leagues at their Kansas City Convention. Speaking before his address, Johnson said “it was war to the finish” with the New National League and that the AL would place teams in the three cities currently occupied by the AL teams joining the new NL. In his speech to the minors:
“The American League does not come here with the thought of asking you to carry any of our burdens, ” President Johnson said. “There is a question as to whether there will be any serious difficulties to adjust, but I believe my position should be made clear. I think you should have equal power with the American and National leagues. We can offer you no more at this time. I have been authorized by our board of directors to request you to appoint a committee o three to meet a committee of the same number from the National and American leagues to reorganize the game, and all the differences should be swept aside in view of the serious condition that confronts baseball.”
New York Tribune
This was the first time in all his years running the American League that Ban Johnson showed up to speak at the minor league convention.
Note that all the baseball stories are in the news section of the paper, with two more stories on page seven. One of those talks about the never named fans who prefer the Lasker plan, the other involves a lawyer for the New NL saying that player contracts belong to teams, not leagues.
“We expect bitter court battles,” said one club owner, “but we have proceeded carefully and have no doubt as to the outcome. The new league is composed of the money making clubs and they are ready to spend every cent necessary to win.”
New York Tribune
Even in 1920, the big and small market teams clashed.
The feces hits the fan on November 8, 1920. Baseball gets the page one, right column headline:
Big Baseball War Is On; 12-Club League Formed; Landis Sought as Head
New York Tribune
The two sides did negotiate. The five American League teams loyal to league president Ban Johnson could not reach an agreement with the eleven other teams, led by National League president John Heydler:
Emissaries from the Johnson camp conferred with the club owners at the joint session of eight National and three American League clubs, but without result. At 2:30 p. m. the joint session issued an ultimatum to the Johnson clubs telling them that they could either come over within an hour and a half and take part in the meeting, which would be governed by a majority vote, or a new league would be formed. Failing to hear from the five American League clubs, the other eleven clubs went ahead with their announced plans.
New York Tribune
Kenesaw Mountain Landis had not made a decision on heading up the proposed tribunal, which would also have minor league representation among the three people chosen.
The remaining AL clubs counter that the players on the three teams bolting belong to the American League, and would be taken over by the remaining clubs. That would include Babe Ruth of the Yankees:
When Colonel Huston, vice-president of the Yankees, was told of this at the Roosevelt Hospital last night he said: “They won’t get anything like as close to Ruth as the Crown Price got to Paris.”*
New York Tribune page one sidebar
*He is referring to Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, who led troops attacking France during the First World War.
Here is a section taken from an American League contract:
“The player further agrees that during the term of this contract he will not, except with consent of the American League, engage either during the American League season or at any other time, in any game or exhibition of baseball”
This evidently means that the American League has control of its players.
And here is another angle. Players under contract with either league cannot leave their league unless unanimous permission is given by all of the clubs. This is called “asking waivers” and we read about it nearly every day.
If Connie Mack wanted to get rid of Scott Perry and send him to a minor league club, he would notify the president of the league. The president then would notify the other clubs, and if one wanted Perry, he would be sent there.
This waive proposition will be the stumbling block. Because it has been rigidly enforced and observed by the clubs for years, custom probably has made it legal.
Evening Public Ledger.
The “New National League” also announces the aim of ending gambling:
“it is hoped and believed by the members of the New National League that the high character of the chairman of the board of control, and those to be elected as associate members, will be a sufficient guaranty to the baseball loving public that the national game will be conducted on the high plane which public interests and public morality demand. It is thought that with the aid of a board of control of the character indicated, laws will be enacted which will forever stamp out gambling in connection with baseball.
New York Tribune
Page two also contains a recap of the three previous baseball wars, one of which included Ban Johnson helping to bring the American League into existence.
Both side now head to Kansas City to try to win over the minor leagues.
Preparations continued on November 7, 1920 for meetings on November 8th among the various major league factions trying to reorganize the governance of baseball in light of the White Sox throwing the 1919 World Series. American League President Ban Johnson met with representatives of the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians. National League President John Heydler met with representatives of the Cubs, Reds, Cardinals, Phillies, and Giants.
The minor leagues may hold the key to peace, however:
Besides the special conferences today, the major league magnates also conferred with numerous minor league presidents and managers en route to Kansas City for the minor league meeting Tuesday. Many persons believe that this meeting may decide the future of baseball, for it is admitted that the side with obtains the backing of the minors will have a considerable advantage.
New York Tribune
A sidebar article notes that Johnson and the representatives of the Athletics and Indians made reservations at hotels in Kansas City to attend the conference.
The minors appear to hold leverage with the majors at this point. The majors slow erosion of the independence of the minor league was well underway at this point. Here was a chance for minor leagues to reverse that history.
There is nothing new to report on November 6, 1920. The big sports news of the day was Yale and Harvard playing to a 14-14 tie in Cambridge (Allston, to be accurate). W. J. Macbeth sums up the conflict between the eleven teams backing the Lasker plan and the five AL team loyal to president Ban Johnson. Macbeth’s conclusion:
The big baseball conference in Chicago to-morrow may end in general handshaking. Or it may precipitate the greatest and most costly war of baseball history.
November 5, 1920 brings confusion about the state of meetings in Chicago planned for Monday, November eighth. National League president John Heydler sees Ban Johnson’s announcement of an American League meeting on that day as an indication the AL teams won’t attend the meeting of all the major league teams called by Heydler.
“If Mr. Johnson is properly quoted,” said Heydler, “then he must mean that the proposed conference between National and American League club owners will not be attended by himself or any of the five clubs that have supported him so far.
“Certainly the three American League clubs — New York, Chicago, and Boston — that have subscribed to the Lasker plan have no idea of avoiding the conference. Indeed, the eleven clubs are bound by solemn covenant to stand together, and there will be no turning back anywhere.”
New York Tribune
Things are heading for a showdown.
In more on field news, the Red Sox hire Hugh Duffy as their manager. In his two years at the helm the team will go 136-172, a .442 winning percentage.
On November 4, 1920, Charles Comiskey details the steps he took to uncover the crookedness of the White Sox players who threw the 1919 World Series. He responds to an accusation by H.C. Redmond he told Comiskey of the scandal and Comiskey did nothing about it.
“Redmond’s story, detailed to Gleason and O’Neill, was of such vague and uncertain character that no one would have been justified in taking affirmative action such as would destroy the character and reputation of men, even though they were ball players. Not content, I caused Mr. Redmond, with others whom he had named, to come to Chicago at my expense for the purpose of further investigating the evidence which he was supposed to have.
On November 3, 1920, NL president John Heydler issues an official invitation to all sixteen major league clubs and AL president Ban Johnson to meet on Monday, November 8th:
“The purpose of this meeting is to appoint a drafting committee representing the major leagues, the same to meet with a committee to be selected by the National Association of Minor Leagues, the duties of which joint committees shall be forthwith to prepare an agreement embodying such new organic provisions for the maintenance of the the national game and so to reorganize the government thereof as to assure the public that the sport is conducted in a proper manner.”
New York Tribune
In the same column, a rumor comes forth that St. Louis stars Rogers Hornsby of the Cardinals and George Sisler to the Browns will move to New York to join the Giants and Yankees respectively. That does not happen.
On November 2, 1920, word gets out that the eight club presidents of the National League teams will meet on Saturday, November 6th to discuss the November 8th meeting with the five AL teams against the Lasker plan. According to Charles Stoneham of the Giants:
“Nobody is looking for trouble, but none will tolerate outside parties hurling any monkey wrenches into the machinery of reform that has already been put in motion. If the dissenting five show evidences of good faith and can furnish suggestions or plans of reform that would meet the public requirements better than the Lasker plan they will find us more than willing to cooperate. But if their attitude is one of stubborn opposition they will find the eleven prepared to go to any extremities.”
New York Tribune
There is also a promise that the minor leagues will have an equal voice in the new administration.
There is some movement toward compromise on November 1, 1920. November 1st was the deadline for the five AL teams loyal to president Ban Johnson to join the Lasker plan. Instead, they issue a plan of their own. NL president John Heydler takes the counter proposal to mean that the two sides are willing to negotiate:
“Mr. Johnson and the five clubs supporting him, all of whom refused to meet us in Chicago recently, have been invited to a joint meeting in Chicago next Monday, ” said President John A. Heydler of the National League yesterday afternoon. “As was intimated upon our return from Chicago, the eleven who made a solemn covenant for a proper reorganization of baseball government are tolerant rather than antagonistic to those who refused to discuss the issue. It is hoped the five will be on hand in Chicago next Monday.”
New York Tribune
The article goes on to note that the Lasker group will meet with the minor leagues next week in Kansas City at at annual meeting of the National Association. Both sides are working on bringing the minors on board.
October 31, 1920 brings news that Rube Marquard will get a hearing on his suspension from baseball due to scalping tickets at the World Series:
Organized baseball always has been very firm and virtuous about disciplining a young ball player or an old ball player who is about through. But the punishment of Rube Marquard is all out of proportion. It is the same punishment that was meted out to the Chicago Players who sold themselves to the gamblers. Moreover, the scalpers around New York had plenty of tickets to the Brooklyn game, which would indicate that others beside the Rube were engaged in the ticket business during the series.
“I am through with him, absolutely,” said Brooklyn President Charles Ebbets. “He hasn’t been released, however, and if anyone wants him, he can have him. But Marquard will never again put on a Brooklyn uniform.”19
True to Ebbets’s word, the Robins traded Marquard to Cincinnati for pitcher Dutch Ruether on December 15, 1920. Marquard won 17 games (17-14, 3.39 ERA) for the Reds in 1921. But the Reds, who had just won the World Series in 1919, sank to the second division in the NL. Marquard, who had divorced Blossom Seeley, married Naomi Wigley from Baltimore in 1921.
SABR.org
Looking at his biography, there appears to be a bit of sketchiness to Marquard’s life.
Baseball generated no stories on October 30, 1920, that graced the sports pages the next day. College football dominated the news When I see the football news from that era, it’s a bit of a shock to see Ivy League teams dominating the headlines. With a lack of professional sports outside of baseball, even minor college sports get a mention in the paper.
Some things never change, however. Like this year, an election is a few days away and the front page headline reads, “Democratic Official Arrested for Lie About Harding.” October surprises are nothing new. It wasn’t until 2015 that this charge was indeed proved false. The proof came about because there was a sex scandal involving Harding at the time that was true and would have been just a damning in that era.
American League President Ban Johnson holds a meeting with the five loyal AL teams on October 29, 1920. They announce an alternative to the Lasker plan:
The beard’s answer suggests that a committee of nine Members — three each from the National League, the American League, and the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (minor leagues) — work out a plan of reorganization. This committee, it was pointed out, will give due consideration, not only to the major leagues, but to the minor leagues as well.
New York Tribune
Johnson’s plan aims get the minor leagues on his side, and use the sheer numbers of other teams to swamp the eleven teams who want the Lasker plan. Johnson does make a very good point later in the article:
“The thing that will stop gambling in baseball is the certainty, speed and severity of the punishment meted out to those who sell games, or do the gambling.”
Which is what baseball adopted anyway.
In other baseball news, the Giants hire Hughey Jennings, recently resigned from the Tigers, as their assistant manager. Jennings is very good friends with Giants manager John McGraw.
A grand jury indicts Giants manager John McGraw on October 28, 1920 for previously buying a bottle of whisky:
John J. McGraw, central figure in the recent Lambs Club scandal and manager and part owner of the New York Giants, was indicted yesterday by the Federal grand jury on a charge of violating the Volstead act. The chief allegation is that he possessed one bottle of whisky contrary to law.
New York Tribune
The prohibition of the sale of alcohol was just starting to hit home in late 1920. The Volstead act, which grew out of the eighteenth amendment, was upheld by the supreme court in the summer of 1920. That’s when the prosecutions began.
Teams announced two managerial signings as Miller Huggins and the Yankees agree on a one year deal, while Johnny Evers returns to the Cubs as the field manager. The article on the Huggins signing indicates that Babe Ruth and the manager do not get along. Also Dave Fultz, president of the International League criticizes the Lasker Plan:
“The Lasker plan contains the same fundamental error of government as the one upon which the national agreement rode to its fall. It provides that minor, as well as major leagues, shall be controlled by a board of three men, who are chosen solely by the major leagues; the minors may offer suggestions, but the voting power rests entirely with the major leagues.
“This board is to have complete control not only over the relations that exist between minors and majors, but over their internal affairs as well. In other words, we are expected to subscribe to a government in whose election we have no voice and to which we must submit for twenty-five years, no matter how unfair it may become. It is necessary only to point out this error in the plan to show why it cannot be accepted by the minor leagues’
New York Tribune
Meanwhile, American League president Ban Johnson will meet with representatives of the five AL clubs that have not joined the Lasker Plan tomorrow.
In 1916 Robinson won a National League pennant for Brooklyn with a club that was made up of discards from many clubs. This year he repeated the performance. It was thought that the first victory might have been an accident, but when re repeated this year club owners started to sit up and take notice. They realized how much of the Brooklyn team’s success was due to the managerial wizardry of Robinson.
New York Tribune
Robinson would manage the Dodgers for eleven more seasons, but in seven of those the team finished sixth or worse. His only other good season would be in 1924, when the team went 92-62 for a second place finish.
On October 26, 1920, Ban Johnson clarifies who will be at the meeting announced yesterday. The five clubs loyal to Johnson will meet on Friday, October 29.
On October 25, 1920, American League President Ban Johnson announces a meeting of the American League clubs to discuss the reorganization of baseball.
The Chicago dispatch said that Mr. Johnson would announce to-day the date of the meeting, but did not make clear whether this was to be a special meeting of the American League or only a conference among the five clubs that have supported Mr. Johnson in his fight with the other three over the Carl Mays injunction trouble and the same five that refused to join in the interleague parley with the National League in Chicago last week.
New York Tribune.
Stay tuned.
In other baseball news, the president of the Indians meets with manager Tris Speaker to discuss where to hold spring training in 1921. The Indians appear to be ready to abandon New Orleans.
October 24, 1920, once again offers scant baseball news. W.O. M’Geehan once again makes the case that the fans are not coming back unless baseball cleans house. This time, he offers a quote of a fan, the quote supplied by one of the Yankees owners, Colonel T. L. Huston.
Huston, of the Yankees, asked a former college baseball star, a man whose name is a tradition at Yale, how he felt about baseball and the future of baseball. This man has been a regular attendant at the Polo Grounds. It seems to me that he epitomized what fans of all kinds are thinking. He said:
“My enthusiasm for professional baseball is dead. I do not think that I care to see any games next year, although I have been a player and a fan since I was a kid. There must be housecleaning and it must be done sincerely and thoroughly. All of you magnates have made mistakes. There is no confidence in the old powers that ruled professional baseball. They have been derelict in their duty. Then, above all, the magnates must stop their wrangling. If the housecleaning is accomplished and the fans see men at the head of baseball in whom they will trust then you will have your stands packed, but not immediately. It will take time for them to recover from the shock.”
New York Tribune
Baseball always seems to be in trouble with fans, but never so much trouble that the most dire predictions come true.
There was no new baseball news on October 23, 1920. Grantland Rice, in his daily column, suggests a leader for baseball:
More and more reports come in from those who know him well, singing the praises of William H. McCarthy, president of the Pacific Coast League. On the face of the returns, where can organized baseball find a better man to lead it out of the wilderness?
The Chicago grand jury investigating the fixing of the 1919 World Series returns a number of indictments on October 22, 1920.
True bills charging conspiracy to commit an illegal act were voted this afternoon against Hal Chase, formerly first baseman for the New York Yankees and other teams; William Burns, formerly White Sox pitcher, and Abe Attell, New York gambler and former feather-weight champion, by the special grand jury investigating the fixing of the 1919 world’s series. At the same time the grand jury voted true bills against the eight White Sox players and the two gamblers named previously. The grand jury is now sitting as a special body and the revoting of the true bills in the latter instance was a matter of formality so that they would be valid.
Probably all the indictments which have been voted in connection with the fixing of the 1919 series between the White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds will be returned at the same time. The grand jury is now investigating the local baseball pool question, and it is expected that when it reconvenes next Tuesday afternoon more indictments will be returned in connection with this matter, which has assumed larger proportions than at first expected.
New York Tribune
Later in the story, St. Louis Browns second baseman Joe Gedeon will testify before the grand jury.
It is supposed Gedeon has knowledge of the gambler’s ring in St. Louis, and he is said to have won money on the series last year.
After the Browns ended the 1919 season in fifth place, Gedeon decided to stick around and take in the World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds before heading back to the West Coast. Gedeon was friends with some of the conspirators on the White Sox, especially Sox shortstop Swede Risberg, who also hailed from Northern California. He had played in the PCL with Risberg, as well as pitcher Lefty Williams and infielder Fred McMullin and had also been a teammate of Chicago first baseman Chick Gandil while both were with the Senators. Unfortunately, Joe seemed to have a knack for getting in with the wrong crowd. He was friendly with certain representatives of the St. Louis gambling community and knew the notorious Hal Chase from California. Gedeon attended the games both in Chicago and Cincinnati and hung out with his buddies on the Sox, even traveling with the team. Not surprisingly he got wind of the fix and put down a few bets.
in the news following October 21, 1920, W.O. McGeehan pens an editorial titled Baseball Fans Want Action with the subtitle Magnates Still Blind to Game’s Interest. He presents very little evidence for the main title:
It is quite evident that the magnates do not as yet realize just what a shock was caused by the revelations of crookedness in baseball. There is another “baseball war” on, but it promises no results as yet. The patrons of baseball will demand results before next season. They will insist upon a new controlling board for the game, a new deal and at least some promises and prospects for reform.
New York Tribune
That’s it. It might have been nice to quote some fans, or conduct a poll. McGeehan does make an excellent point about how the National Commission failed to ban Hal Chase from the game when there was clear evidence he engineered favorable gambling outcomes to games.
The mercury in New York thermometers yesterday suddenly awoke and sped upward 20 degrees in less than twenty hours. At 3 o’clock the Weather Bureau reported that all records for October 21 in the last forty-nine years had been broken. at that hour the temperature was 80 degrees atop the Whitehall Building, while in the streets it was as high as 84 1/2.
New York Tribune
We’re going to be well above average in western Massachusetts today.
It was announced last night that an agreement to this effect had been reached between Charles A. Stoneham, president of the Giants, and Colonel Jacob Ruppert, president of the Yankees. The Yankees have therefore abandoned their plans for a new stadium.
New York Tribune
That would change. The Yankees opened the 1923 season across the river in the Bronx.
