Storytellers
Chapter 22: Gamblers and the Fix

Copyright© 2012 by Paris Waterman

Time Travel Sci-Fi Sex Story: Chapter 22: Gamblers and the Fix - Its 1947, war veteran, Roy Shannon encounters an Alien in New Mexico. As a reward for helping him escape the alien provides Roy with what he calls the story of a lifetime.It takes us back to the origins of baseball; introduces a man who can merge with whomever he pleases; and along the way becomes the most terrifying serial killer in history.

Caution: This Time Travel Sci-Fi Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa   Consensual   Romantic   Lesbian   Heterosexual   Science Fiction   Time Travel   Historical   Incest   Sister   First   Oral Sex   Anal Sex   Masturbation   Pregnancy   Caution   Violence   Prostitution  

Baseball players

The Black Sox

"Bill, you said something earlier about the Chicago White Sox scandal. Since we're in that era at the moment, would you mind touching on it?"

His steel blue eyes met mine. "Sure, think I mentioned something about it earlier."

"Um, you called Comiskey a cocksucker, among other things," I said as a reminder.

"Yes I certainly did, and not for the first time either. But lemme tell you something else, everyone knows about the Black Sox scandal. Not too many people know the game had been headed in that direction for some time. How about the Louisville Scandal? [1] Ever heard about that one?"

I shook my head; obviously I had a lot to learn about the game's history.

"1877 it wuz, the Louisville Grays had a good sized lead over Boston. With only fifteen games left, the Grays only needed to win half of theirs while Boston had to take thirteen of their remaining fifteen.

"Louisville had an outfielder name of George Hall. George was sort of an early day Hal Chase, and if you don't know about him ... well, I'll bring you up to date on him.

"George had a reputation for being less than honest. Louisville also had a pitcher named Jim Devlin, who had a great "drop" pitch.

"Like I said, with only fifteen games left, the Grays began losing games they should have ... well, more than a few folks thought they should have won. 'Bonehead' plays, messed up pickoffs, swinging at really bad pitches, and striking out at the most inopportune times, and many more errors than usual abounded. Consequently, Louisville blew its lead and finished second to Boston.

"There wuz a foul stench in the air; accusations wuz made, with the primary culprit being Jim Devlin, who wuz now sporting some fancy jewelry. And his poor performances suddenly picked up in the exhibitions that followed the season. A league investigation followed and old Jim got himself and several others banned for life.

"The Louisville scandal wuz one of many, although most of the others wuz just a game being thrown here and there; low salaries and the opportunity to make a fast back wuz at the heart of it all."

"What about the World Series, Bill?"

"Aha! Well sir, the real culprit in the World Series fix wuz Charlie Comiskey, owner of the White Sox. But rather than jumping into the fray when it actually happened, if I add some additional history I think you'll see the entire picture more clearly. I say this because a hell-of-a-lot of bullshit has been scattered around to cloud the real issues. Most of which centered on that pompous cocksucker, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who wuz a hangin' judge if ever there wuz one. They claimed he saved the game. What bullshit! Players had been throwing ball games since the game began, for Christ's sake. Nothing that happened before that Series damaged the game itself. But I'm getting ahead of myself, lemme take a breath and start over."

Bill lit up a cigar, sucked on it for a moment then exhaled. A cloud of blue-white smoke floated away into the ceiling fan. He glanced at me and nodded. He began again.

"One example of why the players would throw an occasional ball game would be the formation of the Federal League in 1913.[2] It was not affiliated with either the American or National Leagues and formed clubs in Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. The league did not sign any established major leaguers that first year, relying on free agents and young players just starting their careers. However, when Chicago businessman, James A. Gilmore became league president, he brought considerable financial backing with him. They expanded to eight teams for the 1914 season, dropping Cleveland, but adding Buffalo, Brooklyn, and Baltimore, and Gilmore declared it a major league, putting it in direct competition with the existing leagues.

"Here's the thing. Both the AL and NL operated under the reserve clause, which bound a player to a team even after his contract had expired. The Federal League didn't try to sign any players with expired contracts, but they challenged the validity of the reserve clause itself, eventually signing over 80 players whose contracts had expired. So that second year, the Federal league plucked Eddie Plank and Chief Bender from the A's, but got no other AL stars because the threatened owners raised the salaries of their star performers. Cobb, for example, went from $12,000 to $20,000. Eddie Collins, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, and I got big raises too."

"But the Federal League was also taking fans from the other leagues ballparks, and although hurting financially, the Federals brought the AL and NL to the bargaining table and made peace following the 1915 season. And then, right on the heels of recovering from the battle with the Federal League, the established leagues were confronted with World War I."

Actually, when I took a moment to look it up, I found that 124 American Leaguers eventually joined the military, and the remainder of the 1918 season was played with many over-the-hill ballplayers and untested minor leaguers. When I mentioned it to Bill, he smiled and told me that wasn't the only thing went wrong for the owners.

"The fools cut the season to 140 games, and that, along with the lower attendance, cut deeply into their revenues; to their way of thinking, the quickest way to make up their losses wuz to cut the players' salaries. By 1919 the players were back, and of course, the owners attempted to recoup their latest "losses" by installing salary limits, and lowering the team rosters from 25 to 21. They did not reinstate the 154 game seasons however, which probably would have brought them plenty of money. Even so, the American League prospered that year, drawing more than 6.5 million over the 140 games. That was double the previous season.

"Gambling wuz a fact of life in baseball – always had been. I mean, gamblers were found everywhere, in the ball park, in the bars and hotels and even the brothels the ball players frequented. It wuz no secret that certain regular season games were fixed. There wuzn't a season I played went by without me being approached by one gambler or another. The players who wuz on the dirty end of it, knew enough not to come by me; but the gamblers changed year in and year out. The fellows who covered the games for the newspapers wuz suspicious enough to ask me and several others what we thought about games being fixed. I told 'em I didn't know anything about such a thing, and I guess the other players told 'em the same. Now, the newspaper boys couldn't put their suspicions in the papers on account of the libel laws. The owners must have had some idea too, but they pretended, or just plain ignored the facts of any fixing. But fixing a World Series was different. It brought the players under a spotlight they couldn't dodge away from."

"So we have the Chicago White Sox, the best team by far in baseball that year, and I would stress, the lowest paid, meaning they were certainly susceptible to a little bribery. But let me say something right here and now about that no good, cocksucker Charley Comiskey, because if anyone wuz responsible for the entire fuck-up with the World Series he wuz. Comiskey wuz a player himself before becoming an owner; and happened to pitch on the same Dubuque club as Charlie 'Old Hoss' Radbourn and Laurie Reis. Well, I'll give the piece of shit credit in that he saw with them two ahead of him he wuz going nowhere pitching, so he became a first baseman and then claimed he revolutionized the position. Way I heard it, he moved off the base toward second, whereas the others at the position remained close to the bag. [3] He also claimed another innovation in that he got the pitchers to practice covering first base on balls hit to his left. Let me tell you, there wuz a lot of snickering about that from other players who knew him back then. To a man they say it wuz already common place before Charley came along. Him and Cummings bullshitted their way into the Hall of Fame, you ask me."

"Bill, what has this got to do with the World Series Fix?" I asked, wanting to get him back on course.

He ignored me, saying: "Yeah, well, eventually he reached the big leagues, maybe it wuz 1883, I'm not sure, but it wuz around then. Look it up if you want. Anyway, damned if the owner doesn't get pissed at the manager and fire his ass only to hire Charley in his place. Did I mention the team wuz the St. Louis Browns?"

"No, but thank you for remembering to provide that detail," I said and shut up.

"So what does Charley do but win four pennants in a row, including winning the World Series in 1886. [4] He wuz a marginal success as a player though; maybe he averaged .260 over his career.

"Anyhow he moved on to manage ... what the hell, I'm telling you all about his for shit career when I should be telling you what a cheap bastard he wuz. Scared shitless he had tuberculosis; he quit and went south to warmer climates. While sitting on his ass recovering, it occurred to him that the Western states might have the makings of a new league. [5] He convinced his boss, John T Brush to hire Ban Johnson as its president, and the league quickly became one of the best leagues in the country.

"Following that first season, Charley, having fulfilled his obligations to Brush, bought himself the Sioux City Cornhuskers and moved them to St. Paul. After five seasons in Minnesota, Comiskey was granted permission by the National League to relocate his franchise to Chicago, on the condition that he could not use the name "Chicago" for his relocated ball club. Therefore, recalling perhaps his finest moments as a player, Comiskey decided on "White Sox," honoring the team his Browns had beaten for the 1886 championship.[6]

"Needless to say, he built the White Sox into a championship club, winning the pennant in 1901 and again in 1906. Though the team did not win another pennant for 11 years, Comiskey built his franchise into one of the most financially successful in the country. [7] I got to admit he spent money on the ballpark by adding seats, which of course brought in more money. The thing wuz, the more money he made, the tighter he got with how he spent it; and he wuz the stingiest owner around, even cheaper than Clark Griffith over in Washington. Oh, he paid good money to get players like Eddie Collins and Joe Jackson, but once he had them he squeezed every dime he could from them and the other players. Long before the 1919 scandal erupted, Comiskey's team was already known as the "Black Sox" for their dirty uniforms; a result of Comiskey's efforts to cut down on laundry bills. While most league players received four dollars a day on the road to cover hotels and meals, the Sox got only three. Most importantly, Comiskey underpaid many of his best players, including three men who later turned against him − star pitcher Eddie Cicotte, Jackson, and third baseman Buck Weaver. [8]

The club was divided into two "gangs" of players, each with practically nothing to say to the other. Together they formed the best team in baseball--perhaps one of the best teams that ever played the game, yet Comiskey paid two of his greatest stars, outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and third baseman Buck Weaver, only $6000 a year. Eddie Cicotte wuz still pissed off about Comiskey reneging on a $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games in the 1917 season by benching him for the last two weeks of the season and keeping him from reaching that goal. Anyway, Chick Gandil wuz the admitted ringleader [9] having brought the other players into contact with the gamblers willing to pay them off. Which gamblers actually paid the players, or for that matter, didn't make the payments is arguable. The principal gambler named wuz Arnold Rothstein, but while Rothstein may or may not have been a backer of the fix, he clearly knew about it and made a substantial amount of money, maybe as much as $400,000, betting on Series games.

"Now, I'll tell you this, the true extent of the Series fix will probably never be known. But there is this fact of which I'm sure is true – the first game wuz a sellout, scalper's wuz getting the unheard of price of $50 a ticket. But at the Ansonia Hotel in New York, Arnold Rothstein strode into the lobby just before the scheduled opening pitch. For Rothstein and the several hundred other persons gathered in the lobby, a reporter wuz reading telegraphed play-by-play accounts of the game while baseball figures wuz moved around a large diamond-shaped chart on the wall. The gamblers had sent word that Eddie Cicotte was to either walk or hit the first Reds batter, as a sign that the fix was on. The first pitch to lead-off batter Maurice Rath was a called strike. Cicotte's wild second pitch hit Rath in the back. Arnold Rothstein walked out of the Ansonia into a New York rain. He knew his money wuz safe.

 
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