Hi Readers-
I just wanted to let you know I'm aware of the formatting issues with the East Chilton Babe Ruth League 1981 Standings in the past chapter (and elsewhere for that matter). I'm not an expert in html/xml stuff and how converting it from rtf, doc or odt can change the way it appears when it is converted and uploaded, but I'll look into it to see if I can improve the aesthetic of the standings.
I would also like to thank the eagle-eyed reader who caught the typo in the name of the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, not "Keensaw," as it appears. I'll add it to my fix list (which sadly I'm behind multiple chapters, sigh).
Speaking of Judge Landis, his heavy-handed (though somewhat understandable) treatment of the the eight "Black Sox" players (and the situation leading up to it) was fairly well documented in the film Eight Men Out. The need to police the game was important, but to give the same draconian punishment to each of the eight players (regardless of each's complicity in the plot) seemed unfair.
To this day, I feel like Buck Weaver and Joe Jackson got raw deals (getting a lifetime ban) considering Weaver's only crime was not ratting out his teammates. Weaver was a very good player and had every chance to have had an outstanding career.
Next to Willie Mays, Joe Jackson might have been the most complete outfielder who ever played the game and based upon the merits of his play, should have been a first ballot-Hall-of-Famer. Jackson purportedly took money, but played a sterling outfield (making some excellent plays) and hit .364 in the '19 Series (almost 10 points higher than his lifetime average. Many baseball historians feel that due to his naivete and his reportedly fairly low intelligence, he didn't fully understand the implications of taking the money from gamblers. That is what makes his situation so sad.
The only other player I felt sorry for was pitcher Eddie Cicotte. Cicotte was one of the best pitchers of his day and had a historical 1919 season. He pitched to an outstanding record of 29 (wins) and 7 (losses), with a remarkable earned run average of 1.94. The reason Cicotte was stuck on 29 wins was that White Sox owner, Charlie Comiskey, had him "shutdown" early (purportedly to save him for the World Series). More likely it was because there was a sizeable bonus in Cicotte's contract if he had won 30 games. Considering how underpaid (compared to other teams) his players were, it is a reasonable conclusion to believe it was Comiskey's legendary cheapness that caused him to cheat Cicotte out of his bonus.
Sorry for the baseball history lecture and rant. Thanks for bearing with me and hope you continue to enjoy American Teen.
Aaron