for their owner, won the World Series. Two years later they had the best
record in all of baseball and were again on their way to the Series.
Baseball players’ salaries in that era were much different than the exor-
bitant paychecks of today’s professional athletes. Often, ballplayers would
have second careers in the off-season because of the mediocrity of their
pay. To make matters worse, war-torn 1918 was such a horrible year for
baseball attendance that many owners cut player salaries for the follow-
ing season. However, it is said in all of baseball there was no owner as
parsimonious as Charles Comiskey. In 1917 he reportedly promised
every player on the White Sox a bonus if they won the American League
Championship. After winning the championship, they returned to the
clubhouse to receive their bonus—a bottle of inexpensive champagne.
Unlike other owners, Comiskey also required the players to pay for the
cleaning of their uniforms. The Sox had the best record in baseball, but
they were the least paid, were the most discontented, and wore the dirt-
iest uniforms.
Comiskey’s frugality did not sit well with the players. They were
most upset with the fact that he did not raise salaries back to their
1918 levels, even though the ballpark attendance figures for 1919
were higher than any previous year. One player, Eddie Ciccotte, felt
especially ill-treated by Comiskey. The owner promised the pitcher
a bonus of $10,000 if he won thirty games, but after Ciccotte won his
twenty-ninth game he was benched by Comiskey for the rest of the
season.
Gamblers were such a common sight around the Chicago ballpark
that Charles Comiskey had signs proclaiming “No Betting Allowed
In This Park” posted conspicuously in the stands. The money with
which these gamblers tempted the players was hard to refuse, and it
was rumored that to supplement their income some of the lower-paid
athletes would offer inside tips to the bettors. But gamblers’ mingling
with ballplayers wasn’t solely confined to the White Sox. In 1920,
allegations involving gambling among Chicago Cubs players brought
to light a scandal that would shock Chicago and the rest of America:
Eight members of the White Sox had thrown the 1919 World Series.
The exact facts regarding the scandal will never be known, but the
most accepted theory is that just prior to the World Series, White Sox
player Chick Gandil had approached a gambler by the name of
Joseph Sullivan with a proposal that for $100,000 Gandil would make
sure the Sox lost the Series. Gandil needed to recruit other players for
the plan to work. It was not hard for him to do—there were many
underpaid players on the White Sox who were dissatisfied with the
way Comiskey operated the team. Ultimately, the seven other play-(25)
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