| Every once in a while, in baseball discussion groups, one is asked, "Didn't Cobb once fix a game?", or "Wasn't Ty accused of throwing a game?" |
| And I was recently asked about the Leonard/Cobb/Speaker controversy. This was one of the traumas of Cobb's career. Although he & Speaker |
| were totally exonerated by Judge Landis, there remained many critics, who sneered that Landis had looked past their "misdeeds". |
| Allow me to give my understanding here. You will find no whitewash here. |
|
| Dutch Leonard had been a good pitcher in the AL. Boston, '13-18, and Detroit, '19-21, '24-25. In '14 he had an ERA of 0.96 for 224 innings, |
| and 19-5. Of course, he had Speaker, Hooper & Lewis performing their circus catches in the OF, to make the whole staff look real good, but still, |
| 0.96 IS startling! By '25, he was on Cobb's Detroit staff, and not getting along with his manager. He rep was that he ducked the good teams |
| and loaded up on the weak sisters. Cobb's lost it when Leonard refused to take the mound when ordered to, to help the team. So Cobb put him on |
| the market, for $7,500., and no one claimed him. So he passed out of the league. And he blamed Cobb and also Speaker who he hoped would pick |
| up his waiver. Speaker had been his teammate and friend on the '13-15 Red Sox. But Tris passed on him. There is no doubt in my mind that Tris |
| would have called Cobb and gotten Ty's version of why he was trying to unload Dutch. Dutch burned with frustration and held Ty & Tris responsible |
| for railroading him out of the league and his career. He was only 33 yrs. old. He withdrew to his home in Fresno, California. |
|
| In May, 1926, Dutch came East and contacted the office of the Tigers and informed Detroit owner, Frank Joseph Navin, that he held proof that Ty |
| & Tris had fixed and bet on a game, played on Sept. 25, 1919. He contacted Ban Johnson's office as well. After traveling back and forth, Navin |
| & Johnson, believed Leonard's story, and agreed to buy him off for $20,000, the amount that Leonard believed that Detroit owed him. So, Dutch |
| surrendered his 2 letters to them. They, in turn, notified Judge Landis of the events, as a courtesy. |
|
| Next, Johnson contacted the 2 players and called them into his office. Cobb and Speaker denied the charges and Johnson totally thought they were |
| lying. He told them they had to quit. On Nov. 2, Ty left a letter of resignation at Navin's office. The next day he boarded a train and left for Atlanta, |
| where he told the press that he had resigned. On Nov. 29, 1926, Speaker's resignation was announced, with no explanation given. The BB world |
| buzzed and wondered what was going on. In the meantime, 2 newspapers had gotten wind of the controversy, and threatened to publish what |
| they had. Judge Landis had conducted his own investigation. Dutch refused to come back to Chicago, saying pople "got bumped off there", so |
| Landis went to Cal. He bided his time for the moment. By this time, Cobb & Speaker, who originally had acquiesced to being coerced into the railroad |
| to keep the story from breaking in the national media, now realizing that the story was going to break anyway, changed their minds and decided to |
| fight the charges. They hired attorneys and began commencing their legal defense in tandem. They demanded that Landis release whatever he had. |
| That, on top of the 2 newspapers giving him a deadline to announce everything, forced his hand, and he made the announcement on Dec. 21, 1926. |
| What a jolt that was to the BB community!! |
|
| Leonard's Accusation |
| Before he could rule on that case, another case exploded in his face. So he dealt with another big scandal before he got back to the Leonard/Cobb case. |
| Where Leonard had accused the others (and himself) of fixing the game in question, he had no evidence outside of his word, that there had been a |
| plan to pre-arrange the results of the game. His only evidence, the 2 letters, strangely never referred in any way to a fix. They only referred to betting. |
| Leonard's accusation was based on his hope that people would assume that where there is smoke, there is fire. This was his basic charge. |
| Dutch accusation was based on the hope that people would assume that if there was evidence of betting, then the betters probably fixed the results. |
| So, that was Dutch Leonard's thinking, and the entire premise of the accusation. Betting was beyond question. Fix? His word against 2 teams. |
| The day before the game in question, Cleveland had clinched 2nd place for the '19 season. On the day of the game in question, Leonard was talking |
| under the grandstand with Joe Wood and Tris Speaker, and they plotted to fix the game for Detroit to win. Just then, according to Leonard, Cobb |
| came along, joined the conversation and agreed to plan for Detroit to win, and they all agreed to bet $2,000. on the game. That was Dutch Leonard's |
| accusation. The only thing missing is that he had no evidence of anything, except his own word, along with 2 letters, which spoke clearly of a bet, |
| but not on what the bet was based on. It could have been a bet about anything. And he had no evidence whatsoever of any fixing of anything. |
| So, Dutch was desperately hoping that others would make assumptions, and draw conclusions based on his version of events. |
|
| By January 27, 1927, Landis had finally dealt with & gotten clear of the other scandal, and he announced his verdict in the Leonard/Cobb affair. |
| He said that he could not find any proof of any fix at all. He exonerated both Cobb & Speaker, completely. He implied that they had bet, when he |
| said that what they had done was inappropriate & reprehensible, but not corrupt. |
|
| Landis vs. Johnson |
| There were so many sub-plots going on. Ban Johnson had tried to coerce both players out of his league. He said neither would play in the AL ever |
| again. And when he did that, he didn't know it, but he saved them. Because it was a pre-ordained forgone conclusion, that whatever he proclaimed, |
| was sure to be reversed by Landis. Landis ordered both men restored to their teams, which instantly gave them their unconditional releases, |
| making them free agents. Ban Johnson's handling of this affair was so shockingly incompetent, that the other owners voted him out of office. |
| It ended his career. He had stated that he knew they were innocent of any wrongdoing, but had to be sacrificed due to appearances. Ban, the |
| Autocrat, never reticent at flexing his authority, took the draconian extreme of quietly muscling Baseball's 2 most glittering superstars out of BB. |
| And therein lay his self-created, well-deserved downfall. For he was running up against Baseball equivalent of a brick wall. One who was easily |
| his equal as an arbitrary, autocratic, authoritarian power broker. Judge Landis. For whatever Johnson was to decree, Landis was hell-bent to |
| undecree. So, it's very fortunate that Johnson tried to coerce them out of BB, without the approval of Landis. |
|
| Here is my personal take. When Cleveland clinched 2nd place, they intended to break training and carouse late into the wee hours. Wood told |
| this to Leonard, and they both felt it would be an opportunity to cash in, due to Cleveland being ill-prepared to contest the next day's battle at |
| full strength. Cobb also felt no big deal in betting. Although he always claimed to not having bet, I don't believe him. I believe he bet. |
| I believe that Speaker may or may not have had anything to do with anything. But Joe Wood, his best friend and team mate did accuse Tris & Ty |
| of having put up part of the betting money. Leonard lied about everything except the bet. So, Speaker involvement, if any, isn't clear-cut. But |
| Wood's accusation, in conjunction with Leonard's does look as if it tips the balance in favor of Tris betting against his own team. Which, if true, |
| would look more damaging than Cob betting on his own team to win. But Joe Wood's statements in his Lawrence Ritter interview's is inconsistent. |
| In his letter to Leonard, he wrote that Cobb told him he didn't bet, and that he believed him. However, in his Ritter interview, he says that both |
| "Cobb & Speaker had put up some of this money to make the bet". So, if they had, and Wood was the one holding the betting money, he would |
| have known this before he wrote his letter to Leonard, in which he seems NOT to have known, whether Cobb put up money. |
| So, Joe Wood impeaches himself somewhat here. And that is death as a credible witness. So, due to this inconsistency in Wood's statements, |
| I consider Speaker's involvement as unclear & questionable. |
|
| Furthermore, at that moment, BB had no rule against betting. So no rule was broken. No fix was ever thought of. And Cobb, not being the manager, |
| was in no position to direct Tiger pitching. In '19, Cobb was just another player on Detroit, albeit their supreme star. |
| So, I don't believe there ever was an attempt to fix a game, only bet on one, upon hearing that the Indians were going to party long into the night. |
| And no rule was broken. Leonard took the $20,000. he got for selling his letters, and started a grape vineyard in Fresno, Cal. and became a millionaire |
| by selling wine. But he died early in life, July 11, 1952, at the age of 60. These are the main events. Charles Alexander gives a concise account of |
| this controversy in his book, Ty Cobb, in the chapter, "Is there any decency left on Earth?", pp. 185-194. |
|
| But Landis' problem with that was the simple fact that they had broken no BB law, rule, regulation, whatever. He had no nail on which to hang them, |
| so to speak, even if he had wanted to. Which he clearly didn't want to. Landis had been a lawyer, before he became a Federal judge, and he thought |
| in legal terms. And he realized that he had nothing. No club with which to bludgeon them with. But his problem went much deeper than legalities. |
| Judge Landis actually liked both Cobb & Speaker. And he loved the institution of baseball. All the way. In 1915, he had told the Federal League that |
| he would not look kindly upon anything that harmed the institution of baseball. He opposed the Federal League because he mistakenly thought that it |
| was, for some reason, an "outlaw" league. Apparently, he had forgotten that the American League, in 1901, was once an "outlaw" organization, |
| according to the National League. While he had been wrong in his opposition to the Federal L. in '15, he was right about Cobb/Speaker in Dec., '26. |
| He knew that to hurt them would harm BB. And he would never have done that unless he believed in his heart that they had done something to truly |
| betray or sell out BB. Judge Landis "looked past" nothing. It wasn't in his character to protect anyone who betrayed BB. And even though he did really |
| love and admire Speaker & Cobb, that wouldn't have saved them, if Landis had believed them to have been corrupt. He liked them but he loved BB more. |
|
| And what did Landis really have anyway. The word of a man, who had motive to lie. HUGE motive to lie. So much motive, that he incriminated himself |
| to bring down the objects of his hatred. And his letters, if true, should have mentioned a fix. But they didn't. |
|
| An item I haven't mentioned here, it that this bombshell, had caused huge headlines across the land. And it was all pro-players, and anti- Navin, |
| Johnson & Landis. Landis may have been high-handed and arbitrary in his rulings before and after, but he wasn't a fool or stupid. He probably |
| knew that if he expelled the biggest stars, without good reason, he would have harmed BB in a way that was unacceptable to him. |
| And lest we forget. To hurt Cobb & Speaker, would have supported Ban Johnson, who had given the 2 players the back of his ungrateful hand. |
| Landis and & Johnson had nothing but utter contempt for each other. The most helpful thing Johnson did for Speaker and Cobb was to announce that |
| neither would ever play in his league ever again. And therein laid their salvation! Landis was not about to let that stand. In some ways, |
| it appeared as if both Johnson & Landis treated this incident as a canvas on which to play out their personal power struggle for who ruled |
| baseball, than about the fates of 2 superstars. And the proof of that, is when McGraw tried to sign Ty, Landis wrote him, |
| "Lay off Cobb." Landis was totally in earnest about rubbing Johnson's nose in it. He insisted that they be returned to their teams' reserve lists. |
|
| Ultimately, Landis comes out looking much more credible than Johnson. Landis, at least called in 2 entire teams, and questions them as to |
| whether or not the game in question had been played on the up & up. Johnson did almost nothing. |
| Johnson's private detectives would not be able to inform him on whether or not the game was fixed. Did Johnson care? Apparently not a whit. |
|
| I personally believe that what Ty, Joe and Dutch did was very wrong and should not have been done. It was tasteless, classless, inappropriate, |
| reprehensible, lamentable, regrettable, unethical, immoral, unprincipled, etc. But not illegal, criminal or corrupt. They tried to turn a quick buck |
| over inside information. Similar to insider trading today. Like Martha Stewart. One should not try to take advantage, profit, or cash in on |
| highly classified, inside, secret information. I would not have fined or suspended them, since they technically broke no rule. Shameful as it was, |
| it would be also wrong to enforce retroactively a rule which didn't exist yet. I believe in the subsequent rule against betting on baseball, |
| regardless if it's for or against your team. Pete Rose did wrong. There SHOULD have been a rule against betting in Ty's time. |
|
| But John McGraw OWNED a gambling casino in Havana. Hornsby was betting on horses every day at the track. Cap Anson had been |
| a betting man. In fact, Landis had once called Hornsby into his office and demanded that he stay away from the track and horses and Hornsby |
| told him his betting on horses was none of his business and to go to hell. Landis backed down. What else could he do? Rogers was quite right, |
| morally and legally. Morally, Landis was not a stickler for morality. Every day he served as Commissioner, he looked the other way at the owners' |
| gentlemen's agreement not to allow blacks into the MLs. So he wasn't a stickler on moral issues. |
|
| Ty & Tris were initially cowed by Ban Johnson, who sat there behind his big desk, and smugly read them their "Miranda rights". They were probably |
| shocked and embarrassed and furious that Johnson refused to believe them. Johnson gave them an ultimatum. Quit quietly and we'll keep this all |
| hush-hush, and no one will know. Who will believe you after seeing these letters? The riot act worked. Ty & Tris were bluffed into going quietly |
| into the night. Or so it appeared for a short while. But not for long. Because once 2 newspapers caught wind of the story, they threatened Landis |
| that they'd break the story if he didn't. And they gave him a deadline to announce whatever he had. One of them was the Chicago Tribune. |
|
| Back to controversy. Later, when the sports community lined up behind Cobb & Speaker, Ban Johnson put out this fantastic message at a press |
| conference in Chicago, IL, Jan. 17, 1927; |
|
| "I don't believe Ty Cobb ever played a dishonest game in his life. If that is the exoneration he seeks, I gladly give it to him. But it is from Landis that Cobb |
| should seek an explanation. The American League ousted Cobb, but it was Landis who broadcast the story of his mistakes. |
|
| I love Ty Cobb. I never knew a finer player. I don't think he's been a good manager, and I have had to strap him as a father straps an unruly boy. |
| But I know Ty Cobb's not a crooked ball player. We let him go because he had written a peculiar letter about a betting deal that he couldn't explain |
| and because I felt that he violated a position of trust. |
|
| Tris Speaker is a different type of fellow. For want of a better word I'd call Tris cute. He knows why he was forced out of the management of the |
| Cleveland club. If he wants me to tell him I'll meet him in a court of law and tell the facts under oath. |
|
| The American League is a business. When our directors found two employees whom they didn't think were serving them right they had to let them |
| go. Now isn't that enough? As long as I'm President of the American League neither one of them will manage or play on our teams." |
|
| "I have men working for me, on my personal payroll, whose business it is to report on the conduct of our ball players. We don't want players |
| betting on horse races or ball games while they're playing. We don't want players willing to lay down to another team either for friendship or |
| money. That's why I get these reports. This data belongs to me, and not to Landis. The American League gave Landis enough to show why |
| Cobb and Speaker were no longer wanted by us. That's all we needed to give him. I have reports on Speaker which Landis never will get |
| unless we go to court. |
|
| "Judge Landis need not worry over the correctness of that interview. I made that statement then, I'm making it again, and I'll make it when he calls |
| me Monday. |
|
| "I only hope he holds an open meeting. I want the public to know what the American League did and what Landis did. |
|
| "I sent a detective to watch the conduct of the Cleveland club two years ago. I learned from him by whom bets were made on horse races and |
| ball games. I learned who was taking the money for the bets. I learned the names of the bookmakers who accepted the wagers and how much |
| money was won or lost. I was gathering the evidence. Now, I watched Ty Cobb, too. I watched him not because I thought he was crooked, but |
| because I thought he was a bad manager. Frequently, I have called him down. I gave Ty an interview just before he went on his hunting trip last |
| Fall. He talked to me for two hours. He was heart-broken and maintained his innocence in that alleged betting deal which his letter tells about. I |
| told him that whether guilty or not, he was through in the American League. I didn't think he played fair with his employers or with me. The actual |
| facts which caused this whole explosion came to me early last Summer. |
|
| "Dutch Leonard had a claim against the Detroit Club. He threatened to sue for damages. He asserted that he had sworn statements of five men |
| stating that Cobb had declared he would drive Leonard out of baseball. Ty always has been violent in his likes and dislikes. Those statements of |
| his, if carried to court, would have been damaging to the Detroit Club. Frank Navin, the owner, also faced the possibility that, should he refuse to |
| settle with Leonard, the latter would sell two letters, One, of course, was that one written by Cobb, and the other was that letter of Joe Wood. |
|
| "You know the contents. Both indicate knowledge on the part of the writers of a plan to bet on a framed ball game. Cob denies he bet, and I don't |
| think he did. I say again I think Ty is honest. But as he couldn't explain the letter satisfactorily, it was a damaging document. So on that letter alone |
| the American League would have been forced to let Cobb go. Now Speaker was implicated in the deal by statements by Leonard. I also have the |
| data of my detective. I called a meeting of the directors of my league. My own illness and the pressure of their business delayed the meeting until |
| Sept. 9, 1926. We met in a prominent Chicago club. We wanted secrecy, not because it meant anything to us but because we felt we should |
| protect Cobb and Speaker as much as we could. They had done a lot for baseball. We had to let them out, but we saw no reason for bringing |
| embarrassment upon their families. We wanted to be decent about it. The directors voted to turn the results of the Leonard investigation over |
| to Landis. We did that in compliment to him, not to pass the buck. We had acted. We thought he ought to know about it. |
|
| When Landis released that testimony and those letters, I was amazed. I couldn't fathom his motive. The only thing I could see behind that move |
| was a desire for personal publicity. I'll tell him that when I take the witness stand. The American League is a business. It is a semi-public business |
| to be sure, and we try to keep faith with the public. Certainly we had the right to let two employees go if we felt that they had violated a trust. |
| But Landis had no right to release the Landis charges. He had taken no part in the ousting of the two men. It was purely a league, not an inter- |
| league matter, and there was nothing to be gained by telling the world that we felt Cobb and Speaker had made mistakes which made them unwelcome |
| employees. When I take the stand Monday I may tell the whole story of my relationship with the Judge. If he wants to know when I lost faith in him |
| I'll tell him this. When the Black Sox scandal broke the American League voted to prosecute the crooked players. Landis received the job. After several |
| months had passed I asked him what he was doing, and he replied: 'Nothing'. I took the case away from him, prosecuted it with the funds of the |
| American League and never asked him for help. I had decided he didn't want to cooperate. My second break with Landis came over a financial |
| matter. I do not care to discuss it now, but I will tell about it Monday, if he wants him to. This statement of mine probably means a new fight with |
| Landis. But he has chosen to make the public think the American League passed the buck to him on the Speaker and Cobb case. That's not true, |
| and I don't intend to let the public keep on thinking that way. |
|
| Johnson also said that his observations of the Cleveland club showed that players as late as 1925 were continually betting on horse racing |
| during the baseball season. One report, Johnson said, details the story of a pool by the players that netted a profit of $4,200. We have no |
| objections to players attending horse races," Johnson said. "We do object to them betting on races while they are supposed to be giving their |
| best efforts to the baseball games." End of press conference. (New York Times, Jan. 18, 1927, pp. 18, "Johnson Accepts Landis Challenge") |
| And more self-contradictory, convoluted, hypocritical garbage has not been seen in this part of the world since. And if good luck holds . . . |
|
| Bottom line. Johnson was perfectly willing to sacrifice 2 of America's heroes due to appearances. Well, America wasn't, and let him know in |
| no uncertain terms! |
|
| All throughout the country, since the first announcements were made, support for the 2 players came from every spectrum of the BB community. |
| On Dec. 23, Dan Howley went on record with this statement. "I would stake my life on Cobb's integrity, and the same goes for Tris Speaker. Dan |
| had been a coach with the Tigers from 1919-22, & room mates with Dutch Leonard on the road for 2 years. |
|
| President Navin also showed himself to not be up to handling anything but bookkeeping with aplomb or finesse. He actually came out and stated that |
| the reason for his releasing of Cobb as player and manager was due to his bad managing of the team, and that 11 Tigers had come to him and asked |
| to be traded. Sports writers were taken aback at this news. One said that if that were the case, there were a few other managers that were due |
| to be publicly hung in a town square. Detroit President Frank Joseph Navin's handling of the whole affair smacked of such Machiavellian |
| machinations of such epic proportions, that's it's a wonder that the Tigers' fans allowed him to continue to own the team, so crude was his incompetence. |
| President Navin may have been many things. A competent keeper of books & records. Raised frugality in investing in his team to an artistic high. But |
| as an adept, adroit manager of a difficult human situation, he was lost, out to sea, over his head, and out of his sedentary element. His bumbling, |
| unctuous, supercilious, pedantic, crude manner of conducting this tricky, delicate circumstance left him bewildered, annoyed and at a loss as what to do. |
| I also have 4 CDs of the Glory of their Times. The CDs give many little tid-bits, such as this discourse on the Cobb/Speaker/Leonard affair, |
| which never made it into the book, incredibly! One of the men interviewed was Joe Wood, who gave good inside details. He burns Leonard pretty good. |
| When interviewer Lawrence Ritter tells him about Ty coming clean in his autobiography, Woods acts very surprised. Here is what he has to say, I'm |
| transcribing the tape here; |
|
| Ritter: "The other book I read was a biography by, uh, Ty Cobb, and at the end of the book, he has a whole section, and it was all news to me, |
| on some mess-up, with him, you, and Tris Speaker & Dutch Leonard. Would you tell me what that was all about? |
| Wood: "I will. I'm not going to tell you details, because I wouldn't tell you too much about this thing because it stinks. When Dutch Leonard got |
| through in Detroit, Cobb was manager. And for that reason he had a gripe against Cobb, and then he wanted Speaker to take him on over in |
| Cleveland, & Spoke wouldn't take him on. For that reason he got sore at both of them. Well, in '20, there was a dispute over some betting, & in |
| order to get even, Leonard claimed this & that, and so on, and, there was a bet placed on the ballgame, but it wasn't against our club, it was on |
| our club. I was the guy who bet the . . . I had charge of the money. Well, I handled this through a gate tender, in Detroit, who contacted the |
| bookies, and the money was bet, the money was collected, & this little son-of-a-gun come down, I know him very well, this gate tender, & brought |
| this money down to the train as we were leaving Detroit, and I gave him, after keeping equal splits, for 3 fellas, I gave him, the extra money, |
| which amounted to about $30. or $40. bucks, for placing the bet. This was just the same as betting on a prize fight or anything else. We bet on |
| ourselves. There was nothing crooked about it on our part. |
| Ritter: "How often did teams bet on themselves? |
| Wood: "Never! Never, that's the only bet I ever made in my life. And just because someone else wanted to bet on it & I handled the money. But this |
| thing in '20 (Black Sox scandal), it wasn't exactly on the up & up, I have to admit that. Because I knew from what Cicotte had told me in |
| Cleveland that the White Sox didn't dare win. But I didn't know through a couple of other fellas on the Detroit ballclub that they weren't going to |
| play their heads off trying to beat us. I'm not saying that they were going to lay down and give us the game, (garbled). Well anyhow, I knew |
| that the White Sox didn't dare win that year. And this got back to Landis, and he had a letter that I had written, and, uh, Landis called me |
| over to New York says, 'You write that letter', I said I sure did, there was my name on it, and Leonard had black-mailed Navin in Detroit for so |
| much for that letter, and he still kept copies of it, & then he went ahead and tried to black-mail, I don't know how the hell he, small amount |
| of money somebody out there, by going after Cobb & spilling this whole story. Which was true. I was at a World Series, with Landis down in NY & |
| he says, I know Landis very well, Judge says, 'We gonna have any trouble over this thing, Joe', I said 'I don't think so'. 'You let me know and if |
| ya do, I'll come make a trip up to New Haven.' |
| Ritter: "What was the letter you wrote?" |
| Wood: "Leonard. Here he kept this letter that I had written him, after I got home here one winter, I wrote him, out in Fresno, a letter, same as I |
| write to my brother, I trusted him, I wrote him this letter, he kept it & cashed in on it. I understand he got $12-15,000. the 1st from Navin in |
| Detroit, then they closed it for awhile and came out with it again. And he kept the letter through all of that. |
| Ritter: "The letter had that much dynamite in it?" |
| Wood: "Yeah. The letter quoted me the amount of money was bet, his share was enclosed in the letter. I loaned that son-of-a-bitch $200. to buy his |
| 1st motor-cycle in Boston when he 1st joined us. And he made the crack that he didn't mind what he was doing to Cobb and Speaker but he hated to |
| hurt Woodie. But never the less he did it. That dirty little son-of-a bitch of a Leonard. He died a millionaire, but he died young (60). A |
| great little pitcher too. But he was a 1st class . . . crook. |
| Ritter: "How did Speaker & Cobb get involved on it? |
| Wood: "Cobb & Speaker put up some of this money to make the bet. And Leonard broadcast this thing, because Cobb let him go, and Speaker |
| wouldn't take him on. |
| Ritter: "Is it for this reason that both Cobb and Speaker left their jobs at Cleveland & Detroit? |
| Wood: "Yeah, yeah. But they didn't get out of baseball. They went to the Athletics. I'd like to see what Cobb had to say about it, because |
| (garbled). They got together with an attorney in Detroit, my greatest friend, Spoke & Cobb, and they got a bunch of stuff written up, type- |
| written & deposited in a vault in a bank in Cleveland, & if they'd a chased Cobb & Speaker outta baseball this would'a all come out. |
| Ritter: "Cobb has a whole chapter on it. He doesn't hide it at all. |
| Wood: "Well, he didn't hide some of it. But he doesn't tell it as it was, I'll bet you a million dollars. I don't think Cobb could afford that to |
| tell the story. Cause I know the story. I never told that to a soul in my life. I haven't even told it to my . . . brother. Well I didn't tell you |
| anything that wasn't straight & on the level, I'll tell you that. That's one reason why this thing did really hurt me. It's the first and only |
| accusation in my life that I ever had against me, that I know of." |
| So that's Joe Wood talking to Lawrence Stanley Ritter, famed author of The Glory of Their Times, 1966. This interview was taken on October 1, 1965. |
|
| Larry Ritter passed away Feb. 15, 2004, at the age of 84, at his Manhattan apt. after a series of strokes. I had corresponded with him |
| once. He said Babe Ruth was the Greatest Player. He only made $35K on the book, because he shared his royalties with those he interviewed. |
| Lawrence Stanley Ritter May 23, 1922 - 2004, Feb.15, age 81, Died, NYC; BB author: Main claim to fame - his superb book, "The Glory of Their Times". |
| He took the title from the passage in Biblical Ecclesiastics: "All these were honored in their generations and were the glory of their times." Grad. |
| Grad. Indiana U. , Doctorate from Wisconsin. Also wrote text for "The Babe: A Life in Pictures", with Mark Rucker (1988). |
| After Ty Cob died in '66, Lawrence traveled 75,000 around the country with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and interviewed 22 ballplayers from Ty's era. |
| He made only about $35,000 profit from around 360,000 book sales, due to his sharing his royalties with those players he interviewed. |
| He turned the original tapes over to the BB Hall of Fame. They are now available in excerpt form in CD or tape cassette format. |
| Professor of Finance and Economics at NYC for 30 yrs. "I don't like the players, I don't like the umpires, I don't like the owners, but I love the game." |
| Interested in BB since 1931. d. at his Manhattan apt., after a series of strokes. |
|
| What did Joe Wood mean when he said, "Well, he didn't hide some of it. But he doesn't tell it as it was, I'll bet you a million dollars. I don't think |
| Cobb could afford that to tell the story. Cause I know the story. I never told that to a soul in my life."? |
|
| Simply put, here is my interpretation of what Wood referred to. Ty Cobb went to his grave insisting that he had never made the bet. I think he did. |
| I believe he lied. And that is what I believe Joe Wood referred to. That Ty did indeed make the bet. |
| I sincerely believe that there are some things which people can not find the intestinal fortitude to face up to. OJ will never cop. Bill Clinton |
| lied for a long time. |
| There are some things perhaps which Ty couldn't face. Perhaps he felt that the act of betting was so heinous that he believed no one would have |
| forgiven him. Who knows? But I believe he bet, Joe Wood insinuates that too, so that's what I believe happened. |
| What do you think Joe Wood meant? I don't think a fix was possible for obvious reasons. Landis had called in both teams, all of them. And |
| grilled them. It was Leonard's word against the word of almost 50 other men. Landis had specifically asked each and every man on both the Tigers |
| and Cleveland if the game was on the up & up and square, and everyone agreed it was. They also were asked if anyone had ever known or heard of |
| a single case where Cobb did anything wrong or suspect. And unbelievably not a single player could think of anything. And Ty had plenty of guys |
| pissed at him. |
| Risberg actually went so far as to say that he thought Cobb was the greatest and most honest player in the MLs. Quite a thing to say about an |
| an enemy player. |
|
| Upon reflection on Ty and his bet, I realize that that was what he meant when he said in one of the letters. "It was quite a responsibility and I |
| don't care for it again, I can assure you." |
| He then tells how he was too late to place the bet. He was even too ashamed to tell Joe Wood! He must have felt such guilt over this one |
| small act, that he suffered guilt pangs the rest of his life. |
| He even kept up the cover-up in his book with Stump. Why such undue and unseemly extremes over such a minor act, for which he broke no rules? |
| I think it is answered because he went against his conscious. He was many things unpleasant, but he was not dishonest. His upbringing was southern, |
| which was very much akin to Japan, entirely based on a very middle ages morality based on a perverted, deformed sense of "Honor". They would |
| rather commit suicide rather than lose their "honor". How weirdly feudal. Very, very strange, and it made Cobb look strange by extension. |
|
| For many years, I believed that Ty didn't place the bet. Mostly because Joe Wood said in his letter to Dutch Leonard that Ty had claimed to him (Wood) |
| that he hadn't arrived in time to get his bet placed. So I thought that was convincing. But I've changed my mind based on the following 3 statements, |
| which I don't feel are the statements of a person in the consciousness of innocence. |
|
| 1. Ty Cobb - "It was quite a responsibility and I don't care for it again, I can assure you." From Joe Wood's letter to Dutch Leonard. |
|
| 2. Joe Wood - "Well, he didn't hide some of it. But he doesn't tell it as it was, I'll bet you a million dollars. I don't think Cobb could afford that to |
| tell the story. Cause I know the story. I never told that to a soul in my life. I haven't even told it to my . . . brother. Joe Wood talking in interview with |
| Lawrence Ritter in 1965. |
|
| 3. JG Taylor Spink - "Ty Refuses To Discuss Incident - From time to time, this old canard has come up in print. It did a few years ago. |
| I wrote Ty and asked him for comment. "Taylor, even to the most wonderful friend I have in the world, which you are," he wrote, "my lips are |
| still sealed on this matter. This is an honor thing with me," he went on. "It is just too distasteful to talk about. I think it is too late now to stir up things. |
| Most of the people involved are now dead. It almost killed me to suffer such dishonor in a game which I loved so much and to which I think I gave |
| so much. I admit the whole thing rankles me and I talk too much. some day I'll tell the story which has some twists which would intrigue even your |
| reportorial heart, but not now." |
| That was enough for me. I never pressed the issue. Had Ty maintained his health, I'm sure he would have talked, but even then, he was going |
| down hill. That letter, written Dec. 27, 1958, was in wavering handwriting. (end of quote by JG Taylor Spink) |
| (Sporting News, Dec. 20, 1961, pp. 12, column 5) |
| Ty was also inaccurate in that not all had died. In '58, Leonard & Wood were still alive. Ban Johnson, Landis, Navin & Speaker had passed. |
|
| So the above are the reasons I've changed my mind as to whether Ty bet on the game. Ty's quote, Wood was his great friend, Spink was more like |
| his brother than his best friend. Ty's quote is just not compatible with that of someone who was merely a non-participating conduit of information. |
| Joe Wood's quote, 4 yrs. after Ty died, indicates that something was hidden. Wood did say that Ty put up money. |
|
| Ty's refusal to confide in JG Taylor Spink, his best friend, bears a word or two. Who was Spink to Ty? Spink had inherited The Sporting |
| News in 1914, after his father, Charles Claude Spink died. In 1914, Ty bestrode the Baseball firmament, like a bejeweled, Oriental conqueror. An |
| unstoppable force. Like a Terminator, who's breached the outer defense perimeter. Around every 10 years or so, BB produces an unstoppable force. |
| Buck Ewing in the 1880's, Hans Wagner in the 1910's, Ty Cobb in the 1910's, Babe Ruth in the 1920's. Baseball's like that. So when Taylor Spink |
| became the owner & editor-in-chief, of Sporting News, oh, how Cobb strode & conquered. And it is always to your advantage to be on the inside |
| track, and hopefully an intimate friend, of the best player in the Land. And this Spink set out to do with Ty. And to the best player of a sport, it is |
| also to your great advantage, to have as your allies, and hopefully your own best buddies, those best-positioned strategically to help your career. |
| And this, Taylor Spink, obviously was. His newspaper was the most influential, all-important sports newspaper that ever existed. Especially so, |
| for Baseball. Which it billed itself as "The Bible of the Sport". Taylor Spink considered his good friend, Ty Cobb, to be the best & greatest ballplayer |
|
| Taylor Spink considered his good friend, Ty Cobb, to be the best & greatest ballplayer |
| who ever lived, as almost all of his generation did. Babe Ruth? Spink, like the rest of his peers, considered the Babe to be the sport's greatest |
| slugger, and it's most powerful drawing card, but a specialist, even considering his pitching. Never to be compared to Ty Cobb as an all-around |
| complete player. And down through the decades, the 30's, 40's, 50's, JG Taylor Spink looked out for his friend, Ty's interests in TSN. Always |
| keeping his name in the news. Always having Harry Salsinger, doing 15-20 part retrospectives on Ty's career. Always interviewing players |
| from the 1800's to 1930's. Always asking for their all-time teams. Always finishing the interviews with, "Who's your greatest player?" Which |
| was the approved, historically correct way to conduct an interview. Thanks to him, we have all that great historical content. We'd be much the |
| poorer, if not for JG Taylor Spink's phenomenal work. So when Ty refused an accommodation to his closest friend in the world, in the most |
| private of all communicadi, the mail, one must wonder why. What was he afraid of? His friend, although a newsman, a publisher, would never |
| have betrayed him, or given him up to his enemies. And yet Cob held back. Couldn't bring himself to reveal his innermost thoughts to his virtual |
| brother. And this speaks volumes, as to his pain, and his guilt. He could have merely lied to cover up. Yet, his personal code forbade his lying |
| to his closest friend & ally in all the world. He still just couldn't bring himself to face his over-whelming sense of guilt at having done such a minor |
| wrong. As he saw it. To those who are his enemies, & attack him as unprincipled. Look at his guilt at betting on a game a single time in his life. |
| Correction. He claimed to Judge Landis that he bet on one of the 1919 World Series games. And lost. His usual business acumen cannot be |
| faulted in that particular case!! So this is one of the main reasons, I've come to believe, right or wrong, that Ty did indeed bet on that game in question. |
|
| In Summation: |
| Spink's quote in 1961, was only a yr. before his own death. He referred to a 1958 letter. I find it odd, if Ty didn't bet, why he felt so uncomfortable, |
| almost 40 yrs. later, confiding in his very best friend, during private correspondence, almost to a brother, that he didn't place a bet. That is just strange, |
| if he were non-participating. Even though there had been no rule against it, Ty's sense of integrity was so highly-principled, that I believed that he |
| suffered great guilt & angst over this minor incident. His southern upbringing was so based on feudal honor, like Japan's, that he must have felt that |
| he might have brought dishonor to his family name, which he took so seriously. His personal code was so self-condemning whenever he went |
| against his conscious, that he never forgave himself, and believed that no one else should have either. Strange are the ways of feudal honor & |
| morality. And then again, possibly he didn't bet, and simply suffered like hell, upon being accused of being dishonorable. Anything is possible, but |
| I feel the preponderance of the scant evidence points more strongly to the former possibility. |
|
| Although originally I had not intended to include some of the sub-plots, I've decided to add on what I had, for the sake of full disclosure. |
| Meanwhile, over in Detroit, idiot Navin was similarly covering himself in ludicrosity. As soon as Cobb was restored to his teams list, he instantly |
| gave him his release and declared him a free agent. Between them, Navin and Johnson made so many half-ass crazy comments it's hard to believe. |
| Navin came out with, "I fired him, not because I thought he did anything wrong or dishonest, but because he failed as a manager. He couldn't win |
| and during the year 11 of our players came to me and asked to be traded because of him." |
|
| What nerve!!! Navin had made only 2 sizable investments in the team since '21. Cobb was playing with 6th and 7th place material and coming in |
| 2nd once, 3rd twice in his 6 yrs. managing. The lying sack of hypocritical fresh manure!! Cobb couldn't win with an owner who sand-bagged him. |
| After the '24 season, Ty's 4th, where he brought the Tigers in 3rd, 6 games back, after having been in the thick of it all year, no less an authority than |
| Christy Mathewson, named a all star team for the year, A and B. And he named Ty Cobb as the manager of the B team. As well he should, |
| for Ty's warriors had beaten Ruppert's Yankees, 13-9 on the year. And Babe had had one of his very finest seasons and won the league MVP. |
|
| So, Navin was speaking through his anus, as usual for him. Cobb had done his job, and did it with almost no help from his management. |
| Why he was fired was probably his $50K per annum. After Ty's firing, whenever those 2 would pass each other in a corridor, they'd each snarl, |
| "I made you rich!" at each other. And the comment was much more credible coming from Ty, than vica versa. |
|
| As for Johnson, NY Times sports writer John Kieran wrote this on Jan. 22, 1927. "The AL owners tried a muzzle on Johnson and it didn't fit. |
| This time they may try a catapult." |
|
| So, if no bet was laid, where's the case? Frankly, I believe that Ty DID lay down a bet, and was smart enough to lie to Joe Wood. Either way, |
| he broke no rule and there was simply no legal case against him. |
| I, however, do hold him responsible for doing an immoral, reprehensible, and cheesy act. I think he did wrong, and shouldn't have. |
| But ban him from the game? For a single asinine, ignorant error of judgment? After a lifetime of desperately honest labor? |
| Is someone insane? He made a error of judgment, and boy did he pay through the nose. More than he ever deserved. |
|
| Landis had heard for 30 days from all across America. The baseball public was so solidly behind Cobb and Speaker, that I feel Landis felt, |
| he had no choice. High-handed & arbitrary though he was, he wasn't stupid. And he realized that there was no legal basis on which to expel |
| either super-star. Not that he needed one. He was the Czar. But he also had his finger to the wind of BB's public opinion. And it was in no |
| way, shape or form, divided. It was rock solid across the board - Pro-players. But most of all, he was intensely aware of there having been no |
| BB rule against betting. And Joe Wood's letter claimed that Cobb had claimed he didn't bet. And the letter states that Wood believed him. That right |
| there was enough to exonerate Cobb in a court of law, in a possible defamation case against BB. So, legal thinking Landis didn't fear much, but one |
| of the few things he would have feared is losing a court case for huge bucks. For a former judge, that would have been the ultimate humiliation. |
| His evidence stunk. It would have been a case of one man's word against the word of not only Cobb & Speaker, but the entire teams of Detroit & |
| Cleveland. The accuser had huge motive to lie, and the defendants were hugely popular BB royalty of the highest caliber. All in all, a real legal |
| dog of a losing case. Landis saw the writing on the wall. And then there was the sweet prospect of letting Johnson remember his place on |
| BB's totem pole. If in terms of arbitrary, authoritarian arrogance, if Johnson was Attila, Landis was Genghis Khan. And one was preparing to |
| show the BB world who was at the top of BB's food chain. If there were to be any summary executions at the grand old ballpark, the Judge |
| wanted all to realize that he was perfectly competent to hire the firing squad and offer the last cigarettes. And Johnson had dared to presume |
| he had the chops to expel two of Landis' favorite stars without his permission or approval. And set him (Landis) up for an extremely humiliating |
| court loss. So I can't imagine the Judge appreciating being put in that horrible, legally compromising position. And he was soon to let Ban know |
| who sat atop the BB food chain. He would soon have BB's 2nd in line in the power brokering food chain for an after-dinner mint. |
|
| He had no good evidence, he heard BB's public weigh in behind the stars, and he himself happened to have liked them very much. |
| And he also knew that they didn't have to be innocent to sue BB. All they needed was no LEGAL case against them. Landis knew very well that |
| Cobb was not Joe Jackson. He wouldn't go meekly. He'd rage, rage against the dying of the Light! |
| And more importantly, he'd sue the hell out of the Light! |
|
| Epilogue |
| After he was cleared by Judge Landis, Ty signed with Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, after generous offers from the Giants, Senators, Dodgers, |
| and the Browns. McGraw offered $60,000 for 2 seasons and threw in a private hotel room on the road. Clark Griffith offered $50,000 |
| "just to show up at his park and appear on the field when I felt like it." and also to match any other offer, & threw in a $10,000. signing bonus. |
| Phil Ball of the Browns, with his new manager, Dan Howley, Ty's friend and former coach, offered around $30,000. Even Jack Dunn, of the |
| Baltimore International Club offered around $25,000. If Ty had wondered if he had marketability, these offers surely put his anxieties to rest. |
| John J. McGraw's offer, after a lifetime of antagonism, represented one of the finest compliments of Cobb's life. |
|
| As it turned out, Ty signed with Connie Mack for an unprecedented amount. Salary = $40,000, signing bonus = $30,000. Spring exhibition games |
| receipts = $15,000. Special bonus if A's won the pennant = $20,000. As it turned out, the A's came in 2nd to the '27 Yankees by 19 games. |
| But Mack was so pleased with Ty's contribution to the team, that he gave Ty the $20,000. anyway, and he announced that later in his 1950 auto- |
| biography, pp. and he never regretted it. As well he shouldn't have. Ty recorded the 5th highest BA in the league, just above Babe Ruth, and 2nd |
| highest on the team, 5th OBP in the league, and 3rd in SB. So Ty's $105,000 total package of '27 remained the MLs record until exceeded so many |
| long years later, by Ted Williams in 1958. And showing why he was the smartest ballplayer ever, Ty insisted in keeping his package confidential, |
| knowing that if word got out, Babe Ruth would have demanded and gotten more from his owner, Jake Ruppert. Ruth never heard, didn't ask, and |
| hence Ty got another record. Proving that sometimes discretion is wisest. |
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