Call to the pen
Fansided

MLB Narrative History: The Cleanest Black Sox

By Rick Soisson

A statue of baseball star 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson (1887-1951) situated outside the grounds of the Fluor stadium Greenville, South Carolina. Jackson began his baseball career with the Greenville Spinners. (Photo by Epics/Getty Images)
A statue of baseball star 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson (1887-1951) situated outside the grounds of the Fluor stadium Greenville, South Carolina. Jackson began his baseball career with the Greenville Spinners. (Photo by Epics/Getty Images) /
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Chicago White Sox
Informal three-quarter length portrait of baseball player Buck Weaver (1890 – 1956) of the American League’s Chicago White Sox, holding a silver baseball and a silver baseball bat, sitting on the ledge of a dugout at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, 1912. White Sox players are standing and sitting in the dugout in the background. (Photo by Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images) /

Weaver’s Origins

Weaver was born in August, 1890, in a town that today may imagine it is a city, but isn’t. One hundred years ago it was a small industrial town surrounded by rich Pennsylvania farmland, a town where town kids played baseball on pavement or dirt roads, and their cousins played in fields. One imagines Weaver, a thin, strong boy moving between both venues, but looking for the little tougher town game, where he could face kids a little older, who threw harder. He had an innate quickness and could adjust.

He may have taken up the game late – at 12 or 13, rather than seven or eight – but this seems unlikely. By 1912, at 21 years of age, he hit Chicago, took 523 official at-bats for the Sox and walked only nine times. He only hit .224, but he was clearly there to swing the bat. He also swiped 12 bases. The Black Sox scandal was still years away.

Over the next several years Weaver’s batting average rose erratically toward the .300 mark that he registered in 1918. He struck out only occasionally, and in 1919, a world champion already (1917) and a seasoned veteran, he hit .296 for the team universally called the best team ever. He had 11 walks and struck out 21 times, a career low. Defensively, he was outstanding. It is reported Ty Cobb, the greatest “little ball” player ever, would not try to lay down bunts against Buckie.

The ’19 Sox weren’t a happy group, however, whatever their talent level. They felt unappreciated and underpaid, the latter with good reason.

Only Eddie Collins, the second sacker with Roberto Alomar’s impact, had a decent contract. The guy with Willie Mays’ talent (Jackson) did not; the guy with Curt Schilling’s impact (Eddie Cicotte) did not. Cicotte, who was 29-7 with a 1.82 ERA in 1919, was to become a pivotal figure in the downfall of the Black Sox. He got his hands on $10,000 of the gamblers’ money, more than anyone else. That seems to have been a simply practical decision by the gamblers. As the first pitcher in the rotation, Cicotte could have pitched three games in the scheduled nine game series. He was given his money early; the rest of the players were put off.

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