Betting and Baseball

                                                                 

The 1926 Betting Scandal that involved Tris Speaker, Dutch Leonard, and Ty Cobb is on the books, and as far as Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis saw it, he didn't want to tarnish baseball after the 1919 Chicago White Sox.  The verdict was really a non verdict.  The slate was clean for Ty Cobb to continue his baseball career.

Cobb's arrogant personality was steadfast and well known.  He had fire in his eyes and spoke with his spikes. If Cobb was going down he would go down with a fight. He knew of inside manipulation of the turnstiles, and ticket counting discrepancies.  Baseball didn't want it's dirty laundry hung out to dry in the courtrooms.  Without giving baseball a black eye, Landis relented.

"These players had not been, nor are they now, found guilty of fixing a ball game," Landis stated. "By no decent system of justice could such a finding be made. Therefore, they were not placed on the ineligible list."

Ty Cobb's Letter --

Dear Dutch:

Well, old boy, guess you are out in California by this time and enjoying life.

Wood and myself are considerably disappointed in our business proposition, as we had $2,000 to put into it and the other side quoted us $1,400, and when we finally secured that much money it was about 2 o'clock and they refused to deal with us, as they had bookies in Chicago to take the matter up with and they had not time, so we fell down and of course we felt badly over it.

Everything was open to Wood and he can tell you about it when we get together. It was quite a responsibility and I don't care for it again, I assure you.

I thought the White Sox should have won [the Series], but am satisfied they were too confident. Well, old scout, drop me a line when you can.
Ty

Tris Speaker, Dutch Leonard, and Ty Cobb are forever enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

No one, no one played the game harder than Peter Edward Rose.