Ridiculous crime.

It's a production of iHeartRadio.

And there she is, Elizabeth Dutton.

There I am, Hey Sarah Burnett.

What's it.

How you doing good?

Long time to see I'm here.

I live here now.

Oh nice?

So I just had the weekend.

Yeah, I lost the keys to my place and so I've been I've been staying here.

That's what that smell is.

Yes, no, no, it's it's nice.

It's like a bouquet.

It's like, what is that like pot pourri?

Yeah, it's really nice.

I've been eating pot pourri.

Ran out of groceries.

I got that question for you.

Beyond that.

Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

You know what's ridiculous?

Oh yeah, I do know what's ridiculous?

What?

Okay?

So Dosi segundo the third on Instagram.

Okay, I like this third to the next scent of something like hey, Saren's gonna love slash hate this.

And it was the vulgar Chef this account on Instagram where the guy it looks like he purade hot dogs and put them into a cocking gun and just so he could talk about like laying your cock into and then but he did it and he.

Ate hot dogs.

Yeah, I got hot dog paste.

Yeah, and so I was like, this is amazing, but you.

Can't buy it.

Oh, so it's just his own private, twisted masship.

But then Lindsay Max on Instagram came through with something because you like nutella, right I do?

I love nutella?

Well, ruin.

There there's this company.

Maxim Fridric teamed up with Louis Vatan to offer basically nutella a chocolate spread.

You can get Louis Vutan chocolate spread.

Wait what it's.

French hazelnuts and blue vanilla from Reunion Island blend in this chocolate spread to create a gourmet journey of delectable smoothness, making each spoonful of moment of delight imbued with childhood memories.

It's a very like, you know, understated jar, but it's got.

Like a little bit of the logo on there.

The jar looks very small.

It's thirty five euros.

One thing that I was interested in finding out is it full of palm oil like nutella?

Yeah, no, roasted hazelnuts, hazelnut pieces, peruvy and milk chocolate.

But then they don't tell you what else.

And that's thirty nine percent six percent.

That's not enough percent.

No, it doesn't not up and the rest is a mystery you're building, a Missay.

We know what that mystery is.

I don't want to know anyway.

Yeah, so Louis Vuitton a hazelnuts spread.

They also do like chocolate bars.

So if you want to spend eighteen euros twenty euros on chocolate bar.

That doesn't Honestly, for clout, that is not the worst mashup you've thrown at me.

No, it's not.

It's just you know, it's like this purpose it's you know, everything branded and I don't know if it's any if it's any good, you know, but like it's got the.

Logo on it.

Well that's what you're paying for, right of course.

Yeah.

Well, if you got a second, I got something ridiculous for you, Yes, sir, Now you know how there's no honor among thieves.

Yeah, sure, the same could be said about professional gamblers.

Oh that's very true.

This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers.

Heisan cons it's always ninety nine percent murder three and one hundred percent ridiculous.

Yes, yes it is, Elizabeth, Yes.

It is now right now, it's World Series time okay, yeah, Now did you watch the series back when the A's were in it when you were a girl in the late eighties?

Yeah?

What was that time like in Oakland?

And for you personally?

My brother?

Was it the earthquake game?

Oh right?

I mean you've told me that in the past.

It was amazing.

It was so exciting.

It was like, you know, here's someone this team that we've been watching the entire season, going to the games like we're obsessed with and it was so thrilling.

Who are your favorite players?

I was big into Dennis Eckersley.

Eck Yeah, loved the T shirts with just the mustache.

Yeah, I have one of those anymore because I don't like The's anymore.

But I still love Dennis Eckersley.

There you go.

I'm still team you have like heroes like as a kid, right, I mean you're like, oh, I look up to this guy.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

We'll keep that energy in mind as I tell you this story.

Are you going to defleat No?

No, I'm not going to take away any of your A's.

They've taken away enough from you.

I do have one more World series question for you, though, What do you know about the Black Sox.

Oh yo yo.

I've seen the movie.

Which I eat my now John Sales movie.

It's a pretty good one.

And I've run into yeah, more black socks they're going to come.

I've run into it in my research on other stories that we've done.

Okay, right, are Rothstein's yees, you know, bumps into that keeping him in mind.

Now, I've promised them for many times that I would do an episode of the nineteen nineteen World Series.

It's finally time to take a look back at the nineteen nineteen World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds.

Quick trivia time, just as a side trip, Can you name the three Major League Baseball teams that are named for undergarments?

The Red Sox, the White Sox, and I feel like I heard this before.

You'd have to know a little bit of old baseball to get this other one, because they're no longer named that.

It's now a nickname that's been.

Shortened the Toledo Panties.

Cincinnati really the Reds.

They were the red Legs or the red stock red underpants because back in the day, all the teams were known for their sock color.

That's how they differentiated because they pretty.

Much like the same red panties.

No not in this case.

Because they kind of sag their pants you could see the whale tail coming out of the back.

Also, technically the Saint Louis Cardinals.

There used to be the Saint Louis Browns, which was originally the Saint Louis Brown Stockings, which just raised all sorts of questions.

But yeah, right, but as I said, all the teams they differentiated themselves by their stockings.

Crazy, that's why they had so many red legs, brown legs, brown stockings.

And then the Dodgers were like, look.

Out, well, they were actually originally Brooklyn bridegrooms because a bunch of jobs players on the team got married the same year, so the sports writers started calling them the bride Because the teams didn't used to have names, the sports writers gave them names, and the names would change all the time, so like one time a player would get traded and they're like, okay, we're gonna name ourselves after this player we just got, so now we're the Naps or Napoleon.

Lahoy, right, so the groom Zilla's yeah.

Later on they became the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers once the trolley system was created, and then they get shortened to the Brooklyn Dodgers and then now the La Dodgers who are in the World Series.

Yeah, anyway, Cincinnati Red Stockings Chicago White Sox Battle of the Undergarments World Series nineteen nineteen.

The Cincinnati Reds were the National League pennant winners.

Chicago White Sox won the American League.

Now, baseball, as you probably very well know, got its start basically during the Civil War, right and by the early nineteen hundreds, baseball is now known as the national pastime.

It didn't take long.

Football wasn't even close at the turn of the last century.

It was like all about college football.

Back then, there was no professional football.

There were teams.

They got their fill of brain damage in the Civil War.

They didn't need they didn't need it.

But by in nineteen nineteen, America's love affair with baseball was challenged.

We almost gave up on baseball thanks to the Black Sox scandal.

Yeah, you see, in nineteen nineteen, the Great War aka World War One was finally over, and this meant the players who served overseas a return home, which is about forty percent of the league.

They were in their armed forces.

Yeah.

So now baseball it had some down years from nineteen seventeen nineteen eighteen, but in nineteen nineteen, fans were stoked.

Real Baseball's back, baby love affair back on right.

As part of this new excitement about baseball being back, the presidents of the two league, the American in the National League, they decide, what's extend the World Series.

Let's just keep this postseason going.

So they went from a seven game World Series to a best of nine contests.

Oh dang, yeah, and the only time they did this because of what happened.

Anyway, at the end of the season, two teams stand atop the heap, Cincinnati Reds in the National League Chicago White Sox in the American League.

White Sox were the odds on favorite to win the series.

They'd already won the nineteen seventeen World Series.

They were clearly the better team.

But there was one big problem with this whole arrangement.

The team's owner.

Do you know the name of the team's owner, Charles John Fisher Comisky as in Chmmisty there you go, Yeah, aka the Old Roman.

That was his nickname.

Really, they also called him commie makes senseis it was based on how he looked and how he acted.

He apparently was a very he loved where sheet didn't come out of the field.

This is crazy to win this one.

The red panties and I'm the panties.

Get back up there, darn it.

Comedy.

So he was a former ballplayer.

He became a manager later a team owner.

So he loved baseball, right, But older Rollman was notoriously tight fisted.

He didn't pay pay raises.

He didn't pay his players what they were worth.

This is a problem for players back then because there's something called the reserve clause.

If a player refused their contract, they were prohibited by the reserve clause from playing for any other professional team.

So basically the old Roman loved that.

He's like, you're taking what I offer you.

That's it, right, So him being a cheapskate becomes the seed that blossoms into the Black Sox scandal.

See that's what happens when you're a cheap owner.

Right was Chicago White Sox.

This is also a team that had two very different cultures fused together.

Amongst the players, there were a bunch of like do gutters, like college boy Eddie Collins second basemen.

Then there were the ballers like Swede Wrisburg and Chick Gandal, who were known to hang out with like professional gamblers, like yeah, exactly.

They were also kind of like ready to fight, you know, tough guys.

The most popular player on the team.

The star of the team was Shoeless Joe aka Joe Jackson.

You may remember him for The Big Screen played by Ray Liota and Field of Dreams and by d.

B.

Sweeney and Eight Men Out.

That's he plays on his real slow eyed like sharing at candles and stuff.

Anyway, you may have heard the recent news about Shoeless Joe.

I don't know, but in May of this year, the Commissioner of Baseball, Rob Manfred, decided to reinstate Shoeless Joe.

He ended his band from baseball, really him and Pete Rose.

But why was Shoeless Joe band?

Great question, Jesus, Well, it wasn't just him.

There were eight players in total, the aka the Black Sox, all of whom got banned from baseball for life, really for proper too, because it lasted past him dying.

But we'll get to all that later.

Anyway, back to the players and why they didn't like and trust and have an affinity for team owner Charles Kimiski.

One of the stars of the team was a pitching ace like best pitcher in the league in that year.

For his name was Eddie Sitcott.

And back in nineteen seventeen when the White Sox went to the World Series, Sicott had a bonus in his contract.

If he won thirty games, he would earned a ten grand bonus.

Oh wow, which is a lot of money.

Totally now, well you wouldn't know this, but by the end of the season, Eddie Sickett was getting close.

He had twenty eight wins.

He was getting real close to getting that, and he was like, oh, I could buy the farm for the family.

Charles Kimiski talks to the team's manager.

He's like, why don't you bench our star pitcher?

And he benches him in the Pennant chase and then so he won't get the ten grand bonus.

So based on that, Eddie Sicott decides he'll get his revenge and get paid in the nineteen nineteen World Series.

So whose idea was it to fix the World Series?

I would love another question, Elizabeth.

It was first basement Arnold Chick Gamble you called it.

I keep thinking like these guys as a total aside, I would love to have like a time machine and bring one of them to the future and put him into a game and watch him just get rocked.

Some of them I think could hang hang, but not most of them would look like forty seven old alcoholics out there and had to trot through the meat sweats, you know.

So years later, an interview with Sports Illustrated nineteen fifty six, Chick Gandle admitted that quote, I was a ringleader, you know, he is enforcer.

Was his buddy Swede Risburg.

They were the pair who like said, you're gonna be in on this, Yeah I did.

So.

The story goes, when it was clear that the White Sox were headed to the nineteen nineteen World Series, somebody has the big idea, what if we rig the series, and, according to Chick Gandle, he met with a professional gambler named sport Sullivan.

Sport Sullivan Ye sports so Chick described sports Sullivan as quote a tall strap and irishman.

It looked like a cop.

So there you can picture up now.

As Chick Gandle tells it, it all started at September Day in nineteen nineteen, when Sullivan walked up to Eddie Sicutt and me as we left our hotel in Boston.

As I recall, we were four games in front the final week of the season.

It looked pretty certain that the pennant was ours.

So he and Eddie Sickett and Sports Sullivan they head up to his hotel room.

Sport pitches them on his plan to fix the World Series.

Back to Gandle, I was kind of surprised when Sullivan suggested that we get a syndicate together of seven or eight players that throw the series in Cincinnati.

Now, at first the players were like, I don't know, but as Chick Gandal tells it, I said to Sullivan, it wouldn't work.

Answered, don't be silly.

It's been pulled before and it can be pulled again.

Rumors were the nineteen seventeen World Series was fixed.

Oh so maybe like they came back around, like, let's do this again.

Yeah, let's do it the right way this Yeah, I don't know.

But at that point, Sports Sullivan offers Chick Gandle and Eddy sic at ten grand for each player who will go along with the fix.

Oh, like a fight like an MLM totally.

It's that bonus that Eddie inc So I know you love inflation calculators, so god do it.

Eighty grand in nineteen nineteen would be worth one point four million and twenty twenty five dollars, So basically it's about one point five It's one million four under in eighty seven thousand and thirty seven dollars, so about one point five million.

Sure, So that would be roughly one hundred and eighty seven thousand, five hundred dollars per player.

Wow.

Yeah, there's a lot of money to say no to.

So the players kept listening to what Sports Sullivan had to say, and then they disguised.

Let's who would go for the deal?

As Gandal remembers it, second and I tried to figure out first which players might be interested in.

Any of those who might be, which ones would we care to cut in on this gravy.

We finally decided on Jackson, Weaver, Risberg, Felch, McMullan, and Williams.

Not that we love them, because there was never much love among the white socks.

Let's just say that we dislike them the least.

Oh wow, Like I said, two cultures on the.

Tens I saw it, man, I have like such vague memories.

Is this like all new?

Okay?

So all in all to give faces to names and names to positions.

The star left fielders Joe Jackson.

Third basement is Buck Weaver, the shortstop is Swede Risberg.

The right fielder is Happy Felch.

Utility infielders Fred McMullin.

He's basically a backup.

He's in because he's dirty.

And then number two pitcher, Lefty Williams, along with number one pitcher Eddie Siccott.

Of course, chick handle, yeah, so Chick said.

He and Eddie approached their teammates one at a time, kind of like suss him out.

First they roped in Happy feltch he was the easiest one.

He's just kind of that guy.

Then they got Swede Wrisberg and Fred mcmowen because they were friends with Chick gandle.

He's like, oh, of course we'll do it, Chick, and then you know, also both hard cases, kind of crooked.

You get the idea, yea.

Then they approached Lefty Williams.

Now he's a Southerner like Joe Jackson.

He had honor and his word that all mattered to him.

Yeah, he's deeply underpaid by Charles Kimisky.

Yeah.

So, lastly, they approached the best hitter on the team, my man Shoeles Joe Jackson.

Once they had him all on board at least a verbal yes, Chick, Gandle and Eddie said cut set a meeting with the other players, and they tell well, here's how Gandal tells it.

They were all interested and thought we should reconnoiter to see if the dough would really be put on the line.

Weaver suggested we get paid in advance, then if things got too hot, we could double cross the gambler, keep the cash and also take the big end of the series cut by beating the reds.

We agreed.

This was a hell of a brainy plan.

He gotta love that they think these are not street savy criminals.

The athletes are going to try to screw their team owner to enjoy a real pay day.

Then they're dumb enough to think they can take the gamblers the money to throw the series.

Didn't double cross them because they still want to win the series.

Yes, exactly.

Okay, so now that we've set this one in motion, let's take a little break and after these messages we'll meet one of my favorite crimers of all time.

Oh boy, Elizabeth.

Okay, so where were we?

Oh?

That's right.

The Chicago White Sox agreed to fix the World Series, but they haven't agreed to the terms with the professional gambler, Sports Sullivan, and more importantly, he hasn't delivered any money yet.

So the players are at least smart enough to ask to be paid in advance, like before you do the deed.

They want to get paid.

But then they're dumb again because they also agree to meet with a second professional gambler who's also interested in rigging the World Series.

So Eddie Siccott, He's like, I want to get paid for certain So he sets up a meeting with his second professional gambler, a former major league pitcher named Sleepy Bill Burns.

Sleepy Bill, Sleepy Bill.

Now this is the way the story goes.

Before he spoke with Eddie Siccott, Sleepy Bill Burns approached the only man he believed could financially back his plans to rig the World Series, and he knew just where to find him.

He was always known to be at the Jamaica Racetrack in New York, So sure enough, when he rocks up.

This man is there, so he goes up and approaches him, and my man is Arnold the Brain Rothstein crime legend, the Sleepy Bill Burns.

He has an associate with him.

They asked to speak with the Brain about a little business matter he might be interested in.

Right, the Brain just brushes him off.

He tells it me maybe later.

I'm watching the Ponies.

Can't you see him watching?

The pointy of how many people approached him with stuff like this.

Constantly exactly, Hey, I got a little action.

I have this Boxers in the bag.

So the Brain tells Sleepy bill Burns and his associate, you guys go wait in the Track restaurant.

I'll find you later.

They do, is instructed.

Eventually someone comes over to their table, but it's not the Brain, it's his right hand man, Abe Ho tell he listens to Sleepy bill Burns' his pitch to fix the world series.

After he hears the plan, he goes back to the Brain, who's still watching the Ponies and the criminal mastermind he's like, he listens, He's not that impressed.

He's like, yeah, whatever.

So he tells his right hand man, Abe Tel go back to Sleepy bill Burns and tell him the bad news.

The Brain ain't going for it.

Yeah, but Sleepy bill Burns is stubborn, and he's like, well, maybe if he hears it from me directly, maybe he didn't put it right.

So he tracks the Brain down to where he is staying at the Astor Hotel in Times Square in New York, and he just waits in the lobby until he comes breezing through in some like beautiful mohair cashmere coat.

Yeah, so, Sleepy bill Burns he spots the Brain coming, you know, just gliding through the lobby of the hotel.

He walks up on him and he pitches him his plan to fix the World series right there on the lobby.

The Brain listens, he says, now, I love this quote.

Whatever my opinion is worth, forget about it.

So Wow just tells him straight to his No.

This was almost the end of Let's rig the World Series, except the Brain's right hand man, Abattel, was a former prize fighter.

What this means is he didn't believe rigging something like putting the fix in is difficult because he pretty sure he saw plenty of fixed fights in the fight game.

So he's like, we could rig the series.

So either way.

He reaches out to Sleepy bill Burns and he lies.

He tells him the brain changed his mind.

Yeah, he wants to back to fix.

He'll put up one hundred grand for the players.

Oh no, now that he has the brain's backing or at these things he does, Sleepy bill Burns goes back to Eddie Sikhett and goes, if you're down fixes on?

Oh my god.

So meanwhile, Arnold the Brain Rothstein is also approached by Sports Sullivan.

He asks him, hey, if you know, if you guessed it, would he be interested in fixing the World Series?

The brain is like, why does everyone want to rig this series?

But unlike with Sleepy bill Burns, this time he listens because he respects Sports Sullivan as a fellow professional gam He's got some former athlete with the you know notions.

So after he hears the pitch, the brain says, all right, I'll back your play.

So now you might think, of all these folks have the same idea about rigging the World Series.

Talk will get around.

Yeah.

The brain isn't bothered by this.

In fact, he thinks it's a good thing because it'll give him plausible deniability as the brain says, if nine guys go to bed with a girl, she'll have a tough time proving the tenth is the father.

Wow.

So, now that he's officially backing sports Sullivan's fixed, the Brain sends him to Chicago to meet with the players to arrange all the details.

He also sends his partner Nat Evans to oversee it all.

Right, So in Chicago, sports Sullivan does as instructed.

He meets with the players.

They tell him the same thing as they said before, we want the money up front.

Yes, Sports Sullivan's like, okay, okay, let me set up a meeting with the money man.

As a ring leader, Chick Gandal recalls it, a meeting was arranged at the old Warner Hotel on the South Side, where many of the players lived.

Sullivan introduced his friend is mister Ryan, but having met this man two years before in New York, I recognized him as Arnold Rostein, the big shot gambler.

Everyone I would imagine knows who he.

Is, totally especial life.

Yeah yeah, and if you think two years before would have been nineteen seventeen, which.

The prior Yeah yeah.

So at this meeting, mister Ryan aka Arnold the Brain Rothstein lays out his plan for the fix.

As Gamble tells it, we were to try our best to win the first game behind Sikot, who was the league's leading pitcher.

The White Sox were rated as a three to one favorites in the series, so win in the first game would boost the price higher.

We were then to lose the series at our convenience.

It's simple enough.

If they win game one, the odds go up, brings him more best, right, they could then lose the series.

Everyone cleans up, right, but they still haven't gotten paid yet.

So the player's like, okay, when are we going to get our was it eighty grand?

One hundred grand?

We want our money in advance.

Yeah, why would you go ahead and throw it?

If then nothing's going to come?

And they did have to trust these gamblers.

So the brain who hasn't said a word yet in the meeting, he's just got his people talking.

But once the money talk starts, he chimes in back to chick dandle.

He asked, calmly, what's to assure us you guys will keep the agreement?

We offered him our word, He answered, that's a weak collateral.

It's kind a point that's why I love Ronald Rothstein.

Your word is weak collateral guarantees.

Right.

He's like, I'm putting up big money.

I can't have a bunch of ballplayers gave me a word.

So the brain comes up with a compromise everyone can live with.

It's gandal tells it he would give us ten thousand in advance and pay the remaining seventy thousand in installments over the first four games, each payment amounting to seventeen five hundred dollars.

That's fair enough to The idea is they get ten large to split.

Then once the series is going, every time they throw a game, they get paid.

The players are like, cool, cool, we're gonna need to vote on this, So they go they talk amongst themselves, they vote, They agree to go through with the fix, but they still want their money in advance.

They're like, we're not certain about this, you know, like Lefty Williams and Eddies they got family, and Joe Jackson he's just saying he doesn't trust anybody, so we want our money.

So to make the believers of the players, the brain pulls out ten Crisp brand new one thousand dollars bills.

Wow, here's the first ten grand.

Think about one thousand dollars bill then oh yeah, like the equivalency of like what kind of bill you'd be pulling out.

Well, basically ten thousand dollars in twenty twenty five money would be one hundred and eighty seven thousand, five hundred dollars, like eighteen thousand dollars.

Yeah, an eighteen thousand dollars.

Almost nineteen wow yeah yeah.

So so but that's the thing.

If you want you put the money in their hand, it's much harder to say no, they're going to have to give that money back.

And he knows this.

So the Brain puts the money in their hand and go, do we have a deal, And they're like, okay, I guess this is guy's getting paid in advance, right, So they agree to the fix for only one thousand dollars each.

Now that the fix is on, the Brain starts laying bets with bookmakers on the Reds to win the World Series.

But he's trying to do it casually so nobody knows it's him.

Otherwise they're going to be kind of suspicious because he's taking the underdog.

Yeah.

Fortunately, his partner in the fix, his fellow professional gambler.

Sports Sullivan has no honor, so there was supposed to be.

They agreed that they would have forty grand that was gonna be held in a safe.

Right, That's what the brain told him.

He's like, yeah, I'm willing to put forty thousand in a safe in Chicago.

Sports Sullivan will be in charge of the money.

As soon as there's evidence that fix is on, you'll get paid.

Sports Sullivan's like, yeah, you already gave him ten.

So he takes the other thirty thousand that's left and he bets it on the Cincinnati Reds.

He takes their money and bets it's it rather than paying them off.

He's like, I want to get I want to get my beak wet, maybe make myself a little extra money.

At thirty grand, it doesn't even earn any interest, is sitting in a safe, so he bets it.

So now I should say there have been some doubts about whether or not the Brain really was the money man for the fix or not right.

However, according to historian Harold Seymour, there were affid David's discovered in Arnold the Brain Rosstine's files after he died one of the Affid Davids said, quote, he paid out eighty thousand dollars for the World Series fix, So I say that kind of files.

Yeah, it's so it's either way.

It's his involvement that makes the players believe the fix is possible because the brain was that guy.

So I tend to believe Akham's razor style he's the fixer.

Agreed.

Anyway, after this meeting with mister Ryan ak the Brain, the White Sox players agree to fix the World Series with Sports Sullivan.

But Eddie Sitcott's like, what about Sleepy bill Burns.

So he goes he goes back to me and goes O, hey, hey, the fix is on, We're going to do it.

And then he's like, but the players want to get paid, So he tries to get double dipping with Sleepy bill Burns like he's running the fix, and so Sleepy bill Burns is like, I bet let me, let me raise the cash because he didn't get the money from so the players they think they can finesse all these professional gamblers and it's all going to work out for them.

Yeah, so innocent.

At this point, talk of the fix starts to spread fast on the streets.

In fact, the day after their meeting with the Brain, Chick Gamble gets a call from a Chicago reporter wanting to know what's what.

Tells it he heard the series was fixed.

Where'd you hear that crazy story?

I said, and hung up.

Now, if you're going to fix something like the World Series, that's what we in the sports rigging business call a bright red flag.

Yes, right, Because that same night, Sports Sullivan comes by Chick Gamble's place.

He tells him there's more bad news, since the streets are talking that the fix is in.

The odds of three to one odds are going down.

The bookmakers are going to make less money, the betters are going to make less money.

But then it gets even worse.

Because word doesn't just spread in Chicago, talk actually reaches Cincinnati.

As Gambal tells it, by the time we arrived in Cincinnati to open the series, the rumors really flying.

Even a clerk in a stationary store, not recognizing me as a ballplayer, told me confidentially I had at firstand that the series is in the bag.

No maitrices and bell hops were talking the same way.

Reporters were buzzing about, asking questions everybody knows.

You know, when you got random stationary store clerks and bell hops telling people to fix it, come over here, touching the nose.

Then you know, on the sly like it's the sting.

Now.

I don't got to tell you this, but that's capital be bad news, especially for the players who've now agreed to fix the World Series.

So meanwhile, the White Sox players are still waiting to get paid to throw the World Series.

Remember they wanted their money up front.

In said, they got the Crisp one thousand dollars bills and that's it.

Sports Sullivan wagered the rest of the money.

Sleepy Bill Burnes is like, hey, let me raise the money, right, So there's no money in advance for them.

At this point, the White Sox players start to get pissed.

The night before Game one of the World Series, they go to a hotel and they meet with a Battel, the right hand man of the Brain.

They demand what they call their money before the series starts.

But as I think they should know, until it's in their pocket, it.

Ain't their money exactly.

A ba Tel, former prize fighter, right hand man of the Brain.

He don't scare easily, doesn't have a bunch of ball bars.

Deal.

So instead he tells the players how it is.

They get paid once they throw the games.

That's it, he says.

For each game they lose, he'll get them a payout of twenty thousand dollars.

Since it's a best of nine game series, the Reds need to win five games.

Yeah, that works out to be one hundred grand, right, which again is one point eighty seven million.

For them to split eight ways, that would be two hundred and thirty four thousand, three hundred and seventy five dollars in twenty twenty five dollars each.

Now, the players tell a battel they could definitely throw the first two games.

Eddie sickeuts on the mound for game one.

Lefty Williams has got the He's gonna pitch Game two.

Yeah, no problem.

We can't guarantee game three because that's gonna be a little dicky kerr.

So there you go.

He's like, well, that's fine, it's finny.

You guys gonna pick back up for game four, Game five, that's no problem.

Yeah, okay, time to play ball.

Is this World Series?

Game one of the World Series.

It's October first, nineteen nineteen Eddie Sicutt for the White Sox pitching versus the Red Star pitcher Dutch Royther Arnold.

The brain rosting wasn't in Cincinnati for the series, but he was paying attention because he's at the Ensonia Hotel in New York and they have like this is before radio got big, so people couldn't listen to the game on the radio.

Instead, he's in the lobby of the hotel and they got a man there reading the pitch by pitch from a telegraph machine.

Just announce it right, So people all seated around on these high backed chairs listening ball one, you know, like right.

So they've arranged a signal that the fix is on.

Eddie Sicott is supposed to walk the first batter of the game, or he can just hit him with a pitch.

The guy just has to reach first base, right.

The fellow reading the pitch by pitch reports that first pitch has a strike all right.

Now.

Now second pitch, oh, it's a bit wild.

Oh it hits the leadoff batter right in the back.

Take your base.

The fix is on.

This is all the brain wants to hear.

He walks out of the lobby.

He didn't care about baseball.

Yeah, you guys got the rest.

No, Elizabeth, you want to know how obvious it was that the fix was on?

I do want to know.

In Game one, the pitcher for the Reds, Dutch Routher, not only throws a six hitter and gives up just one run, he also goes three for three on the day.

In the batter's box.

The pitcher had not one but two triples and he knocked in three runs.

He single handedly wins the game for the Reds.

And it isn't just him.

The Reds have a great game top to bottom of the line up.

They win nine to one.

After the game, the owner Charles Kamisky goes down and he meets with the White Sox manager Kid Gleason.

Sure, because both men had heard talk around town that the fix was in.

So Cammy asked Kid Gleason if he thinks his team is are they actually trying to throw the World Series?

And Kid Gleason, you're like, well, he hams, he haws a little bit.

Then he says, I don't know, but I could tell something is wrong with the team.

Right.

He's an optimist, He's like, he's a good hearted guy.

For game two, Lefty Williams is on the mound.

He's going against slim Sally for the Reds.

Slim sald.

The White Sox players decide we're gonna make game two less of an obvious fix, but there are still plenty of hanky moments, like in the fourth inning, Lefty Williams walks three Reds players and all three wind up scoring.

White Sox lose the game four to two, slightly after Ray shack the catcher.

He he was known to be something of a hot head, and he isn't in on the fix.

He's part of the good guy's crew.

He confronts Kid Gleason, the manager, and he starts yelling in his face about how Lefty Williams is ignoring his signs for his pitches.

He shouts, the son of a bitch, Williams kept crossing me in that lousy fourth inn.

He crossed me three times.

He wouldn't throw a curve.

Oh oh, he's heated, So Kid Gleason's like, well, you know, well he's a good pitcher.

Maybe he'll get it back.

Game five, same night, Sleepy Bill Burns stops by Chick Gandal's hotel room.

He leaves some money for the players.

They're supposed to being paid every game.

They've thrown two, but it isn't the twenty grand that he was promised.

Instead, he's like, here's ten thousand dollars.

So at least they get something, right, Slader bill Burns managed to get something.

Unlike the brains right hand man Aba Tel, he's nowhere to be seen.

Oh really, At this point, the players are owned forty grand from aba Tel and Sports Sullivan.

Yeah, so they've thrown two games, Elizabeth, do you think the players got that money?

Absolutely no, no, they did not, because Sports Sullivan decided to bet the money on the series and he won't get his until they throw the whole series, so even if he did want to pick exactly.

Meanwhile, Sleepy bill Burns, the other one fixing the series.

He wants to know if the players are planning on throwing Game three, So Chick Gamble tells them, yeah, we're gonna throw Game three.

Based on that, Sleepy bill Burns bets big, like all the money he's made so far on the game.

What he doesn't know is that Gamble.

The players are pissed that they're not getting their money, so they decide, you know what, forget it.

We're not throwing the game, right, We're gonna teach these gamblers a lesson.

If they don't give us our money, they lose money.

It's too obvious too to just lose everything.

That's a good point too.

Yeah, you mix it up a little bit of dram there.

Well if they do.

In game three, the pitcher is that little Dicky Kerr, and he's a young kid.

He knows nothing about the fix.

He's one of the good guys.

He goes out there, he throws a damn fine game.

He gives up just three hits.

The White Sox win the game three to zero, and Gamble actually ends up knocking in two of the three runs.

Oh wow.

And because he bet on the loss, Sleepy Bill Burns loses it all.

He's knocked out of the fix.

Oh there goes all their money.

So now they can't One of the gambler's supposed to be paying them can't pay them because he lost all his money.

Right, But they're like, he teaches you guys a lesson, you should be paying us, Like, don't do you not understand how it fix works?

Now?

The record at this point in the series is two to one in favor of the Reds.

At this point, the players are getting pissed at chick gandal because they keep asking when are we gonna get our money when we get paid?

Yeah, He's trying to keep them calm.

He's like, hey, it's fine, I got this handle.

Just be patient.

And if they get loud, he's like, sweedet Wrisper go over and talk to him, and he's like, don't you bother him.

You know, he's like the tough guy.

Now, before game four, chick Gandle meets with Sports Solivan.

He's like, hey, look the guys they want their money.

You almost twenty grand for this game or else?

The fixes off you, all right?

Where aready busted?

Sleepy Bill Burns?

The Sports Solomon's like, hey, I don't have a right this second.

But he's like, all right, well I'll get you your money.

So where he gets it is anyone's guest.

But he manages to get money to chick Gamble before game four starts.

Really at first, Game four was a good game.

The score remain tied at zero until the fifth inning, and that's when Eddie Siicott, now back on the mound, decides not to make one but two obvious errors that allow the Reds to score.

Final game score Reds two, White Sox zero.

Oh wow.

After that game, Lefty Williams is gonna start Game five.

Goes to Chick Gamble's hotel room.

He wants his money.

He's like, I want to We're gonna get paid because I remember Gamble's the ring leader.

He's dispersing the funks that all the players they aren't meeting with these Gamblers.

He's doing it all right.

So Lefty Williams remembers the clandestine meeting.

There were two packages, two envelopes lying there, and he says, this is your dough now.

Gamble told me there's five for yourself and five for Jackson and the rest has been called for.

So he's like petering out to whoever gets mad and he gives here's five grand.

Shut up, go out, you'll do the fix.

Yeah.

Game five, Lefty Williams takes the mound.

This game wasn't an obvious debacle, but there were moments, so like when Happy feltch the outfielder, he dropped a fly ball in the sixth inning.

Then he throws it to Swede Wrisburg, who's covering second, and he misplays the throw, the ball gets away from him, so they're both like bungling.

That same inning, Happy Felch misplays a second shot to the outfield, misses the ball three runs score.

White Sox lose the game five to zero.

At this point, sports writers are talking, right, They're starting to be like, you think the fixes?

Are you kidding me to fix?

Definitely?

No one could be in the series and play this bad wet series is now four to one in favor of the Reds.

Now Typically we would think, oh, you won the series, but remember it's a best of nine series.

The Reds still need to win the fifth game, but before the series is over, the talk of the fix is now everywhere.

Odds from the bookmakers have plummeted.

The gamblers are having a hard time making money, but worse than that, they stop paying the players altogether.

There's no more money after game five.

So the White Sox players decide, you know what, We've been double crossed by these gamblers.

So, following Buck Weaver's original call, they say, to hell with the gamblers.

We're gonna win the series.

Oh my god.

So now they're going to try to screw Onald the Brandon Rosstein, who bet on them to lose the series.

So in Game six, the White Sox, they go out, they ball out, and they win the game final score five to four.

For Game seven, they do the same thing.

They win that one four to one.

So now the record for the series is four to three in favor of the Reds.

But if the White Sox can win Game eight, they can force a game nine.

They can still win this thing, right, and if they do that, they'll screw over all the gambles who have been on them to lose the fixed series, chief among them Arnold the Brain Rothsteam And they must have forgotten who they were dealing with.

Yeah, exactly, because after the White Sox win games six and seven, so Hoods come and they threaten Eddie Siicott and Lefty Williams.

In fact, one of the Hoods tells Lefty Williams he's got a pretty young wife.

Sure would be a shame if anything happened to him, because you know, you're hard headed, right.

They're not just gonna be like, oh, we're really disappointed you guys didn't do it at the end of the day, Like yeah, come on.

No, Like they're like, I'm gonna kill everything you love everything yeah, if you cost my boss money.

Yeah.

So Lefty Williams he gets the start in Game eight.

What do you think he does, Elizabeth.

Does he go out there and ball out or does he throw it?

He throws it?

Well, after these messages, I'll tell you how this all shakes out.

Yeah, and we're back, Elizabeth.

You're ready to hear how the White Sox become the Black Socks.

Yes?

Please, So, after his visit from the hoods, Lefty Williams clearly gets the message.

He goes out there, takes the mound, and he saves his wife's life.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that's the most important thing.

It's waits wild.

In the first inning, he throws just fifteen pitches, and with those fifteen pitches, he allows four hits and three runs.

He only manages to get one out before he's taken out of the game by the manager Kid Gleases, so he technically pitches one third of an inning.

That's it.

Right after that, it's an uphill road for the White Sox.

Some of them are still trying to win.

The good guys.

Some of the bad guys are still trying to win because they haven't been threatened.

So they managed to score five runs.

The bad news is the Cincinnati I'd scored ten runs.

That was that Cincinnati Reds win the World Series.

Yeah.

Now, if you ask their manager Pat Moran, which some sports writers did, hey, do you think the fix is in?

Yeah?

He said he believed that there was no fix, and his team naturally triumphed.

As he put it, quote, if they throw some of the games, they must be consummate actors for nothing in their playing gave me the impression they weren't doing their best.

No, you don't want to get out there, like, the only reason we won is because they blew it for these guys, are you know, be rated team?

Yeah, exactly.

No, you want to gass up your own guys.

You got to me, absolutely have to.

You're like, my guy's been out there to play their parts out.

Yeah.

Now for a more neutral stance, there's the umpire for the game.

Billy Evans.

Sports writers asked him you think the fix was in?

Now?

Originally he was like, no, what are you talking about?

But then a year later, when news finally broke that the World Series had indeed been fixed by gamblers.

At that point, the empire for the series, Billy Evans said, well, I guess I'm just a big dope.

That series looked all right to me.

Oh okay, yeah.

But also if you asked the official scorer of the World World Series if it was rigged, he said he only saw one play that seemed suspicious to him.

Really now, but there was one guy who was very honest and was around baseball, the former star pitcher Christy Mathewson, who was known to be a straight shooter, like all around, like grown up boy scout, and he didn't smoke, didn't drink.

He was just straight arrow.

He says he saw at least seven plays there were clear evidence the series was fixed.

Yeah, so the sports writers like see, okay, Christy won't lie to us right now.

The most obvious ballplayers involved in the fix were Eddie Sicott, Lefty Williams, Chick Gandle Sweet, Wrisberg, and Happy Felch.

Their play was indicative of the fix.

The others were not so obvious.

So Fred McMullin.

He was a backup, so he didn't even have much impact on the game.

He only had two at bats in the entire series and a hit, so he got one.

He went yeah, five hundred.

Meanwhile, Buck Weaver and shoeless Joe Jackson, They actually had really good games and they did show any obvious signs that they were in the fix.

Yeah.

Like, Joe Jackson batted three seventy five over this eight game series.

He scored five runs, had six RBIs.

He had the only home run in the series and in the field single air.

Same for Buck Weaver.

He batted three twenty four during the series, which is the second highest batting average on the team.

He also had no errors.

He played his heart out, so did he and Joe Jackson both have a change of heart about the fixed World Series.

Hmm, well, Elizabeth, you know how often the crime isn't why people get caught.

Instead, it's the cover up.

The really ruined Watergate comes to mind.

Oh yeah, this was baseball's watergate.

After the White Sox lost the World Series, talk is still everywhere that the game was fixed and naturally arnold.

The brain Rosstein name keeps getting mentioned a lot, but no one has any proof.

However, almost everyone's certain something ain't right about this, but there's still just no hard proof, and a fixed World Series is a huge scandal.

It could threaten the sports.

Baseball was basically a young professional sport that he has just gotten rid of.

The Federal League was there's a competition, yea.

And so they're trying to like, you know, keep things going, and they've just gotten back from the war.

They're trying to be like, oh, let's get this going.

It's like basically after a player strike, they're trying to get the people to come back to the ballparks.

And plus for a lot of people, you know, good and bad, they get eventually involved in this cover up because this is America's past time.

They got to protect baseball.

Yeah.

So after the series, Charles Kamiski he starts facing questions from the sports ride like, comy, come on, did you did you know about the fix?

He tries to squelch, and you talk of a fix?

What fixed any you guys?

Come on now, bye, guys.

They bawled out.

The questions persist, so the cover up isn't working.

So eventually he releases a statement to the press to the effect of I believe my boys fought the battle of the recent World Series on the level as they've always done, and I would be the first to want information to the contrary.

If there be any I would give twenty thousand dollars to anyone unearthing information to that effect, He's like, I want proof, I want receipts.

Don't come at me.

But by the way, twenty grand that would be about three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty twenty five dollars.

Good money.

It's a lot of motivation for somebody to go find something.

He also Kamiski hires a private eye to do some digging as well.

Private eye is like, okay, let me dig into their finances.

So he just starts going through everybody but Buck Weaver.

Nobody thought by Weaver was dirty.

His finding's inconclusive.

No one can find evidence.

Yeah, Elizabeth, you know how baseball's their winter baseball meetings between owners.

Yes, so the rigged World Series, of course, is the talk of the meetings.

So it starts bubbling back up to make matters worse.

Though at that same time, as Chicago sports writer, he publishes a story in a New York paper because Chicago paper's like, we can ye, not touching that.

So the paper as it runs, the headline is big League Baseball being run for gamblers with ballplayers and the deal.

Oh and then before any facts are found out or any evidence emerges of the fix.

The manager of the White Sox, Kid Gleeson, is in New York and that's where he learns the truth.

It's July following year in nineteen twenty.

Kid Gleeson, he's in this bar in New York.

He runs into Arnold the Brain Rothstein's right hand man, A ba tell the former prize fighter.

Yeah.

The two get to talking.

Ab Hotel tells Kid Gleason, you know, I always respected you, and I feel bad about you losing the World Series, or as he put it, you know, Kid, I hated to do that to you, but I thought I was going to make a bundle and I needed it.

Whoa, so Hay Betel confesses that Arnold the Brand Rostein was the money man who made it all happen, you know.

And Kid Gleason's furious because he's this decent guy.

So he tries to find a sports writer who will write up this story that it's Arnold a braind Rosstein he fixed the World Series.

But all he has for proof is some drunken confession from a former prize fighter that's not real evidence.

No, No one runs with the story.

It looks like the truth will never come out because mostly most of Major League Baseball they just want the scandal to go away.

Team motors don't want to talk about it.

Players don't want to talk about the cover up is working.

Why spoil a good thing?

Yeah exactly.

But then that same year, in nineteen twenty, the White Sox are back in the lead to win the pennant and go back to the World Series because they're still a good team.

And that Elizabeth is when an odd turn of events brings the scandal back out into the light.

Yeah, turns out my team, the Chicago Cubs, are involved.

There's a Cubs Phillies game on August thirty first, and there's talk the game was fixed.

It was a clear fixed game.

This time a grand jury gets convened.

No criminal charges being talked about.

The assistant state attorney in Illinois says, subpoena is out to a bunch of folks in baseball.

Yeah.

One ballplayer he's called to testify.

He's in New York Giants pitcher Rub Benton.

In his testimony, he says, my old teammate, Sleepy Bill Burns, he sent me a telegram and said the White Socks were going to lose the nineteen nineteen World Series.

He said the fix is in.

He also said in the telegram he specifically named players Chick Gandal, Happy Felch, Lefty Williams, Eddie Sitcott said they're all in on it.

This is now finally some evidence this stunts a wagon.

Eventually, since it look like the White Socks are headed back to the World Series, they gotta be stopped otherwise this is a series going to be fixed again.

Baseball's now panic because I was like, okay, you know you're putting all of our money on the line.

A couple days later, a Philadelphia newspaper publishes a story based on an interview with this guy, Bill marag.

I didn't mentioned his name, but he was the associate of Sleepy Bill Burns when they first approached Arnold Braglastein at the racetrack and they had to sit at the dinner table.

Yeah, that's this guy.

In his interview, he tells a reporter from a Philadelphia newspaper all that he knows, he spills.

Guess he was still mad about Sleepy Bill Burns getting screwed over by Chick Gandle and now losing all the money and getting pushed out of the fix.

So now once he dumps, there's hard proof of the fix.

At this point, Eddie Siicott comes forward and he goes and he testifies to the grand jury.

He confirms what everyone suspects.

He's subpoenaed.

He appears before the grand jury, spills his guts, airs out his guilty heart.

He tells the grand jury, I don't know why I did it.

I must have been crazy.

Wrisberg gandle McMullen were at me for a week before the series began.

They wanted me to go crooked.

I don't know.

I needed the money.

I had the wife and the kids.

The wife and the kids don't know about this.

I don't know what they'll think.

Right.

At this point, he starts to cry.

Yeah, he's like a brick, just like I don't know what I've done, right, He says, I've lived a thousand years in the last twelve months.

I wouldn't have not done that thing for a million dollars.

Now I've lost everything, job and everything.

My friends all bet on the socks.

I knew, but I couldn't tell them.

We'll save them from it, I know, yeah, but I mean.

Like god, what it would weigh on him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the next to come forward is shoeless Joe Jackson.

He testifies his involvement and he admits to take him but by the way, it's well known that he's getting subpoenaed.

So like the could people like a happy feltch and Chick Gandle.

They're like, hey, don't you go talk, don't you squeal?

Right, he goes anyway, he admits to taking I got five grand from the gamblers, and he says he told his wife what he was doing and she told him it was an awful thing to do.

She started crying when he told her.

He still went through with it.

So Joe Jackson testifies that the players have been double crossed by the gamblers.

He'd been promised twenty grand, but he only got five grand.

But by then it was too late.

They had already you know, they were in it.

And he also testified that he confronted Chick Gandle and Chick Gandle's like, what are you gonna do, Holly for a cop?

So, I mean that's the thing is you get this opportunity and if you if you're not thinking straight and you're just thinking of the money, there's you're not looking down the road that there's no way out of this, no going back.

There's no going back, and it's not going to end no matter how it shakes out.

Sure, there's always going to be a problem for you, not for them, but for you.

Yeah, you're the one who's out there on the diamond.

Yeah, who's gonna face all the glared You're going to disappoint everybody.

No one's upset by Arnold the Brain Rothstein doing some hanky stuff.

Well, and the thing is, you think about throwing a game.

You know, you're trying to You're you're covering your end of the bargain, but you don't know what's going on with.

The other team.

Yeah, totally, you know.

And so it's like there are flukes and that not everyone on.

The team is in on it, and so you know, it is a it's a dangerous game.

You're playing dicey proposition.

Yeah.

Yeah, Now, well, Arnold the Brain Rostin allegedly ended up making about four hundred grand on the Fixed World Series.

Yeah, which I know you want to know, Yes, seven point five million in twenty twenty five dollars.

Most of the other gamblers weren't so lucky like Aba Tel his right hand man.

He didn't make out sleepy Bill Burns.

He lost it all in game three, right, So pretty much the only one who really cleaned up was Arnold.

And Brain Roste you know the course with him.

Why they call him the brain.

Yes, the real losers, as you pointed out, are the players Joe Jackson's.

He testifies, we were double crossed.

He also testifies that before he agreed to speak with the grand jury, the other players are like, you, poor simp, go ahead and squawk.

We're just gonna say you're a liar.

Oh wow.

So he says that right, and then he started.

He says, also Sweede Wristburg, he was the muscle for the cover up.

He was like threatening all of us, and Joe Jackson tells the grand jury Risburg threatens to bump me off.

Oh yeah, like murder, claims now right.

And then when when he walks out of the Chicago courthouse, this disappointed kid comes up to shoeless Joe and he says, it's very famous quote in baseball history.

But rather than me tell you about it, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your eye, like you to picture it.

It's early afternoon in Chicago, and you are right now standing among a small crowd.

You were just running some errands, had to get your laundry, pick up something from the tayler.

When you saw the crowd and asked what the deal was, someone told you that shoeless Joe Jackson's inside the courtroom testifying to a grand jury about the series fix.

You aren't in a rush, but you are a baseball fans.

You decide, I can get home a little later, I'll stick around and see what's what.

It doesn't take long before the crowd gets excited.

Someone closer to the courthouse turns and shouts he's coming out.

Some local street kids push past you to get a clear view, unblocked by the much taller adults.

The Chicago sports writers also muscle their way in close.

You're sort of shunted off to the side, but you still have a clear view of the steps of the courthouse.

And then you see him with your own eyes.

Shoeless Joe steps out, moves through the door.

He smooths a hat onto his head.

He's buffeted by these big, burly bailiffs.

They're there for his protection.

After he spills what he knows to the grand jury.

Everyone knows Chicago has a growing gangster problem.

But at this point it's really too late.

He's already said what he knows, no putting that genie back in the bottle.

You watch the famous star of the Chicago White Sox as he draws close to the crowd waiting on the courthouse steps.

Just before he can bound down the steps, one of the local street kids, pushing forward, stands just before Shoeless Joe.

The kid looks up at his hero.

No one knows what Shoeless Joe just said to the grand jury, so the kid asks what everyone's thinking.

The street kid looks his hero in the eyes and utters the now famous words, it ain't so Joe, is it?

Shoeless Joe Jackson's face falls, shame colors his eyes darker, but he doesn't break eye contact with the kid.

Instead, he just says, yeah, kid, I'm afraid it is.

The sports writers push Penn to stenopad and record the famous moment in baseball history.

And you were there, Elizabeth, to see it all.

Aren't you glad?

You ran those errands?

Amazing as I am.

Okay, So, now that the scandal is out in the open, it's been confirmed by the star of the team.

It goes yeah, yah, it's official White Sox through the series.

After that, Charles Kamiski sends a telegram to the now disgraced Black Sox players and in no uncertain terms, he tells them, you and each of you are hereby notified of your indefinite suspension as a member of the Chicago American League Baseball club.

That's why the Chicago White Sox did not win the pennant in nineteen twenty, because he got rid of the team, and why they did not go back to the World Series based on the grand jury testimony.

The next year, in nineteen twenty one, the eight disgraced ballplayers and a bunch of the gamblers involved in the fix are all put on trial for rigging the nineteen nineteen World Series.

I'm talking like they're looking at five years in prison for evidence.

The prosecution has a bunch of signed confessions for the trial, and yet somehow those signed confessions all disappear really years later.

Chick Gandel says it was Arnold the braind Rosstein who made them disappear, of course, but no one knows for certain.

What we do know is that by the nineteen twenties, the syndicate in Chicago had bought off judges, lawyers.

They had cops and bayliffs on the payroll.

That's the nineteen twenty Chicago we all know and love.

Okay, maybe it's just me who loves it.

But anyway, I love nineteen twenty Chicago.

I love twenty twenty five.

Same.

I love Chicago same.

Anyway.

The trial lasts fifteen days.

None of the players end up testifying, as Chick Gandal recalls it, upon advice of our attorneys, none of us testified, and without our testimony, state had no case.

As a result, everyone on trial is acquitted.

As Chick Gandal tells it, when the jury finally found us not guilty, there was loud cheering in the courtroom.

The jurors even carried us, a few of us out on their shoulders.

Oh what a scene.

In fact, the judge was even seen to be smiling, like nobody wanted them to be guilty.

Yeah.

So, now here's where the villain of the story comes in, in my opinion, Judge Kennesaw mountain Lands.

Oh not Judge Kennisaw mountain Lands.

As a former federal judge, he was a teddy Roosevelt guy.

He would help bust the trust.

So he gets named the first commissioner of baseball because everyone's like, oh, he'll do it.

He's a hard nosed guy.

He decides, oh yeah, watch, I'll be a total hard ass so to say the honor of baseball.

He decides, you can't have fixed games.

That's bad business.

We can't have the suspicion of fixed games.

So one of his first official actses he suspends the Black Sox from baseball for life.

They're all banned.

This is to scare any other player from ever trying to pull the same stunt.

Sure, now America's pastime is saved.

And yes, he may have been right and his actions may have saved baseball.

I still don't like Judge Knissan mountain landis why, Elizabeth, great question you because as commissioner, he was also the man who kept baseball segregated.

Yep.

He banned Major League teams from playing against Negro League teams, even his exhibition games, because he feared that if they lost too often to black players, it would be an embarrassment to the white race.

So Disney Dean and Daffy Dean's exhibition team can't go play Satchel page in Josh Gibson, right, because they get so.

Yes, Judge canisaw Mountain Landis is no hero of mine, even if he saved baseball.

And that Elizabeth is how the Chicago White Sox became the Black Sox's ridiculous takeaway here.

I think it's interesting when you're saying he saved baseball in that instance, but he almost didn't save it by keeping it segregated totally.

You know, it saved baseball to bring everybody together to play.

As a professional sport.

Yes, well, and if we're going to call it America's pastime, you know, there's what I love about baseball is it's contemplative.

And there are these really like thrilling times.

No time limit, no time god.

Well now they have like little clocks, but I mean, yeah, you don't know, and like just innings go until God knows when, which I think is fantastic.

But also there's like you don't have to have special equipment to play it, you know, with a stick and the ball and like you know, and you can it can involve a bunch of different kids and and people can get together and play.

You can just throw the ball back and forth.

But it's something that uh connects a lot of people.

And I mean you can look at other sports or like that soccer is like that each need a ball.

There you go, any any of the kind of unifying sports I think are so important.

And then then the notion that you have it come to the brink of destruction with greed, Yeah, which you know happens over and over again.

You see it over and over, but then you know to save it, but then not want to save it again and it winds up, you know, getting saved by integrating the league's.

Yeah, Jackie Robinson really saves baseball.

Really does, really does and kind of helps save for the in some small way America, right, Like we have.

To be saved from ourselves constantly, over and over and over again.

What's your ridiculous takeaway?

I got, Well one you reminded me of that baseball has no time limit.

The guy who wrote the book Shoeless Joe, which became the movie Fielder Dreams, he has another book called the Iowa Baseball Confederacy.

It's a beautiful book about if you like baseball.

I read it when I was like a young man, like a teenager, and I loved it.

He has his game.

It takes place in Iowa.

It's an exhibition game, and it just lasts forever.

The game goes on for days because they never and it just keeps going and like your children are being born.

It's ridiculous.

But my actual ridiculous takeaway is this.

It's a fun fact that I learned after he was banned from baseball.

Do you know where chick Gandal went?

Of course you don't.

I didn't either.

No one knows.

But I learned that after chick Gamble moved here to Oakland every thirty five years, he worked as a plumber.

So you may have known someone whose family once hired him to unclock their away.

Wow, So there you go.

Came all the way home.

So you're in the mood for a talkback.

I am always in the mood for a talk bog.

Oh, oh my god.

I went get hey, Elizabeth Zaron and producer d This is Brian from Saint Louis.

I was listening to your latest episode earlier today and when you were discussing whether it was You've got another thing or another think coming, what I thought of was the Judas Priest song you've got another thing coming, which came out in nineteen eighty two.

I don't know where if that's where the saying came from, but you never know.

It's ridiculous either way, you guys, keep up the good work.

Thanks, thank you.

I think that's that is exactly what I always think of, and I think that's what makes me think it's another thing coming.

But it's a much older saying you'll hear like the old thirty shorter forties movie.

Rob Halford says, it's another thing.

Okay, okay, biker boy, let's do this, and.

Now for me, that is what it is.

That is what it is.

As always, you can find us online a Ridiculous Crime on social media mostly it's Instagram and Blue Sky and now we also also, by the way, on Instagram you can see the pictures of these stories we tell.

We put up a bunch of great photos and images and also in the stories as well.

Yes, and the posts.

Now we have are also an account Ridiculous Crime Pod on YouTube, and there you can if you prefer listening to your podcast or YouTube, go there, enjoy it and please like, subscribe, leave a comment.

We do love to hear from y'all.

We have a website, Ridiculous Crime dot com.

You can go there, get yourself some merch, and we obviously love your talkback, so please go to the iHeart app, download it, leave a talkback and maybe you get to hear your voice here.

We'd love to hear it.

Oh, and you can email us if you want.

If you want to keep it old school, you go talk about tap to tap, bebop, pop oop and send it off Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.

Thanks for listening and we will catch you next crime.

Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produce and edited by Arnold De Brain, Rostein's left hand man, Dave Kustin and starring Annalys Rucker as Judith.

Research is by og Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, Brissa Brown and Jabbari Davis.

Our theme song is by the Padre of San Diego Thomas Lee and the former jose Canseaco Baseball Camp all star Travis Dutt.

Host wardrobe provided by Body five hundred, guest Haarn, makeup by Sparkleshot and Mister Andre.

Executive producers are Kid Gleason's Drinking Buddies, Ben Bowen.

And No.

Ridicous Crime.

Say it one more time Ridiquious Crime.

Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

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