Eddie Cicotte
| Birthdate | 6/19/1884 |
| Death Date | 5/5/1969 |
| Debut Year | 1905 |
| Year of Induction | |
| Teams | Red Sox, Tigers, White Sox |
| Position | Pitcher |
Best remembered for his part in the 1919 World Series scandal, 209-game winner Eddie Cicotte won 50 games in his final two seasons and finished with 59.0 career WAR.
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White Sox hurler Eddie Cicotte received $10,000 to throw the 1919 World Series against the Reds
White Sox hurler Eddie Cicotte received $10,000 to throw the 1919 World Series against the Reds
Eddie Cicotte was at the top of his game in 1919, leading the league in wins (29), winning percentage (.806), and complete games (30). His 306 2/3 innings were tops in the AL while his 1.82 ERA, 5 shutouts, and 9.6 pitcher’s WAR were second behind only Walter Johnson.
In early September that year, teammates Chick Gandil and Fred McMullin approached Cicotte with a proposition: they wanted to throw the World Series. Lured by the promise of $10,000, Cicotte went in on the scheme and received his payout days before the Series began.
In Game 1 the usually-stellar pitcher made good on his promise. After posting the stingy 1.82 ERA in the regular season, Cicotte gave up six runs in just 3 2/3 innings before getting lifted.
Three days later he got the start in Game 4. Through the first four innings Cicotte faced one over the minimum. The next inning he took matters into his own hands.
A fine fielder in the 1919 regular season, Cicotte made 3 errors all year. He finished the campaign with a fielding percentage 15 points above the league average for men at his position. In the 5th inning of the scoreless tie in Game 4, Cicotte made two miscues that cost his team the game.
After retiring Edd Roush to start the frame, Cicotte induced Pat Duncan to hit a ground ball back to the box. The pitcher gloved it and threw it past first baseman Gandil and into right field. Duncan sped to second.
With the go-ahead run on second, Larry Kopf singled to left. Joe Jackson fielded the ball and fired home. While attempting to cut off the throw Cicotte instead deflected the ball off of his glove. It rolled away toward the stands. Duncan ran home while Kopf continued to second and into scoring position. The next batter then doubled to score the Reds’ second unearned run of the inning.
The Chicago offense mustered just two hits the rest of the way while Cicotte never again allowed the Reds to threaten.
The pitcher also helped turn the Series at bat. A .200 hitter in 7 of his 14 big league seasons, Cicotte’s 0-for-8, three-strikeout performance was feeble. All in all, he earned the $10,000 he received to disgrace his team.
A year later Cicotte was issued a lifetime ban from baseball. He never played again.
Shown here is a government postcard from 1952 signed by Eddie Cicotte.
Three Cooperstown men are most similar to Eddie Cicotte according to Baseball Reference
Three Cooperstown men are most similar to Eddie Cicotte according to Baseball Reference
Today Eddie Cicotte is best remembered for his role in throwing the 1919 World Series. A statistical look into his career performance reveals a pitcher whose numbers make him worthy of consideration for Cooperstown. If he had stayed clean, there’s a good chance he’d have a plaque in Cooperstown.
According to Fangraphs, a player reaches an MVP-quality season at 6.0 WAR. For the 7-year period from 1913-1919, Cicotte averaged better than that. Over the course of his 14-year big league career, Cicotte tallied 4.6 WAR per 162 games played. That’s a tick above the 4.5/162 that the average Hall of Fame pitcher has.
In his last 5 seasons Cicotte averaged 21 wins, highlighted by a league-leading 28 and 29 victories in 1917 and 1919 respectively. It’s impossible to know how much he had left in the tank when he was banned in 1920 at age 36. If his final season is any indication, he likely had a lot left to offer. With 21 wins and a 5.2 WAR in that 1920 campaign, it’s likely he would’ve added to his 209 career wins and put himself in the Cooperstown conversation.
Even with a career cut short because of the ban, Cicotte presents nicely. With 209 wins, a .585 winning percentage, and a 2.38 lifetime ERA, his numbers meet the demands of traditionalists. Advanced metrics are even stronger. Among pitchers who retired before Cicotte, only 15 had a higher career WAR. His 123 ERA+ puts him tied with Juan Marichal and ahead of other no-doubt Cooperstown men Bob Feller, Eddie Plank, Warren Spahn, Tom Glavine. Baseball Reference ranks three Hall of Fame hurlers as the most similar to Cicotte – Stan Coveleski, Chief Bender, Jack Chesbro.
Despite his on-field performance, Eddie Cicotte will never gain induction.
MLB Rule 21(a) clarifies who is on baseball’s ineligible list and therefor barred from Cooperstown. Such men include, “Any player or person connected with a club who shall promise or agree to lose, or to attempt to lose, or to fail to give his best efforts towards the winning of any baseball game with which he is or may be in any way concerned; or who shall intentionally fail to give his best efforts towards the winning of any such baseball game…”
Despite Cicotte’s on-field accomplishments, his choice to compromise the integrity of the game is his baseball legacy.
Notice the Dearborn, Michigan postmark of January 18, 1952 shown above. That’s a 19 miles from the five-acre parcel in Farmington, Michigan that the then-69 year old Cicotte lived.
Like Cicotte, Shoeless Joe Jackson has a case for the Hall of Fame if not for the scandal
Like Cicotte, Shoeless Joe Jackson has a case for the Hall of Fame if not for the scandal
Many baseball fans are familiar with the name Shoeless Joe Jackson. Few have pored over the statistics to fully understand just how great a hitter he was.
Jackson started for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, playing a combine 10 games in 1908 and 1909. Two weeks after Jackson’s 22nd birthday, Mack traded him to the White Sox on July 30, 1910. Right away things started to click.
In 20 games with Chicago in ’10, Jackson hit .387. The next year in his first full season on the field, Jackson was even better. Shoeless Joe hit .361 in April and was at .375 by the end of June. In July, Jackson hit .439 to raise his season average to .394. As the dog days of summer came on in August, Jackson continued heating up, hitting .468 for the month. He finished the season at .409.
Jackson finished in the top-10 of Most Valuable Player voting each year from 1911-1914. During the five-year run he slashed .381/.449/.550 and tallied 2nd, 4th, and 5th-place finishes in the MVP race.
By the time he was banned after the 1920 campaign, Jackson owned a .356 career average. Today that’s good for third all time behind only Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby. In his age-32 season of 1920 he hit .381 and a 1.033 OPS. His 20 triples led the league while his 218 hits put him fourth while his 12 homers and 121 RBI marked career-highs. It’s likely Jackson had productive years ahead.
Instead, Jackson was banned for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Many believe Jackson’s statistics in the Fall Classic prove he wasn’t part of the fix. He hit .375 with a .563 slugging percentage and was not charged with an error in the field. The question of whether Jackson belongs in Cooperstown is moot. Those on baseball’s black list are ineligible for induction.
This much is clear: had Jackson not been implicated in the 1919 World Series scandal, he would’ve received baseball’s highest honor.
Shown here is a government postcard signed by Jackson’s wife. The back side shows a postmark from Greenville and the date of January 18, 1949. It can be seen by clicking here. Such specimens are coveted by collectors. Because few signatures of the illiterate Jackson remain, his name penned by his wife is in high demand.
The narrative that White Sox owner Comiskey was to blame for the scandal is inaccurate
The narrative that White Sox owner Comiskey was to blame for the scandal is inaccurate
Eliot Asinof’s book Eight Men Out goes to great lengths in blaming White Sox owner Charles Comiskey for the Black Sox scandal. Asinof uses information later proven false about the Sox’ salaries. The book paints the Chicago players as underpaid compared to their contemporaries.
According to a well-researched article in SABR, this simply wasn’t the case. The disparity between Asinof’s reporting and the actual salary figures is especially stark when it comes to Eddie Cicotte.
SABR historian Jacob Pomrenke quotes Ainof’s writing, “Many players of less status got almost twice as much on other teams. … (Charles Comiskey’s) ballplayers were the best and were paid as poorly as the worst.”
That simply isn’t accurate. At the Bart Giamatti Research Center, researches Bob Hoie and Mike Haupert pored through the contract cards donated by Major League Baseball to the Hall of Fame. They found that the only pitcher making more than Cicotte was Washington’s Walter Johnson.
Portrayed as miserly in Asinof’s book, Comiskey actually paid his players well. To lay blame for the fix on Comiskey’s salary structure strains credulity. Cicotte, Buck Weaver, and Shoeless Joe Jackson were veach among the AL’s top 15 paid players yet still had involvement with the scandal. Each receiving a lifetime ban. As a team, the White Sox had the American League’s third-highest payroll.
As owner of the NL champion Reds, Garry Herrmann paid his players $76, 870. He’d need to add $11,591 (or just over 15%) to match Comiskey’s $88,461. Despite Asinof’s errors, Comiskey is wrongly remembered today as a skinflint.
Shown here is Comiskey’s reply to an autograph request. This letter dated September 13, 1914 reads in part, “I am herewith enclosing you autograph as per your request, with assurances that I am delighted to send this.”
Comiskey then affixed his signature in large and bold lettering at the bottom of the letter.
Landis bannished Cicotte, Jackson and six others for life after the White Sox scandal
Landis bannished Cicotte, Jackson and six others for life after the White Sox scandal
Major League Baseball hired Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis to restore public confidence and clean up the game after the 1919 World Series scandal. Among his first moves was to ban eight members of the Chicago White Sox for throwing the 1919 World Series.
Eddie Cicotte and Joe Jackson were the most famous of the eight. The other six included Buck Weaver, Chick Gandil, Claude Williams, Hap Felsch, Swede Risberg, and Fred McMullin.
None of the men ever gained reinstatement.
The image above shows a letter from Landis with historical baseball content. Chosen as Baseball’s first commissioner on November 12, 1920, Landis wrote this letter less than three months into his 23-year tenure as the game’s chief. Landis mentions two of the first five men inducted into Cooperstown and Cubs legend and Hall of Famer Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown.
“Walter Johnson is one of the outstanding characters of the game. You can’t think of it without thinking of him,” Landis writes in the second paragraph. Appointed as a federal district court judge by President Teddy Roosevelt, Landis continues, “Men like he (Johnson), Mathison (sic), and Old Mordecai Brown, and a host of others, made a real contribution to our society.”
Both New York Giants great Christy Mathewson and and Brown threw their last pitches five years earlier in 1916, yet were still on the mind of Landis. Though Landis letters are plentiful due to his position as commissioner, early letters with such outstanding baseball content are quite difficult to come by.
Landis’ reign as baseball’s boss is looked at today with mixed reviews. His strong rule restored the public’s faith in the game’s integrity in the wake of the World Series scandal. He was also part of baseball’s leadership that kept the color line intact.
