Quote:
Originally Posted by ThomasL
Fact of the matter is Cicotte did have a 30 game bonus kicker on his contract for 1919...it was a carry over contract from the previous season 1918. The amount of the kicker is not presently known (10,000 seems way to high). Was he bench on purpose...was he mad...who knows...Cicotte in his own grand jury testimony did not mention this at all so that seems to point to it not being a motive of his....
HOWEVER this does sound like something he would have told his wife and kids to try to mitigate his own actions and thus lived on and is still believed by the Cicotte family (several have given newspaper interviews saying as much). Asinof writing Eight Men Out simply went with the prevailing thought of the time (1950s-60s) so I give him a pass. He did interview Hap Felsch, Red Faber, Hugo Friend, and Abe Attell which all had involvement in the scandal in some way which is more than anyone writing now can say. (attached Feb 1918 newspaper clipping citing Cicotte's 30 game bonus)
Likely Cicotte had bonus kickers several win levels (like 20 games, 25 games and 30 games or something like that)
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It Depends on what/who you believe, these are all newspaper clips from 1918-21
Baseball reference says he received a $2000 bonus in 1917 for winning 28 games but a newspaper clip states that Chick Gandil said he never received the bonus.
March 14 1921
Cicotte Los_Angeles_Evening_Express_Mon__Mar_14__1921_.jpg
January 23 1918
Cicotte The_Omaha_Evening_Bee_Wed__Jan_23__1918_.jpg
September 20 1919
Cicotte The_Cincinnati_Post_Sat__Sep_20__1919_.jpg
The real facts of the bonus should be known if his 1919 contract does come up for sale this year.
https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...ter-this-year/