1887 N172 Comiskey vs 1973 Topps

[Bugsy]

Originally Posted by trdcrdkid

Oh, come on, you guys. The stories about Comiskey being a skinflint owner who underpaid his players range from objectively false to highly misleading. They originated with Nelson Algren and James T. Farrell, who wrote accounts of the Black Sox scandal that were distorted by their leftist political views, and were uncritically passed on to a broader audience by Eliot Asinof in Eight Men Out, which was basically a historical novel. People who have researched Comiskey through documentary evidence and contemporary sources (including salary data that was unavailable to Asinof, who didn't cite sources in any case) have found a picture that's almost diametrically opposed to the caricature depicted by Asinof. Comiskey was generally well-liked within the game, even beloved by many. The stories that Asinof told about Comiskey's cheapness and deception are all provably false, with one very arguable exception. See the following link, and Tim Hornbaker's 2014 biography of Comiskey, "Turning the Black Sox White".

http://scoopyballpark.blogspot.com/2...t-v-commy.html

He still shafted his players to insulate himself from the scandal (and Ban Johnson). Having his attorneys extract confessions from Jackson and Cicotte, all under the guise of looking out for the players' best interests is a scumbag move.

As if that weren't enough, Joe's missing 1920 "confession" miraculously surfaced just in time to be used against Jackson in court when Joe was suing Comiskey for backpay in 1924.

You can't polish a turd.