Pete Rose in the HOF?

[Archive]

Posted By: TBob

From what I have read, the incident concerning Cobb, Speaker and Wood arose out of a game played in September, 1919, on which Dutch Leonard claimed the others had wagered. The players were cleared when Leonard, who apparently waited until November,1926 to come forward, refused to provide testimony. If true, then consider the following:

1. The game was played before the Black Sox scandal.
2. The game was played before Landis was even commissioner, and before his pronouncements on gambling were instituted.
3. The allegations were made in late 1926, when Cobb was 40 and Speaker 38, each with only two years of playing left. What particular star power did they wield then, particuarly when Ruth and the Yankee juggernaut were the talk of baseball?>

How can you on the one hand condemn the Black Sox who threw the Series in September/October 1919, before Landis took office, and yet differentiate the Cobb-Speaker-Wood fix which also took place in September 1919? The evidence against the Black Sox started surfacing in the middle of the 1920 season and the evidence against Cobb-Speaker-Wood didn't make it to Landis' desk until 6 years later, but you can't differentiate the two on a time basis as both events occured before Landis took office.
Also, there is some evidence that Cobb exerted his own particular form of blackmail to keep Landis from banishing him. True Leonard didn't appear in person but biographers have attributed that to the fear of Leonard regarding Cobb's terrible temper and well-known propensity for revenge.
As far as the Babe and the Yanks being the talk of baseball in 1926, they WERE the talk of baseball as they crashed near the cellar as the Washington Senators repeated as American league champs.