It is Baseball's fault (Oh ye of unshodden fame)

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

I really get tired of hearing how Landis "saved" baseball because I'm not sure that's a real accurate take on what occurred. He was one of the lousiest federal judges ever, almost completely uneducated, tyrannical, rigid, self-rightious, and very often reversed. He was also a huge racist. Gee, come to think of it, he could very well be a Bush appointee. .

In any event, Landis was very selective about those he banned while he was "saving" baseball. There is a fair amount of evidence that Comiskey was made aware of the fix while it was occurring. There is a fair amount of evidence that he attempted to tell Ban Johnson, with whom he was feuding, about it, and that he was rebuffed. There is utterly no doubt that Comiskey routinely screwed his players salary-wise, and almost no doubt that Comiskey dispatched Alfred Austrian, his lawyer, to misrepresent his status to the involved players, purport to be on their side, get them to make confessions, and then use the information contained in those confessions against them. They couldn't use the actual confessions against the players because it is also fairly clear that Comiskey had them stolen. They disappeared during the trial of the fixers, but mysteriously re-appeared during the trial of Jackson's claim for his salary against Comiskey several years later.

To my way of thinking, the claim that Landis "saved" baseball is problematic. As I understand things, AT THE TIME, it was no secret that a fix was occurring. In fact, some of the things I've read seem to indicate that there was a double, perhaps even a triple, fix, going on. In that regard, if you look at the records of many of the "clean" Sox during that series, I think it is hard to argue that they performed better than did the black ones.

Whatever the case may be, it seems to me that Landis banished those who were least able to fight his decree. In that regard, I have always found it somewhat ironic that Landis didn't see fit to banish Cobb and Speaker, both of whom had money, influence, and good lawyers, his reason being that whatever might have occurred was before his time as Commissioner. Guess what? So did the 1919 World Series.

I don't think any reasonable baseball fan will disagree with the concept that agreeing to throw a game is perhaps the worst thing that a player can do. However, while I don't like sounding like a Joe Jackson apologist, I also think that failing to follow through with the fix, doing your best, and having the highest batting average of anyone in the series, having the only homerun, having 12 hits ( a record that stood for years), playing errorless ball, not being involved in any of the meetings with the gamblers, should be seen as somewhat of a mitigating factor. I won't even mention the acquittal thing, given that baseball, as a "private" institution, had no duty to reinstate him after he was acquitted.

Landis was a black and white (more white than black) guy. So far as I can tell, he had a whole lot of evidence about a lot of people who knew of, or were involved in, the fix. Comiskey, who I think is perhaps the biggest culprit of all, wasn't banished and was elected to the HOF in 1939. Ban Johnson was elected about the same time. I can't really say that I have much respect for Landis at any level. I don't think he saved baseball at all. I think he saved the owners, for which they were eternally grateful to him. That's an entirely different thing.