Reading a new book. WOW

Dad gave for Christmas. Connection is the key evidence was in the valley town of Sanger. With Dutch Leonard. A ball player and former babe Ruth teammate.

Finally got around to reading it and I had no idea. No Trivia

Ty Cobb and tris speaker. Two of the greatest players of their era. Managers of the Tigers and Indians. And I think still player managers.

Both retired and resigned from managing in 1926.

Want to know why? After the black Sox scandal of 1919 Cobb and speaker were both found to be betting on baseball and fixing games.

Both were given the choice to quietly go on their own terms or face what the black Sox boys faced. Lifetime bans. Shame. Criminal trials. Both chose the former.

Dang. Had no idea but I’m hoping by reading the rest I’ll find out when this info became more public and well known.

Btw during this era gambling and organized crime interests were a major concern in baseball. All over. Players had “runners” who would go from the dugouts and go place bets with bookies in or out of the park. Yikes. That’s a problem

Btw Kenesaw Mountain land is was beaten to the punch on this story. Which is one reason perhaps Cobb and speaker got the first option. It was handled by the AL president. Who had founded the league and was president from then until the merger and through the era of landis. Story got to him and he handled it this way because both were AL teams and he was embarrassed and didn’t want to see his league decertified or humiliated with two more teams joining the white Sox as cheats.

4 comments

4 Comments

Coachemup!

Jun 01, 2024

A link from Amazon would be appreciated!

Is this the book?

Edited

Java

Jun 02, 2024

Replying to

One of the reasons why I think this is fascinating is that we all tend to have a perception that baseball west of the Mississippi did not exist until the Dodgers and Giants showed up. In reality when we think about it, we know there were the San Francisco Steeles and the Los Angeles Angels so we knew that minor-league baseball did exist.

But we tend to see everything before 1955 as the dark ages for West Coast baseball. And what’s fascinating to me is that in Sanger California on some farm just south of Fresno where I grew up Fresno being sort of an afterthought town in California and still is that way held the keys, and set in motion, some events that wound up being able to turn major league baseball, literally on its axis.

To possibly ruin two legendary players. Ruin two franchises. Maybe an entire league. The American League. And kind of accidentally launched Ruth as the savior of the sport and probably allowed Ruth to get away w a lot of stuff he normally wouldn’t. Because landis and other leaders knew he was a big harmless distraction.

And to think some guy in Sanger held the keys to all of that? Hilarious. In fact. Funny story. Landis hears that Leonard has some serious dirt and wires him to come to New York at once to see him. Leonard. Whonis just a pitcher and farmer says “it’s planting season. I’m not going anywhere. If it’s so important to you. Get your $&@ out here”.

So I swear. Landis goes to a golf Tourney in La. Pulls out after a day saying he had the wrong shoes and he had blisters. Sneaks up to Sanger in a car. Out to this dudes farm and meets with him to get the evidence.

That is absolutely classic. Imagine telling the leader of your industry to pound sand and the dude comes crawling to you for the goods. Love it.