With 8 suspected fixers, two of them pitchers, Chicago was at at disadvantage. Trailing 2 games to 1 to the Cincinnati Reds, The Chicago bats went into quit mode.
Game four matched Eddie Cicotte (one of the 8 suspected or proven fixers) against Cincinnati Reds' pitcher Jimmy Ring. Ironically, Cicotte, who was routed from the mound in the opener pitched well. But as you will see, he lost the game for the White Sox. Intentionally. Oh, some of his teammates chipped in to. With their, lack of efforts!
Cicotte started the game looking like someone who was willing to do any and all things to win. He ended up retiring the first 9 batters he faced. Ring got through the first inning 1-2-3, but then came the second. It appeared as if Chicago was going to tie the 1919 Fall Classic and maybe even deny Jimmy Ring a World Series ring.
Shoeless Joe Jackson lashed a tremendous double to lead off the White Sox's bottom of the second. Happy Felsch then got Joe to third with a sacrifice bunt. But Chick Gandil popped out. Jackson was still on third, but there was now two outs in this scoreless deadlock!
Swede Risberg walked, however, to keep the inning alive. Then he stole second. When Ray Schalk also walked, the bases were loaded. Up came Cicotte. Ed grounded out to second. It would prove to be Chicago's best chance to win the game.
Cicotte then got through the third, giving up just one hit. Ring had an inning where the Sox got no hits, but did make some noise. With one out, Jimmy hit Eddie Collins. After Buck Weaver's groundball moved Collins to second, Jackson reached on an error. Felsch grounded out.
Cicotte had his third 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fourth. This sure didn't look like someone who was trying to lose. Ring though, also got 'em in order in the bottom of the frame.
And then in the top of the 5th, the wheels came off the White Sox chariot. Cicotte got the leadoff man Edd Roush out, but then Pat Duncan made it all the way to second on what was probably an intentional throwing error by Cicotte. Eddie then upped the ante!
Larry Koft singled to left. Joe Jackson got to the ball and fired a perfect throw home. Gandil would later say he told Cicotte to misplay the throw. Eddie did just that. Not only did Duncan score, but Koft was now on second. It was 1-0 for the Reds. When Greasy Neal hit a double to left, it scored Koft. 2-0, Cincy!
The next two batters grounded out, so there was no further damage. But Cicotte's two errors would prove costly.
With one out in the bottom of the frame, it was time for Cincinatti's second error of the game. But there was not two in one inning. With one out, Morrie Rath, the Reds' second basemen, did about what Cicotte did in the top of the frame. Roth threw wild to first on Nemo Leibold's grounder. The result was the same, man on second with only one out. But Collins hit into a fielder's choice and Buck Weaver grounded out.
It was Cicotte that got all three batters he faced in the top of the 6th to ground out to third, second and short. Ring though, was in fine tune in the bottom of the inning, as only Gandil managed to reach first. And it was a harmless single.
Cicotte did it again in the top of the 7th. All three men again grounded out. Jimmy hit Ray Schalk to start the bottom of the frame. Once again, he settled down and retired the other three batters. Once again, the baserunner was stranded at first.
Cincy looked liked they might get more in the top of the 8th, but with a man on and one out, it was Ring that grounded back to Eddie. Cicotte must have been trying, as Chicago did turn two to get out of there.
Amazingly enough, all four batters in the bottom of the frame were suspected or proven fixers. Weaver popped out, Jackson fanned. Felsch singled for the White Sox's third and last hit. Gandil made sure Chicago stayed off the scoreboard as he struck out.
Cicotte again got 'em 1-2-3 in the top of the 9th to finish with a 5-hitter. Despite his dishonesty, he actually gave the Sox a pretty good chance to win the game by allowing only two runs over 9. Ring walked Schalk again, but again that was the only baserunner. Cincinnati took a 3 games to 1 lead in the 1919 World Series with a 2-0 win.
Game four was also in Chicago. But it was Lefty Williams, a proven fixer starting. But for a while, it looked like he and Chicago were going for the win.
Williams walked the leadoff man in the top of the first, and a sac bunt put him in scoring position. But Williams got the next two men. In the top of the second, Williams went into Walter Johnson mode as he had a 1-2-3 inning. 2 K's and a popup to the catcher.
Hod Eller, Cincinatti's starter looked shakey. He got out of the first inning, but not before Chicago got runners on the corners with only one out. In the second, Hod looked like Johnson, too. He fanned all three batters!
For the second straight inning, the Reds failed to get the ball out of the infield against Williams in the top of the third. Williams had another 1-2-3 inning. But Hod Eller was amazing at this point. Can you believe he got the White Sox 1-2-3, and all on strikeouts for the second straight inning. Now, he was like Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax. Or maybe Roger Clemens or Randy Johnson!
Swede Risberg made an error in the top of the 4th, and then a stolen base followed. But Lefty had retired the first two batters on flyballs. The fourth batter of the inning was also retired on a fly. Williams, the dishonest White Sox, was working on a no-hitter through four. The error by Risberg was probably intentional. But the game was still scoreless.
The White Sox did a little better in the bottom of the frame. Weaver and Jackson (who probably were the only two suspected fixers who actually tried in the eight games) both were retired on comebackers. Eller then fanned Felsch. Hod was hot with a 1-hitter and 7 K's through 4!
Larry Koft finally got the first hit off Williams to lead off the top of the 5th. But then he was forced at second by Greasy Neale then tried to steal second but Ray Schalk, the catcher, nailed him. Williams then got Bill Rariden to fly out.
Schalk then stoked the White Sox second hit of the game with two outs in the bottom of the inning. Williams then became Eller's 8th strikeout of the game.
The Cincinnati Reds then blew the game wide open in the top of the sixth. Eller, who was doing it all, doubled to get things started. Felsch, playing center next to Jackson, made an error (again, probably intentionally) on the throe to second. Eller took third. When Morrie Rath followed with a single to right, Cincy had drawn first blood. Rath then made it to second on a sac bunt. Williams then walked Heinie Groh to put runners on first and second and only one out. The White Sox needed a double play here. It never came. Edd Roush lashed a triple to center and two more runs scored. 3-0, Reds. Duncan flied out to Jackson in left for the second out, but Edd tagged and scored the fourth run of the inning. Koft hit a fly to Felsch to end the inning.
The bottom of the inning was another 1-2-3 inning for Eller. Williams hardly looked like a pitcher who had just had a rough inning in the top of the 7th, however. He had another 1-2-3 inning of his own. He even got his third strikeout of the game when his mound adversary whiffed.
The White Sox could do nothing in their half of the frame. Jackson grounded out. Felsch popped up to the catcher. Gandil flied to center.
Williams started the 8th by getting Rath to fly to Jackson in right. Daubert and Groh both flied out to Felsch. Williams had tossed 8 innings and given up just 4 hits. But it was not enough. Even without his best efforts, he had given the Sox a great chance to win.
When the first two Chicago batters were retired in the bottom of the 8th, Williams was replaced by pinch hitter Eddie Murphy (not to be confused with this blogger's favourite comedian actor). Murphy didn't get a laugh out of any Chicago fan when he ended the inning by fanning. Hod Eller had 9 strikeouts through 8 innings.
Erskine Mayer came in to pitch for Chicago in the top of the 9th. But he failed to stop the Reds. It was not exactly all his own undoing, however. Edd Roush sent a grounder to second. Eddie Collins (not one of the fixers) did something many of the dishonest White Sox would do: make an error at a key moment!
A walk to Pat Duncan put runners on first and second with nobody out. Koft hit a sac bunt. Greasy Neale grounded out, but it scored Roush to make it 5-0 Cincinatti. Billy Rariden ended the inning by hitting a grounder to Collins, who fielded this one without any problem and tossed to first for out number three.
Leibold and Collins were retired on grounders to start the night. Chicago just was not getting the bat on the ball the right way this day. Either that, or they were missing entirely. Just when things looked hopeless, however, Buck Weaver hit a tremendous triple to the gap in right-center. Shoeless Joe was next. He sent a ground ball to Larry Koft, who fired to first. It got Jackson out. The White Sox had been blanked for the second straight game.
But the efforts of their hitters could at this point hardly go unnoticed. Even some of the players not involved were in a bad slump. Leibold had yet to get a hit, Collins was at .111. Of the honest Sox, only Schalk was hitting well, .308. Dickey Kerr, who won game three for Chicago, had been 0 for 3 at the plate.
The White Sox players allegedly involved, Jackson and Weaver were hitting .316 and .300, respectively. Gandil, involved for sure, was at .278 after five games. But even that was not enough to stop the embarrassment of being shutout back-to-back!
References
“The Faith Of Fifty Million People.” Burns, Ken, director. Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns, season 1, episode 3, PBS, 20 Sept. 1994. Television.
Enders, Eric. 100 Years Of The World Series. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 2005. Print.
Frommer, Harvey. Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball. Dallas, TX: Taylor Pub., 1992. Print.
Gropman, Donald. Say It Ain't So, Joe!: The True Story Of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Revised ed. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Group, 1992. Print.
Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.
Nemec, David et all. 20th Century Baseball Chronicle: A Year-by-year History of Major League Baseball. Collector's Edition. Lincolnwood, Ill: Publications International, 1993. Print.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 12 May. 2014.
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