"Call the Game!"

Abstract

As long as there has been baseball, there has been gambling on baseball. In middle of nineteenth century, as game began to spread in popularity among socalled gentlemen-members of upper class playing for leisure-wagers were made for a meal or a small sum of money.1 This was an accepted practice among fans, and often players, because then and now many people found it enjoyable to be financially invested in outcome of a game. As sport became dominated by elite professionals instead of amateurs following Civil War, it did not take long for sportsmen, or gamblers, to take a more serious interest in outcome of these games. Baseball's first major gambling scandal in 1877 occurred just one year after formation of National League, and less than a decade after creation of sport's first wholly professional team, Cincinnati Red Stockings.2 In that scandal, four players with Louisville team of National League were accused of intentionally losing at least three exhibition games and they were suspected of throwing league games, as well. As some observers worried that the exposure would destroy game,3 National League president William Hulbert set a harsh precedent in baseball by permanently expelling four players, first time that punishment had been publicly levied by a league against its own players. It sent a message that associating with gamblers would not be tolerated; for a generation afterward, most NL players stuck to time-honored drinking and womanizing as their vices of choice.By turn of twentieth century, as modern two-league system was formalized with a treaty between National League and upstart American League in 1903, public confidence in game's integrity was strong. American League president Byron BancroftBan Johnson, who was already baseball's most powerful authority figure and a charter member of its three-man ruling body, National Commission, seemed to be especially vigilant about fighting any trace of gambling. On August 17, 1903, he ordered that all betting at his league's ballparks be banned.4 But that Fall, as NL champion Pittsburgh Pirates prepared to meet AL champion Boston Americans in first modern World Series, it was clear that gambling on baseball had never truly disappeared. Just before Series began, Boston catcher Lou Criger was approached by gamblers who offered to bribe him and star pitcher Cy Young in order to ensure a Pittsburgh victory. Criger immediately reported bribe to Johnson, who exposed and denounced plot. Criger was rewarded for his honesty when his career ended, as Johnson paid him a pension out of American League funds for many years afterward.5 No action was taken against gamblers; their identities were never revealed.In ensuing decade, rumors of game-fixing surfaced periodically, often accompanied by increased betting activity.6 Boston teams were involved in a number of these incidents. During 1912 World Series, Red Sox star pitcher Smoky Joe Wood advised his friends and family to bet on Boston before his scheduled start in Game 6, with Red Sox ahead three games to one (darkness ended one game in a tie). Wood had compiled a sterling 34-5 won-loss record in regular season and had already beaten New York Giants twice in World Series. His teammates were so confident that Wood would clinch championship that they were reportedly counting their winning shares on train to New York after Game 5.7 Instead, prompted by team owner James McAleer's orders,8 manager Jake Stahl started unseasoned Buck O'Brien. The Red Sox lost that game and a furious Wood, embarrassed at having advised his friends wrong, lost next one, too. Boston finally clinched championship in a memorable Game 8, but syndicated reporter Hugh Fullerton warned of gamblers' influence in baseball:The muckerishness of fan is exceeding itself in muck this fall. …