The Bad News Bees

Abstract

It was best and worst of seasons, 1920. On upside, Negro National League founded in February provide top-flight professional competition for those prevented by race from white Organized Baseball and Babe Ruth, in his first season as a New York Yankee, forever changed game by hitting fifty-four home runs, more than hit collectively by any other team and nearly double old record (his) of twentynine. On downside, in August Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman died after being hit in head by a pitch thrown by Carl Mays of Yankees and in September Black Sox scandal rocked nation as eight Chicago White Sox players were indicted for conspiring with gamblers to lose 1919 World Series to Cincinnati Reds.1Ruth's slugging and Chapman's fatality were exceptional occurrences, but crooked play on diamond was nothing new. Since its beginnings in 1860s, professional baseball had been riddled with hippodroming-players taking money from gamblers to influence outcome of contests. In 1865 two New York Mutuals were exiled for conspiring with gamblers and in 1877 National League, just one year after its founding, permanently banned four Louisville Grays for throwing (deliberately losing) games. By early twentieth century baseball gambling was endemic. Personal wagering was benign, but dishonest games threatened integrity of National Pastime. Players suspected of fixing games were common knowledge, but to avoid negative publicity team officials and league presidents, abetted by sportswriters, ignored or suppressed allegations of crooked play.2But Black Sox scandal could not be hushed up as it involved World Series, a revered autumnal cultural ritual, and resulted in lifetime banishment for some of game's finest players, most notably Shoeless Joe Jackson. It remains today a staple of American folklore, one of most frequently cited cultural markers of ethical betrayal, subject of histories, biographies, and a feature film, John Sayles's Eight Men Out (1988).3 The scandal has also found its way into an array of non-baseball literature, most notably F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, wherein Midwestern innocent Nick Carraway encounters a city slicker named Meyer Wolfsheim, the man who fixed World Series back in 1919.4 A national cause celebre, Black Sox scandal is one of most notorious episodes in baseball history, familiar even to non-baseball fans.Less well known is contemporaneous Pacific Coast League (PCL) gambling scandal of 1919-1920.5 The incident is important not only as a case study of minor league baseball gambling in early twentieth century, but also because of its chronological relationship to more famous major league counterpart. The PCL scandal, which antedated Black Sox affair in terms of exposure and banishment of players, was a principal catalyst in calling national attention to extent of gambling in Organized Baseball and stimulating need to combat forcefully its threat to integrity of game. And because PCL scandal focused primarily on members of Salt Lake Bees for allegedly conspiring with gamblers to throw games affecting 1919 league championship, it constitutes a significant chapter in history of baseball in Salt Lake City.Professional Baseball in Salt Lake CitySalt Lake's involvement with professional baseball began in 1901, same year National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues was organized to provide uniform, stable governance for minor leagues. The debut was inauspicious with a second place finish after only forty-one games in four-team, Utah based Inter-Mountain League. In mid-season 1903 Salt Lake became a member of eight team, Class A Pacific National League when Portland Green Gages moved to Utah's capital on July 2. The Elders, so named as city was home to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), did not fare well, finishing fourth, twenty-nine games behind pennant winner. …