Looking Back: Vols' Player Becomes A Black Sox
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson and several of his teammates were banned from baseball concerning their involvement in the "fixed" World Series of 1919. This infamous betting scandal put a black cloud on the national pastime.
Just six months earlier, Nashville fans were proudly welcoming Jackson and one of his teammates, a Nashville Vols' alumnus, who was a starting pitcher for that same Chicago White Sox team.
White Sox pitcher Claude "Kid" Williams was returning to Sulphur Dell on this April 17, 1919 afternoon. Seventeen months later, the disgraced Williams and seven Sox teammates were facing indictment, trial and eventfully banishment from baseball.
Williams was a dominant pitcher for the Vols in the Southern Association and made his major league debut with Detroit in 1913. The Nashville Banner wrote the following article on Williams' return to Nashville:
The clatter of big league hoof-beats break the silence in the Dell today as Kid Gleason (White Sox manager), with his army of White Sox lines up against the Vols. Of particular interest to local fandom is the fact that a one-time Vol hurler is billed to adorn the slab for the Sox machine in the person of Claude Williams, better known as "Kid" Williams. Between Gleason and Williams the kid colony is well represented.
Williams made a great record while with the Vols and attracted the attention of major scouts. "Kid" Williams, a youngster for fair when he joined the Vols, set the Southern League on fire with his offhand flinging and was quickly spotted by the critics to gambol in major league pastures before his career was much further underway. Today we find the "Kid" in the spangles of the powerful White Sox machine, and a box mainstay for the Chicago American League pennant entry.
Along with Jackson and Williams the eight players banned by Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis were pitcher Eddie Cicotte, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, utility man Fred McMullin, and outfielder Happy Felsch. Each player, except for Cicotte, appeared in the game on this 1919 Nashville spring day.
Jackson was one of the premier hitters in the major leagues and was considered the chief rival of Ty Cobb. The Nashville Banner gave this preview of the great hitter that afternoon:
Joe Jackson, who year after year is seen in the one-two-three candidates for the top rung of the American League swat column, is well known to Nashville fandom. The pathways of the Dell will not be strange territory for the demon clout smith, for it was with the New Orleans Pels that Joe made a name in minor league baseball which brought him before the eyes of big ring sherlocks.
They lost no time in grabbing him for the major circle and today his name is universally known in the baseball realm as one of the greatest hitters the game has yet produced. Season after season Joe has battled his way to the upper tier in the base hit column, and is one of the most dangerous competitors who ever blocked the pathway of T. Raymond Cobb.
More than 1,000 fans entered the Sulphur Dell gates to see this exhibition game not realizing they were about to see a team, which would write a sad chapter in baseball history. Williams was the starting pitcher for the Sox while his Vols' counterpart was hurler Joe Decatur.
Williams left the game after five innings with the Sox ahead 2-1. The play of the game, which brought the fans to their feet, took place in the Sox half of the eighth with the Vols leading 3-2 and Eddie Collins on third base. Collins attempted his famous stunt of stealing home. Vols' relief pitcher Bub Jonnard was beginning his wind-up when Collins broke towards the plate. Jonnard's throw to Vols catcher Kohbecker was just ahead of the sliding Collins and the umpire called him out.
The Sox trailed the hometown Vols 3-2 going into their last at-bat. Pinch-hitter McMullin reached first on a single after two outs. Nemo Leibold walked, and Weaver singled, scoring McMullin and tying the score. Collins then doubled to right center, scoring Liebold and Weaver for the final runs of the game. The White Sox won the battle at the Dell, 5-3.
Williams gave up four hits in his five innings while Jackson reached base on one hit in five plate appearances. Williams would compile a 23-11 record for 1919, which would be his personal best in his sixth major league season. Jackson, concluding his 12th season, finished fourth in batting with a .351 average.
The Fall Classic of 1919 featured the heavily favored White Sox against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. The Reds won the best of nine series, 5-3. Williams was 0-3 with a 6.64 ERA compared to his 2.41 ERA for the season. During the final game of the series, Williams was knocked out in the first inning after giving up four runs. Jackson hit .375 with one home run in the World Series.
The gambling scandal broke in September 1920 after several months of rumors, while the White Sox were in a pennant chase with Cleveland. When the eight Sox were indicted by a grand jury, they were suspended. The Indians won the 1920 pennant by two games against the now-depleted White Sox roster.
Williams and Jackson were off-the-field friends, and it was established that Williams gave Jackson $5,000 from the gamblers as his first payment. Williams was not an instigator in the scandal, but he was involved. Jackson maintained his innocence until the day he died in spite of a written confession he made before the grand jury, which was later "lost."
The Chicago trail ended in August of 1921 with all involved acquitted. Newly appointed Commissioner Landis expelled all eight with lifetime banishment from baseball. Eventually all the players maintained their innocence while they benefited from a favorable jury.
Before the White Sox left Nashville during that April 1919 visit, Gleason appeared pleased with his ball club. A confident Gleason told a Nashville Tennessean reporter from his Tulane Hotel room this optimistic outlook on the upcoming 1919 White Sox season:
We have every reason in the world to believe that the Sox will give them a race to the finish this season. This is not merely idle talk, but based on firm convictions gathered at the training camp and during the exhibition games along the road. My men are in fine shape, and, with the war out of the way, the game is coming back with an impetus this season.
The boys seem to have their batting eye this year, and by the time we hit the Windy City we hope to be in condition to tackle any and all of them without any sort of handicap. We have a fine aggregation of real stars on the club and I am counting on these men to deliver the goods.
Gleason was right with his prediction; the White Sox won the American League pennant and made it to the World Series. Unfortunately for Gleason, the handicap would be greed and the goods they delivered were for themselves. They will forever be known as the Black Sox.
If you have any comments or suggestions contact Bill Traughber via email [email protected].