Chick Gandil's story

Thanks EJF, great read. To me it looks like we'll never know the real story, each guy has his own. But this is the first I've heard about Gandil's interview.

Sounds like a fustercluck from the get-go. OK we'll tank a few games, but then we'll come back and win the world series. We'll get money from the gamblers and be heroes for winning the world series. But it fell apart from the start. Nobody knew who to trust.

The link to Gandil's piece seems to have changed. Here's an updated one:

http://www.si.com/vault/2005/11/04/8374526/the-black-sox-my-side-of-the-story

Here is another working link that I found to the story

http://baseballhistorian.blogspot.com/2012/03/chick-gandils-side-of-story.html

Gandil said this:

“There was Charles Comiskey, the White Sox owner. He was a sarcastic, belittling man who was the tightest owner in baseball. If a player objected to his miserly terms, Comiskey told him: ‘You can take it or leave it.’ Under baseball's slave laws, what could a fellow do but take it? I recall only one act of generosity on Comiskey's part. After we won the World Series in 1917, he splurged with a case of champagne.”

It's common belief that Comiskey was cheap, and perhaps he was, but it's been noted by others that the White Sox had the *highest* payroll in baseball in 1919.

I think all baseball players during that time thought their owners were cheap.