Shoeless Joe Jackson Virtual Hall of Fame

The Eight Men - Who Were They?

In 1920, the world of baseball was stunned to learn that members of the Chicago White Sox colluded with professional gamblers and agreed to throw the previous World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Eight players were indicted for participating in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

Even today, baseball fans are vaguely familiar with some of the players and the ring-leaders who participated in the scandal. Who were the Black Sox players?

T H E E I G H T M E N
Eddie Cicotte	Oscar Felsch	Arnold Gandil	Joe Jackson
Fred McMullin	Charles Risberg	George Weaver	Claude Williams

Edward Victor "Ed" Cicotte - (P)
Born: June 19, 1884, Detroit, Mich.
Died: May 5, 1969, Detroit, Mich.
Batted: Both Threw: Right
Place of interment: Park View Cemetery, Livonia, MI, Grave 2.

Lifetime Statistics
													Relief Pitching			Batting
Years	W	L	PCT.	ERA	G	GS	CG	IP	H	BB	SO	ShO	W	L	SV	AB	H	HR	BA	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA
14	208	149	.583	2.37	502	358	249	3224.1	2897	827	1374	36	24	13	25	1063	197	0	.185	128	1000	70	36	2.4	.942

Cicotte was a crafty right-hander and might have been remembered as one of the greatest pitchers of the game. With pinpoint control and a repertoire of deceptive pitches, he led the American league with 28 wins and a 1.53 ERA in 1917. Only Walter Johnson was better. He knew all the tricks, dusted batters, threw a black ball, shine and emery ball. He was friendly on the field, but seldom mingled with the rest off the field. Eddie lived under an assumed name most of the time and moved from job to job: game warden, security guard, near the end of his life, sweeping off snow from driveways in the winter and raising strawberries in the summer. In 1969 he died at the age of eighty-five in Detroit.

Oscar Emil "Happy" Felsch - (CF)
Born: August 22, 1891, Milwaukee, WI.
Died: August 17, 1964, Milwaukee, WI.
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Place of interment: Wisconsin Memorial Park, Central Garden, K East.

Lifetime Statistics
															Pinch Hit
Years	Games	BA	SA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	HR%	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AB	H	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA	G by POS.
6	749	.293	.427	2812	825	135	64	38	1.4	385	446	207	251	88	7	2	1921	116	53	41	2.8	.975	OF - 741

Happy still shares records for the most double plays (15) by an outfielder during a season and number of assists in a single game (4). He was a superb centerfielder with great range and a strong arm. Like Joe Jackson, he was a natural ballplayer who hit for a .293 life-time average. He was tall and husky and was always in good spirits, hence his nickname "Happy". With the great Tris Speaker, he was the best defensive outfielder of the day. Happy ran a tavern in Milwaukee and was constantly embroiled in fights with argumentative drinkers about 1919. Felsch finally got tired of arguing and gave it up. He died at the age of seventy-three in 1964.

Arnold "Chick" Gandil - (1B)
Born: January 19, 1887, St. Paul, MN.
Died: December 13, 1970, Calistoga, CA.
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Place of interment: Saint Helena Cemetery, Saint Helena, CA Block 20, Just off Live Oak Road.

Lifetime Statistics
															Pinch Hit
Years	Games	BA	SA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	HR%	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AB	H	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA	G by POS.
9	1147	.277	.362	4245	1176	173	78	11	0.3	449	557	273	233	153	6	2	11,121	754	99	630	10.4	.992	1B - 1138, OF - 2

Gandil was the author of the scheme and his connections to bookies and organized gamblers were crucial to fixing the World Series. Besides arranging the tainted series, Gandil was an average first baseman with a good glove. His contemporaries described him as a "professional malcontent". His life-time batting average was .277. Chick was a plumber and a tinkerer at odd jobs. The last part of his life was spent in the beautiful Napa Valley of Northern California. In 1970, his time ran out. He was eighty-two.

Joseph Jefferson Wofford "Shoeless Joe" Jackson - (LF)
Born: July 16, 1888, Pickens County, SC.
Died: December 5, 1951, Greenville, SC.
Batted: Left Threw: Right
Place of interment: Woodlawn Memorial Park, Wade Hampton Blvd, Greenville, SC. Section V, Plot 333.

Lifetime Statistics
															Pinch Hit
Years	Games	BA	SA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	HR%	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AB	H	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA	G by POS.
13	1330	.356	.518	4981	1774	307	168	54	1.1	873	785	519	158	202	11	4	2646	198	107	48	2.2	.964	OF - 1289, 1B - 27

Jackson hit for power in an era of dead-ball slap hitters. He hit for a life-time batting average of .356 and, except for Ty Cobb, was the best hitter in the American League. He could run, hit and throw with the best players in baseball. Joe Jackson still holds the third highest batting average in the history of baseball. He earned his nickname, Shoeless Joe, after playing a minor league game in his stockings because a new pair of baseball shoes were hurting his feet. Joe continued to play Outlaw baseball for 10 - 15 years after the scandal, later moving back to Greenville, SC and operated a liquor store with his wife Katie. On Wednesday December 5, 1951 at around 10:00PM, Joe suffered a massive heart attack and died before the doctor could arrive. He was sixty-four and the first of the eight men to die.

Frederick William "Fred" McMullin - (U)
Born: October 13, 1891, Scammon, KS.
Died: November 21, 1952, Los Angeles, CA.
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Place of interment: Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, CA. (photo courtesy of Erik Varon)

Lifetime Statistics
															Pinch Hit
Years	Games	BA	SA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	HR%	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AB	H	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA	G by POS.
6	304	.256	.302	914	234	21	9	1	0.1	120	70	91	105	30	26	7	301	512	54	40	2.9	.938	3B - 259, 2B - 10, SS - 6

Fred was a utility infielder and had the least opportunity to alter the outcome of the tainted series. As a pinch-hitter, he singled once in two at bats. Fred was handsome, popular and had an excellent baseball head. He scouted the Reds before the Series on orders from Kid Gleason. Like Buck Weaver, who he backed up at third base during the regular season, he was banned from baseball because he was aware of the scheme and failed to report it to league authorities. Fred died in Los Angeles in 1952 at age sixty-one.

Charles August "Swede" Risberg - (SS)
Born: October 13, 1894, San Francisco, CA.
Died: October 13, 1975, Red Bluff, CA.
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Place of interment: Mount Shasta Cemetery, Mount Shasta, CA.

Lifetime Statistics
															Pinch Hit
Years	Games	BA	SA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	HR%	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AB	H	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA	G by POS.
4	476	.243	.332	1619	394	72	27	6	0.4	196	175	148	180	52	8	2	1076	1203	161	192	5.1	.934	SS - 397, 1B - 29, 3B - 24, 2B - 12, OF - 3

Swede was a rough-and-tumble shortstop with good range and a strong arm. Although he lacked the skill of his contemporaries, his quick temper made him one of the most feared players in the league. He once met the mean-tempered Ty Cobb behind the bleachers after the game and fought the Detroit outfielder to a draw. He joined Chick Gandil as one of the ringleaders of the fix. Swede spent many years as a dairy farmer in Minnesota. Then he moved on to California. It was there that he passed away at the age of eighty-one in 1975. He was the last of the eight men to die!

George Daniel "Buck" Weaver - (3B) The Ginger Kid Web Site
Born: August 18, 1890, Pottstown, PA.
Died: January 31, 1956, Chicago, IL.
Batted: Right Batted Both (1917 - 1920) Threw: Right
Place of interment: Mount Hope Cemetery, 11500 South Fairfield, Chicago, IL Section 35.

Lifetime Statistics
															Pinch Hit
Years	Games	BA	SA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	HR%	R	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AB	H	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA	G by POS.
9	1254	.272	.355	4809	1308	198	69	21	0.4	623	420	183	303	172	5	1	2432	3477	395	418	5.0	.937	SS - 822, 3B - 426, 2B - 1

Buck was a slick-fielding third baseman, was at his best in the 1919 World Series and collected 11 base hits. He hit .333 for a career high in 1920 before the truth about the fix came out. Although he claimed that he had not participated in the scheme, his knowledge of the fix and his reluctance to snitch on his teammates led the commissioner to ban him from baseball. Buck never joined the others in Outlaw baseball, drifted from job to job. His last one was as a parimutuel clerk at a race track. He died of a heart attack in Chicago in 1956 at the age of sixty-six. Buck tried all his life to clear his name and we believe he received a raw deal along with Joe.

Claude Preston "Lefty" Williams - (P)
Born: March 9, 1893, Aurora, MO.
Died: November 4, 1959, Laguna Beach, CA.
Batted: Right Threw: Left
Place of interment: Melrose Abbey Cemetery and Mausoleum, Anaheim, CA, Burial site is unmarked.

Lifetime Statistics
													Relief Pitching			Batting
Years	W	L	PCT.	ERA	G	GS	CG	IP	H	BB	SO	ShO	W	L	SV	AB	H	HR	BA	PO	A	E	DP	TC/G	FA
7	82	48	.631	3.13	189	152	81	1186	1121	347	515	10	6	3	5	384	61	0	.159	36	217	12	8	1.4	.955

Williams, another pitcher, posted a 23-11 win-loss record in 1919 in a league-leading 40 starts. In 1920, prior to being banned from baseball, he was at his peak with 22 victories to his credit. Moody and sullen, the ill-tempered Williams was a blue-collar workhorse who, to the surprise of innocent baseball fans in both leagues, lost all three of his series games against the Cincinnati Reds. He was basically better than Cicotte, he won games the conventional way, good curve and fast ball, tempered with good control. He was quiet, intellegent and seldom joked. Lefty ran a poolroom in Chicago for a time, just getting by. Later he became a manager of a landscaping business in Laguna Beach, California, where he died at age sixty-six in November of 1959.

Although they were cleared of criminal charges by a jury, all eight members of the White Sox were eventually banned from professional baseball after the Black Sox scandal finally concluded. The newly-appointed Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, ordered their names and statistics to be stricken from major league record books. They were officially banned from all levels of professional baseball.