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05-02-2012, 09:34 AM
The trial of former star pitcher Roger Clemens on charges that he lied to Congress when he denied taking steroids and human growth hormone is just the latest example of a big name from baseball becoming embroiled in scandal.
With Clemens' friend Andy Pettitte retaking the stand Wednesday, this is a look at some of the other cases in which the sport's major figures got into hot water.
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March 12, 1921 -- Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, Chicago White Sox pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Charles "Swede" Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, outfielders "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Happy Felsh and infielder Fred McMullen were suspended for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The players had already been suspended by the team on Sept. 28, 1920, following their indictment on criminal charges.
The "Black Sox" were acquitted on Aug. 3, 1921, but banned from the game by Landis the following day.
"Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball," Landis wrote.
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April 9, 1947 -- Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was suspended for one year by Commissioner Albert B. "Happy" Chandler "as a result of the accumulation of unpleasant incidents in which he has been involved which the commissioner construes as detrimental to baseball."
Chandler refused to say if the incidents included associations with gamblers, but Durocher's friends included actor George Raft, alleged to have worked at gambling clubs, and mobster Bugsy Siegel. The previous month, Durocher and Dodgers President Branch Rickey accused Yankees President Larry MacPhail -- the former Dodgers president -- of having two alleged gamblers, handicapper Memphis Engleberg and casino manager Connie Immerman, in his box during an exhibition game between the Dodgers and Yankees in Havana. MacPhail retaliated by filing a complaint with Chandler.
More dirt: in April 1946, Durocher had been found not guilty in Brooklyn of second-degree assault involving 23-year-old John Christian at Ebbets Field on June 9, 1945. Durocher had been accused of breaking the fan's jaw. Durocher also had been criticized by Brooklyn's Catholic Youth Organization for having an affair with actress Laraine Day, who was married. Durocher and Day married in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 21, 1947, a day after she obtained a divorce in Juarez, Mexico, from Ray Hendricks.
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Feb. 3, 1993 -- Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended for one year and fined $25,000 by the game's executive council for bringing "disrepute and embarrassment" to baseball with her repeated use of racial and ethnic slurs. The suspension was shortened to eight months for good behavior.
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From 1987-90 -- Arbitrator Thomas Roberts (Sept. 21, 1987) and arbitrator George Nicolau (Aug. 31, 1988, and July 18, 1990) rule baseball management conspired against free agents following the 1986, 1987 and 1988 seasons in violation of the sport's labor contract. Management settled the cases for a $280 million payment made on Jan. 2, 1991. Among the players affected: Jack Morris, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Jack Clark, Lance Parrish.
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Aug. 24, 1989 -- Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti announced Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball following an investigation of his gambling, which concluded Rose made 412 baseball wagers between April 8 and July 5, 1987, including 52 on the Reds to win.
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Dec. 13, 2007 -- A 409-page report by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to baseball Commissioner Bud Selig links 85 players to performance-enhancing drugs, among them are Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Jose Canseco, Miguel Tejada and Pettitte. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds hearings on the report in early 2008. On Aug. 19, 2010, Clemens is indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on one count of obstruction of Congress, three counts of making false statements to Congress and two counts of perjury, all related to his testimony and a deposition he gave committee staff on Feb. 5, 2008.http://nky.cincinnati.com/usatoday/artic...t|Sports|s
With Clemens' friend Andy Pettitte retaking the stand Wednesday, this is a look at some of the other cases in which the sport's major figures got into hot water.
___
March 12, 1921 -- Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, Chicago White Sox pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Charles "Swede" Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, outfielders "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Happy Felsh and infielder Fred McMullen were suspended for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The players had already been suspended by the team on Sept. 28, 1920, following their indictment on criminal charges.
The "Black Sox" were acquitted on Aug. 3, 1921, but banned from the game by Landis the following day.
"Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball," Landis wrote.
___
April 9, 1947 -- Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was suspended for one year by Commissioner Albert B. "Happy" Chandler "as a result of the accumulation of unpleasant incidents in which he has been involved which the commissioner construes as detrimental to baseball."
Chandler refused to say if the incidents included associations with gamblers, but Durocher's friends included actor George Raft, alleged to have worked at gambling clubs, and mobster Bugsy Siegel. The previous month, Durocher and Dodgers President Branch Rickey accused Yankees President Larry MacPhail -- the former Dodgers president -- of having two alleged gamblers, handicapper Memphis Engleberg and casino manager Connie Immerman, in his box during an exhibition game between the Dodgers and Yankees in Havana. MacPhail retaliated by filing a complaint with Chandler.
More dirt: in April 1946, Durocher had been found not guilty in Brooklyn of second-degree assault involving 23-year-old John Christian at Ebbets Field on June 9, 1945. Durocher had been accused of breaking the fan's jaw. Durocher also had been criticized by Brooklyn's Catholic Youth Organization for having an affair with actress Laraine Day, who was married. Durocher and Day married in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 21, 1947, a day after she obtained a divorce in Juarez, Mexico, from Ray Hendricks.
___
Feb. 3, 1993 -- Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended for one year and fined $25,000 by the game's executive council for bringing "disrepute and embarrassment" to baseball with her repeated use of racial and ethnic slurs. The suspension was shortened to eight months for good behavior.
___
From 1987-90 -- Arbitrator Thomas Roberts (Sept. 21, 1987) and arbitrator George Nicolau (Aug. 31, 1988, and July 18, 1990) rule baseball management conspired against free agents following the 1986, 1987 and 1988 seasons in violation of the sport's labor contract. Management settled the cases for a $280 million payment made on Jan. 2, 1991. Among the players affected: Jack Morris, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Jack Clark, Lance Parrish.
___
Aug. 24, 1989 -- Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti announced Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball following an investigation of his gambling, which concluded Rose made 412 baseball wagers between April 8 and July 5, 1987, including 52 on the Reds to win.
___
Dec. 13, 2007 -- A 409-page report by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to baseball Commissioner Bud Selig links 85 players to performance-enhancing drugs, among them are Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Jose Canseco, Miguel Tejada and Pettitte. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds hearings on the report in early 2008. On Aug. 19, 2010, Clemens is indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on one count of obstruction of Congress, three counts of making false statements to Congress and two counts of perjury, all related to his testimony and a deposition he gave committee staff on Feb. 5, 2008.http://nky.cincinnati.com/usatoday/artic...t|Sports|s
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05-02-2012, 11:26 AM
I'd say the most famous one is the Black Sox Scandal. Why would you throw a chance at a world championship just to make a quick buck, when you were already making money?
05-02-2012, 11:48 AM
^ Money in Baseball in 1919 was like the money you would make at McDonalds today. No, these guys were not Rich like athletes today. They worked to supplement their incomes, baseball was not a living. These guys were going to make more by throwing the world series than they made the entire season playing baseball. I'm not justifying what they did, but you don't have an accurate view of what money they were making playing baseball at the turn of the century.
05-02-2012, 11:51 AM
but I mean why would you throw your shot a championship? To me that would be more than money. Back then $5 dollars could by a lot, now a days $5 dollars won't hardly by anything unless your a kid then it's candy
05-02-2012, 01:08 PM
^ Championships meant a hell of a lot less back then when making enough money to pay your bills such as Doctors and medicine, something that is free to these athletes today. Why would you care about a worthless trophy (there were no diamond rings back then) back then when you didn't even make enough money to keep your family fed. Like I said, Baseball truly was a pastime back then, not a means of making a living!
05-02-2012, 01:27 PM
so how did they still not make enough? Back then $100 went a long long ways then it does today
05-02-2012, 04:58 PM
Strikeout King Wrote:so how did they still not make enough? Back then $100 went a long long ways then it does today
Equate their salary to about $50K in today's world SK. That's not bad money now is it? OK, support your family on that! Now support your own medical coverage. Pay all your doctor bills out of that $50K, your kids doctor bills, the birth of your children. You lived on the road and paid for your own food. You don't have insurance, you don't have your expenses paid.
Tell me, how far in today's world would you get paying for all of that out of your $50K salary. Give me your take on it.
05-02-2012, 05:12 PM
Strikeout King Wrote:I'd say the most famous one is the Black Sox Scandal. Why would you throw a chance at a world championship just to make a quick buck, when you were already making money?
That is bad but IMO The Mitchell Report is worse...
almost 100 players testing positive for roids?!?!
I would imagine there were some world series rings involved in those tests as well.
05-02-2012, 05:40 PM
Stardust Wrote:Equate their salary to about $50K in today's world SK. That's not bad money now is it? OK, support your family on that! Now support your own medical coverage. Pay all your doctor bills out of that $50K, your kids doctor bills, the birth of your children. You lived on the road and paid for your own food. You don't have insurance, you don't have your expenses paid.
Tell me, how far in today's world would you get paying for all of that out of your $50K salary. Give me your take on it.
now your starting to clear it up. but it's still bad.
Today's baseball isn't as good as the old days. People didn't use steriods like A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemons, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, etc. etc. To me Hank Aaron is still the best player to ever play the game of baseball. If he's not the best, he's one of the Top 5
05-03-2012, 07:56 AM
^ I completely agree with you about Hank Aaron, BUT... I'm not quite letting the guy's of the 60'sthrough the 80's off the hook. It's a fact that amphetamines (uppers, Speed) was used regularly by players of that era. Pete Rose said that it was so rampant that Candy Jars of them were in the dugouts (both home and away) and players freely imbibed in the illegal narcotic. Though I admit that Steroids and Speed are different, they certainly both had impacts on the game.
Steroids certainly allowed a guy like Brady Anderson who did not hit more than 10 home runs in a season to come out one season and pop 40. That certainly was an example that it could help a mediocre player excel at something they couldn't do otherwise. But for a guy like Barry Bonds, sterpids did not help him hit Home Runs, he already could do that. What Steroids did was allow him to stay healthy during a period of time that his body was breaking down. Steroids allowed Bonds to play full seasons instead of being on the DL.
So, why would Amphetamines be lumped with steroids? Same reason. Uppers put guys on the field by giving them an artificial stimulant that would have kept them off the field otherwise. It was an artificial source, just like steroids; it was illegal, just like steroids; and it put guys on the field in more games than they would have played otherwise, just like steroids. We will call the 90's-00's as the steroid era, but the amphetamine era artificially infalted numbers for guys who played through pain and exhaustion too. If you say guys cheated with steroids, then the cheated by taking uppers too.
Steroids certainly allowed a guy like Brady Anderson who did not hit more than 10 home runs in a season to come out one season and pop 40. That certainly was an example that it could help a mediocre player excel at something they couldn't do otherwise. But for a guy like Barry Bonds, sterpids did not help him hit Home Runs, he already could do that. What Steroids did was allow him to stay healthy during a period of time that his body was breaking down. Steroids allowed Bonds to play full seasons instead of being on the DL.
So, why would Amphetamines be lumped with steroids? Same reason. Uppers put guys on the field by giving them an artificial stimulant that would have kept them off the field otherwise. It was an artificial source, just like steroids; it was illegal, just like steroids; and it put guys on the field in more games than they would have played otherwise, just like steroids. We will call the 90's-00's as the steroid era, but the amphetamine era artificially infalted numbers for guys who played through pain and exhaustion too. If you say guys cheated with steroids, then the cheated by taking uppers too.
05-06-2012, 04:37 PM
Strikeout King Wrote:now your starting to clear it up. but it's still bad.
Today's baseball isn't as good as the old days. People didn't use steriods like A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemons, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, etc. etc. To me Hank Aaron is still the best player to ever play the game of baseball. If he's not the best, he's one of the Top 5
You've got a good point, but those guys still could have used steroids as well. Steroids were not a big thing during those times.
I'm no baseball guru, but if I had to pick the biggest scandals that I know...probably Pete Rose or Clemens, at least in this time. The 1919 scandal with the world series sounds pretty bad though lol.
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