Managers Maneuver During the Off-Season Too
PLUS: SHOELESS JOE'S ATTEMPT TO SUE CHARLES COMISKEY BACKFIRED BADLY
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Warren Spahn not only won 363 games, most by any left-hander and most by any postwar pitcher, but threw 63 shutouts while working 5,246 innings. Six of his 13 seasons with 20 wins were consecutive . . .
Spahn pitched his first no-hitter at age 39 and his second five days after turning 40 in 1961 . . .
Spahn’s last year in Milwaukee (1964) coincided with the first year there of another future 300-game winner, Phil Niekro . . .
Hoyt Wilhelm, another knuckleballer who reached the Hall of Fame, was 46 when he posted two wins, two saves, and a 0.75 earned run average for the 1969 Braves but couldn’t pitch in the playoffs against the Mets because he arrived in Atlanta eight days after the deadline for postseason roster eligibility . . .
The day before he hit four home runs and a double against the Dodgers in Brooklyn in 1954, Joe Adcock broke his bat and had to borrow another from light-hitting reserve catcher Charlie White.
Leading Off
Managers Manage To Make News Even When They’re Not Managing
By Dan Schlossberg
Note to unemployed major-league managers: a half-dozen teams are in the process of hiring.
Even before the World Series started, Terry Francona (Guardians) and Dusty Baker (Astros) retired; Phil Nevin (Angels), Gabe Kapler (Giants) and Buck Showalter (Mets) were fired; Craig Counsell (Brewers) is already being courted by several clubs, including Milwaukee, for next season; and Bob Melvin jumped from the Padres to the Giants even though he was still under contract to San Diego.
Baker, 74, took five teams to the playoffs and won World Series rings as both a player and a manager. He also rescued the Astros from oblivion and scorn in the wake of the 2017 World Series sign-stealing scandal and secured his niche in the Hall of Fame by taking the team to the final round in all four of his seasons with the ‘stros.
Now he’s looking for an advisory position and is sure to find one — probably in his native California, since he played for both the Dodgers and Giants.
Showalter, a four-time Manager of the Year but never a pennant winner, has already been linked to the Angels, who are virtually certain to lose superstar Shohei Ohtani to a well-heeled contender via free agency.
Francona, victimized by health issues for several seasons, hinted he might come back to the dugout some day but probably has a ticket to Cooperstown printed already after winning two world championships with the Red Sox.
Kapler’s reliance on analytics probably doomed his tenure in San Francisco, which had two awful seasons after winning a club-record 107 games in 2021. Also a former manager in Philadelphia, Kapler has enough friends and admirers to find a perfect fit soon.
Counsell’s best friend is David Stearns, new president of baseball operations for the Mets, and that union could continue if he’s willing to shift to Flushing. That could be tough for someone with numerous Wisconsin ties but money talks and Steve Cohen — the second coming of George Steinbrenner — has more than anyone in the game.
Melvin and Padres baseball chief PJ Preller didn’t get along but owner Peter Seidler wanted them both back. Once the Giants dumped Kapler, however, the writing was on the wall for Melvin, a Bay Area native.
So how does that all shake out?
Counsell is a good bet to jump to the Mets and perhaps double his salary. Melvin has already received a healthy hike from the $4 million paid by the Padres, who have since indicated an interest in paring payroll. But coach Mike Shildt, who once managed the Cardinals to a 17-game September winning streak, is ready and waiting there.
Houston could turn to Joe Espada, a highly-respected coach for several seasons, or former Astros catcher Brad Ausmus, the brilliant Dartmouth grad who managed the Angels, Tigers, and Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic.
If Counsell goes to New York, Milwaukee will have to find a new manager for next year, as will Cleveland.
Several other managers have narrowly hung on for dear life. They are Aaron Boone (Yankees), Pedro Grifol (Chicago White Sox), and Oli Marmol (Cardinals), all disappointments last year.
There’s a huge pool of former pilots who would love to come back. They include Fredi Gonzalez, Joe Girardi, and Joe Maddon, as well as Kapler, Nevin, and Showalter.
And how long will it be before Brian Snitker and Bruce Bochy, both 68, also start thinking about retirement? With Baker gone, they are the oldest field generals still working at their craft.
It’s going to be an interesting winter.
Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is weekend editor of Here’s The Pitch and contributor to forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, and many other outlets. E.mail him via ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
When Shoeless Joe Jackson Sued the Chicago White Sox For Back Pay
By Dan Schlossberg
Everyone knows the story of the Black Sox Scandal, the banning for life of eight Chicago White Sox players for allegedly fixing the 1919 World Series.
That series, won by the Cincinnati Reds, promoted the book and movie Eight Men Out, among other works, but also had many footnotes.
One of the biggest footnotes was a 1924 trial launched by Shoeless Joe Jackson, the biggest star among the eight men banned, against the White Sox and team owner Charles Comiskey.
A new book, edited by Jacob Pomrenke and David J. Fletcher and published by Eckhartz Press, features Jackson’s full testimony, though it never earned him more money or reinstatement. In fact, it had the opposite result.
The telling title is Joe Jackson, Plaintiff, v Chicago American League Ball Club, Defendant: The Never-Seen-Before Trial Transcript.
Jackson was suing for $16,000, tip money for today’s players but a fortune during the Roaring ‘20s — especially for an illiterate ballplayer who had been thrown out of the game he played so well (Jackson led both teams with a .375 batting average in the 1919 Series so how did he contribute to a fix?).
Acquitted along with his seven co-defendants when evidence against them mysteriously vanished in their 1920 trial, Jackson was still banned from the game for life for allegedly consorting with gamblers. He didn’t take it lightly.
In a scene almost impossible to imagine today, one of baseball's biggest stars sued his team's principal owner and they both took the stand to testify under oath about their contract negotiations, revenue and expenses, gambling, bribery and the integrity of the game. Amazingly, it actually happened — but got precious little publicity.
The full story of what happened in that courtroom has remained hidden in the shadows — until now.
For reasons unknown, the details of one of the most compelling courtroom dramas in American sports history have long eluded baseball historians. The authors explain the historical significance of this never-before-seen trial testimony and the story behind the publication of this rare transcript 100 years later.
Perhaps Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, the no-nonsense first Commissioner of Baseball — used his Chicago court connections to quash the testimony. He surely would have had the support of American League president Ban Johnson, not to mention Comiskey.
This no-holds-barred report, which reads like a novel, is the complete story of the trial, using real testimony made under oath by key figures in the scandal, including major-league stars Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Williams and Happy Felsch in addition to Johnson; Sox owner Comiskey; team secretary Harry Grabiner; corporate counsel Alfred Austrian; gamblers “Sleepy” Bill Burns and Billy Maharg; sportswriter Hugh Fullerton; and many others, including future Hall of Fame pitcher Red Faber.
According to Fletcher, “Shoeless Joe — the iconic ballplayer whose legend was elevated in Hollywood films such as Field of Dreams — has a real voice in this 300,000-word transcript that reads like a movie script with a dramatic ending.”
In a twist that would stun the modern 24-hour news cycle and social media world, while the jury still was deliberating its verdict, presiding Judge John Gregory charged Shoeless Joe with perjury.
“Jackson stands self-convicted and self-accused of perjury,” the Judge said, admonishing Shoeless Joe. “You came to the wrong state, to the wrong city, to the wrong court.”
Jackson was incarcerated for changing his story under oath, Pomrenke said.
“The trial ends with the judge throwing Joe Jackson in jail for changing his story. That marked the final chapter in the complex legal proceedings that would forever become known as the Black Sox Scandal.”
Pomrenke is active in the Society for American Baseball Research [SABR] and editor of Scandal on the South Side: the 1919 Chicago White Sox. Fletcher is co-author of Chili Dog MVP: Dick Allen, the ‘72 White Sox, and a Transforming Chicago, runner-up for Chicago’s best non-fiction book in 2022.
On a personal note, thanks to Randye Ringler for bringing this important book to my attention so that I can share it with Here’s The Pitch readers.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, Here’s The Pitch, Memories & Dreams, and USA TODAY Sports Weekly, among others. His e.mail is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Tommie Aaron hit only 13 home runs but two of them were game-enders . . .
He and brother Hank hit a combined 768 home runs, a fraternal record, though Tommie never hit more than eight in a season . . .
Lloyd and Paul Waner, the only brother combination in the Baseball Hall of Fame, homered in the same game three times and same inning twice, producing brotherly back-to-back homers in 1938 — a feat duplicated in 2013 by B.J. and Justin Upton of the Atlanta Braves, also in the fifth inning . . .
No other brother tandem ever hit consecutive home runs but several did it in the same inning at least twice — with the Uptons and Ripkens (Billy and Cal Jr.) joining the Waners and Aarons on that exclusive list . . .
A dozen other brother tandems connected in the same game, with the Uptons doing it five times and the Guerreros and Giambis four times each . . .
As opponents, the brothers Nettles (Graig and Jim) homered in the same game twice, as did the Boones (Bret and Aaron). Joe and Dom DiMaggio homered in the same game once as opponents but the Ferrells (Rick and Wes) were the only rivals who did ikt in the same inning . . .
The most recent brother tandem to pop home runs in the same game were Corey Seager (Dodgers) and Kyle Seager (Mariners) in an inter-league game on August 18, 2020 . . .
Brothers Clete and Ken Boyer are the only brothers who hit home runs in the same World Series game, the seventh game between the Yankees and Cardinals in 1964.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.