The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [58]
In Cobb’s 1961 book, My Life in Baseball, Cobb revealed that Landis’ verdict was dictated to him by attorneys representing Speaker and himself. Neither Cobb nor Speaker ever managed another Major League Baseball game, although they were able to play for other teams. Cobb signed with the Philadelphia Athletics. Speaker signed with the Washington Senators. The two stars were acquitted, and nothing was said of their gambling ever again.
Ban Johnson was slapped the hardest. Because he had prejudged the great Cobb, he took a forced leave of absence, and stepped down soon after. Somehow, Landis knew which gods he could take on, and which he couldn’t. Some stars—like Shoeless Joe Jackson—were at Landis’ mercy. Others, like Cobb, clearly were not.
Cobb agreed not to sue Baseball on a defamation of character suit, and was elected into the charter class of Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1936, earning 222 of the 226 votes cast (higher even than Babe Ruth’s vote). Speaker was enshrined into the Hall of Fame a year later.
When Speaker died in 1957, not a word about the scandal was mentioned in any of the obituaries or sidebars. There was nothing about the fixed game. The first paragraph of the Associated Press story read: “Baseball men everywhere mourned Tris Speaker today as a great center fielder—perhaps the best of all time—a fine and understanding manager, a good influence on younger players and a wonderful person.”
Folks, if you committed the cardinal sin in your sport, and walked away with this legacy, you would be able to rest in peace. This was the case for Cobb, who died in 1961. Ban Johnson was among many who praised Cobb after his passing, calling him the greatest player of all time. Again, not a word was uttered about the scandal.
Speaker and Cobb came out unscathed, with their souls and reputations in tact.
Landis didn’t come out looking as great. The esteemed sportswriter Shirley Povich wrote in 1989 (after Giamatti had banished Rose):
It is to be recalled that Landis’ reputation suffered in 1927 when he surprisingly took no action against Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker despite solid evidence that they not only bet on baseball games—Rose’s sin—but actually were involved in fixing a game, the ultimate baseball crime.... When Landis chickened out on that one it was startling because was he not the very model of the no-nonsense commissioner before whom all baseball trembled? Had he not swiftly banished for life the eight Black Sox who fixed the 1919 World Series? Was he not the stern old federal judge who once fined the Standard Oil Company $10 million in 1917?. . . . Yet Landis, after a hearing, let Cobb and Speaker off as “not guilty because of insufficient evidence.” Therein his critics said Landis got satisfaction in what was his long and bitter feud with Ban Johnson, who had already declared both players guilty and banned them from the game.
MY OPINION
When Cobb was being questioned by Landis, he reportedly leaked news of a 1923 series between the Tigers and Browns that was fixed by St. Louis Browns players. Cobb said that certain Browns players approached members of the Tigers, saying they would see to it that the Tigers won. Cobb claimed that he took the matter to the Tigers’ owner, Navin. When questioned by the commissioner about the story Cobb had leaked to reporter Bert Walker of INS (International News Service), Cobb was coy, saying, “He does not wish to testify in any more scandals, barring the one involving himself.” Cobb also hinted to reporters that he had inside information about certain club officials filing false ticket sales figures to tax collectors and scalping World Series tickets.
There were so many cans of worms that Cobb could have opened that he could have ripped baseball apart single-handedly. Every game, every series could have been scrutinized and investigated ad nauseum. In my view, Landis knew that Cobb was a wealthy man with powerful friends in