THE FIX

July 14, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as the ’86 Mets loved to party.

Let’s dive in

Today’s story is about one of baseball’s earliest gambling scandals.

Almost as soon as the game became a professional sport, it was infected by corruption and gambling.

Before the National League was established, the National Association was the governing body for baseball.

By 1875, the Association had become riddled with game-fixing and other forms of corruption, so the National League was established.

The NL was founded in 1876, and it promised to fight corruption and dishonesty.

Strangely enough though, the initial rosters of NL teams contained most of the usual suspects that had been accused of game-fixing during the days of the National Association.

Not surprisingly, the league had its first major scandal in no time.

In 1877, the Grays were been having a helluva season.

As of August 13th, they had a four-game lead over the second-place Boston Red Stockings.

The Grays looked like they had the pennant in the bag.

But then, seemingly out of nowhere, they went into a seven-game nosedive that lasted for the rest of the month.

The streak included four losses directly to the Red Stockings, and by the end of August they were three games behind.

By the end of September, they were eight games behind - the season was completely blown.

And looking back on it, things just didn’t seem to be on the “up and up” if you know what I mean.

Most people believe that the losses were the direct result of crooked play by four players:

  • Bill Craver

  • Jim Devlin

  • George Hall

  • Al Nichols.

The whole thing is pretty messy, but here’s how it breaks down.

For years, Hall had been getting an ear full from his brother-in-law, who thought he should throw some games to supplement his income.

Initially, he never wanted any part of it.

But eventually during the 1877 season, he began to weaken and pitched his teammate Devlin on the idea of working together to make some extra cash.

Around that same time, Devlin had been approached by a gambler from New York named McCloud.

McCloud offered Devlin $100 a game.

Devlin told Hall that he only received $50 from McCloud, allowing him to pay George $25 while he pocketed the other $75.

There was at least one game that Devlin pocketed the whole $100 and gave none to Hall.

On another occasion, Hall and Nichols conspired to lose an exhibition game at Lowell, and apparently left Devlin out of the pot.

You know what they say - no honor amongst thieves.

Before a game against Hartford, Charles E. Chase, the team’s president, received an anonymous telegram with a warning.

“Watch your men.”

The Grays lost badly to Hartford that day, primarily through errors by Hall, Craver, and Nichols.

Chase confronted the players, demanding to see their telegrams, and telling them that he knew they had been throwing games hoping to coax confessions out of them.

Ultimately, Hall admitted to everything and implicated Devlin and Nichols.

The only person who didn’t give Chase access to his telegrams was Bill Craver.

No real evidence was ever found against Craver, but the team took this withholding of telegrams as an admission of guilt.

All four players were banned from baseball and the loss of talent absolutely decimated the Louisville Grays.

The next year they submitted their official resignation to the league.

There’s not much that needs to be said here.

If you don’t know this famous movie quote, you’re probably subscribed to the wrong newsletter.

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STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why?

Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Although he only stayed in the big leagues for four years, Ol’ Smead Jolley was actually a pretty good player.

His main issue was that he couldn’t field for shit.

So even though he was an asset at the plate, his fielding was way too much of a downside.

He played in the PCL for many years, won a triple crown while doing so, and even got inducted into the league’s Hall of Fame.

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