I wish the Black Sox had this much swag.
Need—and a little bit of reasonable resentment—was a motivator of one of baseball’s earliest gambling crises, this one arriving in just the second year of the National League’s existence. For two-thirds of the 60-game season, the Louisville Grays were dominant, going 27-13 through mid-August and leading the league by four games with 20 to play. As they reached that point of the season they had won 14 of their last 17 games. In short, they were established winners who seemed a lock to keep winning. That’s not what happened. Over the next couple of weeks they went 1-15-1. Simultaneously, four players on the team began dressing unusually well and carrying diamond-headed canes.
Written on June 10, 2024