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    Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey
    Unavailable
    Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey
    Unavailable
    Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey
    Ebook616 pages9 hours

    Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey

    By Tim Hornbaker and Bob Hoie

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Charles Albert The Old Roman” Comiskey was a larger-than-life figurea man who had precision in his speech and who could work a room with handshakes and smiles. While he has been vilified in film as a rotund cheapskate and the driving force, albeit unknowingly, behind the actions of the 1919 White Sox, who threw the World Series (nicknamed the Black Sox” scandal), that statement is far from the truth.

    In his five decades involved in baseball, Comiskey loved the sport through and through. It was his passion, his life blood, and once he was able to combine his love for the game with his managerial skills, it was the complete package for him. There was no other alternative. He brought the White Sox to Chicago in 1900 and was a major influential force in running the American League from its inception.From changing the way the first base position was played, to spreading the concept of small ball” as a manager, to incorporating the community in his team’s persona while he was an owner, Comiskey’s style and knowledge improved the overall standard for how baseball should be played.

    Through rigorous research from the National Archives, newspapers, and various other publications, Tim Hornbaker not only tells the full story of Comiskey’s incredible life and the sport at the time, but also debunks the Black Sox” controversy, showing that Comiskey was not the reason that the Sox threw the 1919 World Series.

    Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sportsbooks about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.

    Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSports Publishing
    Release dateMar 4, 2014
    ISBN9781613216675
    Unavailable
    Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey
    Author

    Tim Hornbaker

    Tim Hornbaker is a lifelong sports historian and enthusiast. His books Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey and War on the Basepaths: The Definitive Biography of Ty Cobb were received with critical acclaim. He lives in Tamarac, Florida.

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    Reviews for Turning the Black Sox White

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      You may have heard of Charles Comiskey and may think, as did the Sox fan I met on a Door County, Wisconsin beach, that he was not a very nice guy. For a different perspective read “Turning The Black Sox White” is a biography of Charles Comiskey, founding owner of the Chicago White Sox and a prime mover in the early days of the American League. This is an excellent study of a life in baseball including Comiskey’s time with the St. Louis Browns, now the Cardinals, where owner Chris Von der Ahe became his mentor in the business of baseball.The son of Irish immigrants and a Chicago politician, Charles, like many baseball personalities, bucked paternal guidance in the selection of a career. Entering baseball in the 1870s, Comiskey may have introduced the concept of the first baseman playing deep and relying on the pitcher to cover the bag. His life in baseball transitioned smoothly from player to manager to the only player to become a sole major league owner.The early White Sox were a blend of triumph and tragedy. An American League powerhouse, winning pennants and World Series, including the only all-Chicago series in 1906, and fielding Jimmy Callahan who pitched the league’s first no-hitter, the Sox were the dominant team in Chicago and Comiskey a leader among owners. His new stadium was an innovation in 1910 that would host baseball for 80 years.His accomplishments notwithstanding, Comiskey’s legacy would be forever linked to the Black Sox scandal in which eight White Sox players took gamblers’ money to throw the 1919 World Series. Other accounts have placed blame on Comiskey for being a cheap owner who drove his players to seek alternative sources of income. Author Tim Hornbaker is determined to present a different view. He points out that, contrary to legend, the White Sox had one of the highest payrolls in the major leagues and that their high attendance did not translate to commensurate income due to lower ticket prices than those charged by some teams. The Black Sox presented a dangerous dilemma for Comiskey. The much of the evidence of wrong doing was based on rumor and hearsay and in fact, the players were acquitted in a court of law while Comiskey was convicted in the court of public opinion. Despite being criticized for not suspending the accused immediately, to do so would have subjected Comiskey to possible liability to the players for slander. Ultimately the scandal led to the establishment of a powerful commissioner who resolved the issue by lifetime bans against the Eight Men Out.This book will be a treat for anyone interested in the origins of the major leagues, the White Sox, the Black Sox or Comiskey himself. It even shows how the baseball world responded to American involvement in World War I, with some players entering the armed forces, others, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, taking crucial defense industry jobs for the draft deferments, the teams participating in military drills and the owners deciding how to continue to entertain Americans while adjusting to wartime conditions. Fortunately the Armistice limited the War’s effect to the 1918 season. The only drawback I see in this book is the detail of week by week pennant races and the performance of players known only to serious baseball historians. Despite this minor issue, I really enjoyed this book. I like the insights into the organization of the major leagues and Comiskey’s role in that process. Its explanation helped clear the story of the Black Sox scandal in my mind. We can be thankful to Tim Hornbaker for this fresh perspective on the early days of baseball.