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263 - The Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker Gambling Scandal of 1926 w/ Dan Taylor

·46 min·2 clips

Ban Johnson summoned Cobb and Speaker to Chicago and told them they were through in the American League.

1. Hooks & Runs centers this episode on the 1926 Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker gambling scandal and its baseball history context. 2. Craig and Rex host Dan Taylor, an award-winning sports broadcaster and author of Baseball at the Abyss, while Taylor also works as the Fresno Grizzlies television broadcaster. 3. The episode asks why gambling stayed embedded in baseball from the National Association through the Black Sox era and how the 1926 letters investigation reached Cobb and Speaker. 4. Taylor says low pay and competition made gambling common in major league, minor league, and amateur baseball. 5. He cites Albert Spalding's line that no National Association game was without some sort of gambling. 6. Taylor points to the first National League season and the Louisville Club scandal that ended with five players banned for life over two years. 7. He says reporters around the 1919 World Series wrote that something fishy was happening even before the scandal became public. 8. Taylor describes Ban Johnson and Kenesaw Mountain Landis as rivals who traded accusations over fixed games and the New York Giants. 9. He explains that organized crime rumors and public distrust pushed owners to act against gambling. 10. Taylor says so-called legal rewards for beating another club in the standings were common and included passing the hat and buying gifts. 11. He gives the Cleveland and Detroit example from September 25, 1919, where Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker allegedly discussed needing help against the Yankees. 12. Taylor says Dutch Leonard later wrote that Cobb, Speaker, Smokey Joe Wood, and Leonard all put money on the game. 13. He adds that Detroit won in a rout and sportswriters thought Speaker looked suspicious for leaving his pitcher in all game. 14. Taylor says Leonard later told Harry Heilman about the letters while playing golf in California after the 1926 season. 15. He says Leonard's wife warned him not to reveal the letters because she expected backlash and trouble. 16. Taylor describes Ban Johnson ordering Cobb and Speaker to Chicago, telling them he had the evidence and that they were through in the American League. 17. He says the story broke in the Chicago Tribune around Christmas and Cobb then attacked Leonard publicly. 18. Taylor notes that Landis later had to face Leonard's refusal to testify in Chicago, including Leonard's fear that people there would bump people off. 19. The episode moves in an interview style with back-and-forth questions, historical examples, and present-day comparisons to micro bets and strikeout-heavy baseball. 20. Fans of dead-ball-era baseball, scandals, and labor history should listen, while listeners wanting only modern box-score talk may skip it.

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