Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-07-14
THE CHAMBERLAIN CASE
O. P. Caylor Criticises the Gin
 cinnati Pitchers Accusers.
DID ELTON SELL A RECENT GAMEi

tAo bhC ScetSoh progresses 4dDTG Indn tO,UlO spectators saw the Fourth of July games
 fin the six western cities of the National league. There were only 300 less than 100000 present on Memorial day at the games in the six eastern cities of the cir cult. Therefore when comparison and allowances are made upon a basis of com bined population the percentage of attend
 ance has not fallen away, but has rather
 increased. The west has only Chicago to
 class with New York, Brooklyn and Phila- delphia in respect to population, and the six western cities as whole will fall 30 per cent below the combined census num- bers of the six eastern members. There fore the west as a whole made better showing on the Fourth than the east made on Memorial day,
 Of the western attendance Cleveland turned out the banner crowd, l6, 900, at the two games In proportion to population that was the best patronage received by any club this year. New York on Memo rial day had about 5000 people on the Polo grounds, but New York is more than twice as large as Cleveland. Chicago was second with l4,T22 and Cincinnati third with 1S,S9o. The total attendance was 76,015.
 The day was joyful one to the Bostons, Philadelphias and Pittsburgs, who won two games each, and it was equally sad to
 
 who dropped back just as far as the for tunes or misfortunes of the day would per, init.
 The day was particularly unfortunate to three clubs, the Bostons, Chicagus and Clevelands, who collectively lost the serv- ice of three valuable players. \ collision between Anson and Stiyetts at first base badly injured the veterans knee and very nearly ended the life of Boston's big pitch ar Wbar, fxrn what will be the result' That was & ia vorite theme for discussion in our debating society some years ago, but in our many hours of forensic work we never came as near to the answer as Anson and Stivetts came to it on themorniEg of the Fourth Both were so badly injured that their clubs lost their services
 The Clevelands met with a severe handi cap during the morning game by the dislo- cation of Captain Tebeau's weak knee That occurred in Cincinnati on the morn ing of the same day which is much more de plorable than either of the accidents named above. For the first time since the expul-
 sion of Devlin, Hall, Craver and Nichols in
 1877 a player has been openly charged with
 selling a game. The deplorabIe phases of the affair were that it was a case of rush
 ing into print with a harmful statement
 without proofs of it's truthfulness and that
 a club official was the person making the
 charges.
 The accused player was Elton Chamber lain, Cincinnati's best pitcher The foun- | dation for the charge was this: A man of speculative proclivities who had won about S1 300 during the previous month on Cord | age stock and at the races took it into his head to plunge" on a baseball game Like all men of his kind, he selected one game and offered to bet any amount of money on that contest, but wouldn't place l a dollar upon any other game.
 It was the morning game of July which he selected to carry his money Being A betting man. he was wise enough to know | he would have to back the Philadelphias | if he wanted to place much money, for the Cincinnati people would naturally wish to back their home club.
 Then he figured out that, according to
 the way both teams were playing, the Phil adelphias' chances to win were about 40 per cent better than the Cincinnatis' Therefore he backed them at the rate of I3 | to 10 and found plenty of takers. In all he | succeeded in placing nearly $500 on the Philadelphias. This was something so un- | usual that a report of it was carried to the l club officials. Captain Comiskey became | suspicious because $500 had never, to any | one's knowledge, been wagered on a single l game in Cincinnati since the existence of | the National league. Therefore be was | looking for dump" when the game be | gan
 Unfortunately for Chamberlain it was his | day to take his five feet additional medi | cine, and upon him Comiskey's suspicion | immediately settled The Phillies hit Chamberlain hard, and his pitching was wild and delirious. Yet he never fielded his position better in his life, and just before he l was taken out of the game as a marked | man he hit the ball for three bases, send | ing in two men, which put his team two more runs in the lead.
 In spite of this negative proof Comiskey | took him from the game and substituted
 another pitcher, who was batted during the
 rest of the contest for nine runs. Instead of quietly investigating his sus- picions Comiskey made the mistake of car | rying them to a newspaper office, where they were used as a text for a sensational article in which Chamberlain was publicly accused | of throwing the game. It is just such
 thoughtless acts which do thousands of dol
 lars of damage to baseball, and the Cincin-
 nati club has been an offender in that way
 several times during the last few years
 Mullane was their object of suspicion | while he was a member of the team, and
 now Chamberlain Is made the scapegoat. The National league board of directors | are bound to take up the Chamberlain case | and sift it to the bottom. For the welfare | or the national game they must make some
 body suffer. If Chamberlain be not proved | guilty, his accusers should be placed beyond
 the temptation of giving another such dead | ly blow to the life of the sport
 | It is true that on the second day after the game was played the same newspaper ia | which the original charges were displayed | printed a half hearted retraction, but it
 couldn't uproot the suspicion it had sown
 in the minds of hundreds who always stand
 ready to assert that no professional sport is | honest
 The quarrel between the Chicagos and | Cincinnatis over Pitcher Parrott, late of | the Southern league, was one of the silly
 features of the sport as business. Cincin-
 natl finally landed the man, but not till Anson had about made up his mind that | the pitcher was not worth fighting for.
 That eccentric but brilliant player, Glass
 cock, has been divorced from Won der Ahe | and has fetched up in Pittsburg. Jack couldn't conjugate Greek verb and was
 therefore unfit for Chris and his collegians | O. P. CAYLoR.