Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-10-02
The Gr;evous Betrayal of the
Great American Game
20 the millions of Americans who love
clean sports and cherish their coun-

TITO the millions of Americans who love
clean sports and cherish their coun-
try's athletic fame the story Of
the temptation and fall of certain star play
ers on popularity idoliZed baseball team,
brings not so much the swell of anger as
heart-sinking which is close akin to grief.
The White Sox long have doomed out in
public opinion exemplars of that skill and
strength and dash and rectitude which are
the soul of the great American game. Its
members, like those of other national
teams, have been heroes to tens of thou
sands who found in baseball not merely
an afternoons diversion, but a nOurisher
of much that is wholesomest IN both indi-
vidua1 and community life. Most men are
blest enough to keep one path in their
hearts leading back to boyhood, howsoever
the wintry years come drifting against that
green enchantment. They may lose the
tang of Robinson Crusoe; may forget the
wonder of April woods and the thrill of
swimming holes; may grow sadly cynical
not only to knights and weeping prlnceSses
but even to buccaneers and buried gold;
yea in depths of wretchedness, may find
no allurement in hidden pot of jam. But
breathes there man with arteries SO hard
ened that he never turns youthward to un-
forgetable hours on the back-lot or old
field diamond, to those supreme mo-
ments when some archangel of his college
team scored the ninth-inning run that won
a pennant? Such are the recollections that
come trailing their CLOUDS Of glory" when
baseball is played Alright. And then the
matchless grip and sparkle of the game!-
the tensions and drives, and flooding psychic
waves that make a multitude as One!-the
glory of a battle that deals no blow and
leaves no ranking, it rolls in clean
sunlight beneath the open sky!
No wonder Americans prize this dist1nc-
tive game of theirs and feel SO keenly the
betrayal of its honor. scandal in the
National Congress could hardly have
brought so sharp and wide a shock; for
while an occasional crook in politics seems
inevitable, real men are all expected to
play straight. There eight Chicago
players, it is charged, who yielded to, the
gambling clique that conspired on a huge
scale to make national baseball their means
20 easy and dirty money; and at least
two of those indicted have confessed One
can but despise a pitcher like Cicotte who,
with the admiration Of innumerable fans
poured constantly forth for him and with
the fate of a world series in his hand de-
liberately threw wild balls and muffed
easy catches in order to give the game
10 the gamblers who had bought him. Yet,
there comes too, an uprush OF pity for
him. 'In the last year I've lived thou
sand years." he told the Grand Jury that
heard his confession; and then, as il
speaking within himself, faroff gaze in
his wet eyes: my God! Think of my chill
dren!" More fools than knaVes were these
players who sold their honor and cheated
their public, all for five or ten thousand
dollars left under their pillows. But what
of the sneaking tricksters who bought
them? There lies the black heart OF the
corruption Whatever falls into gamblers
clutch grows tainted and decays. The sound
est business the cleanest government, the
finest sport, will rot and die if ever it
comes under his dominance. He fuses all
elements of crime into one fatal poison
gas and nothing honest, nothing decent
can survive in its atmosphere. Here, then,
IS the most distressful and alarming part
Of the story. Professional baseball will de-
serve to die, and die it assuredly will, I'M
less purged once for all of this deadly germ.
But there is one heartening and truly
heroic figure in the drama of sordidness
and betrayal. Charles Comiskey owner of
The White Sox and prime sufferer from
the conspiracy, rose to the situation in a
way worthy of American craftsmanship.
The Old Roman, they call him; and sure
~ there was much of ancient virtue in his
act Discovering the guilt of players he had
befriended, seeing that disclosure of
their deeds at this time would wreck his
chance Of winning the world pennant, but
seeing also that the integrity of baseball
demanded immediate barring of the facts
and a rigorous probing, he lost not mo-
.nent in placing all that he knew at the
courts disposal and in discharging every
one Of his suspected men. Straight from
'Forty-four years Of baseball en-
deavor have convinced me more than
ever that it is a wonderful game, and
a game worth keeping clean 1 would
rather close my ball park than send
nine men on the field with of them
holding a dishonest thought.
There speaks the true spirit of America s
national game; and because so many scores
and hundreds Of players as we'll as so
many millions of fans feel just that way
about it, we may look confidently for a
Durgng forth of the evil whose haunts and
methods have been at least partly reveal
cd. In the interest Of national character,
It is imperative that this be done for by
he nature of their sports and recreations
a peoples social and moral SELF is large
" determined. The Olympic games were a
,ountan of Greek culture and history; on
he cricket fields Of Elton, said Wellington,
Waterloo was won. America needs most of
I'll athletics Of a kind that will bring the
Eank and fle not simply select individuals,
!lto play. But she does not therefore need
HaGeball whit less. It is game Of the
nlVO tO4 In