Winslow daily mail., 1926-12-23
Baseball Attorney Admits Buying Game Fixing Letter
EVIDENCE PRICE.
TO. LEONARD IS
SET AT $4,000

CHICAGO, Dec. % (AP)-The'
deal that brought about baseballs'
most astounding scandal, surpass-
ing even. the Black Sox'' crooked
world series of 1890, because of
the players involved, was discles-.
ed today.
Henry Killilea, Milwaukee attor-
ney for the American leafue, re
yealed that hef had purchased the
evidence of betting and game thow-
ing against Ty Cobb and Iris
Speaker last June, when he set
tied the claim with Dutch Leon
ard, the one-time Tiger pitcher,
held against the Detroit club.
Killilea negotiated for the, sale
Of the letters which clouded the
names of Speaker and Cobb, but
declined to name the, sum paid
Reonard for selling OUT, although
the amount was reported to have
been $4,000. Killilea said he
turned the letters over to Ban
Johnson, president of the Ameri-
can league, who started an im-
mediate investigation, finally turn
ing the evidence over to Commis-
sioner K. M. Lands.
Johnson Still Shocked
Dcoe;dop+ Tobncop rnfuood tn
make a formal statemenes concern
ing thee newest scandal, but said
he would issue one after he had
time to digest fully the mess of
evidence which was prepared in
Commissioner Lands office.
e'sT am not over thes. shock yet. h
was the American league executive
comment. johnson did, not hesi4j
: tate to say, however, that he re-
! gretted the breaking of the story
at this time, because soft the ffaB1ls|
lies of Cobb and Sneaker Il Il
He said the guilty. had beenipun-s
.ished and that neither, Cobb noFl|
Speaker would ever return to the
American league in any capacity.
Johnson limited that Cobb ,and
Speaker saw the impending crash q as,
coming and resigned fbefore the
scandal became public. He de-
clared, furthefmore5 that his CAM
paign against gambling would be
carried oa with increasing yigor
and any players found. guilty of
any infraction of baseball laws or
conduct would be Immediately
driven Aout of the game.
This thing of betting on ball
games was common practice pre-
syious to the worlds series of 1879
Johnson said. Now we have got
most Of that type of players out of
the major league and we will not
tolerate any wagering again if we
know about it. 1 know that the
7~club owners of the American lea
que are back. of me in this regard"
see Thesexplosion revealed that base
ball now has police, or surveil-
SYSTEM that keeps the play
ers constantly under observation.
This system has been IN operation
Since Commissioner Landis assum
4 cd control Of the national sport.
se4 1T has. not been generally known
among the fans, although suspect
time, that Commissioner si Lands.
ed among the players for some
was keeping every player in the
major league under observation.
Players guilty of minor infractions
much to their surprise, occasion
ally have been called before the
commissioner and warned that a
Tepetition of their particular Of
ssfense would result in drastic ac-
ton.
az The reverberations of the scan
dal, some tending to- show Cobb
.,-and Speaker blameless and others
indicating, that Leonard's charges
eventually may be sustained, echo
ed from coast to coast.
Leonard refused to be seen at
his home in Fresno, California, but
there We're intimations that event
ually he would have more to- say.
Joe Wood, former Tiger pitcher,
asalso named in the betting charges,
denied any knowledge of the alleg-
ed bets on the game of September
sa25, 1919 but admitted that he knew
OF betting on other occasions. The.
whole Washington team went broke
betting on Walter Johnson to de-
sfeat him once, Wood said.
Friends Of Speaker suggest that
he was willing to retire. from the
game in order to protect Woods
name from any stigma in the scan
dal, which was known to a few
baseball men as early as last fall.