Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-12-23
MILWAUKEE LAWYER
DECLARES He BOUGHT
.LEONARD'S LETTERS

CHICAGO, Dec. %. Up = The deal
that brought about basebalrs most as
founding scandal surprising even the
BLACK Sox" crooked world series of
1919 because of the fame of the players
involved was disclosed today. Henry
Ki1lilea, Milwaukee attorney for the
American league, revealed that he had
purchased the evidence Of betting and
game throwing against Ty Cobb and
Iris Speaker last June, when he set
tied the claim which Dutch Leonard,
the one-time Tiger pitcher held against
the Detroit club Killilea negotiated
for the sale of the letters which cloud
ed the names of Speaker and Cobb,
but declined to name the sum paidI
Leonard for selling OUT although
the amount was reported to have been
$50, O00 Killilea said he turned the let
ters over to Ban Johnson, president of
the American league, who started an
immediate investigation, finally turn-
ing the evidence over to Commissioner
Landis.a,
president johnson refused to make
any comment at this time on the
newest scandal, but said he would is
fully the mass of evidence which was
prepared in Commissioner Lands Of
flee.
~ am not over the shock yet" was
the American league executives COM
ment. johnson did not hesitate to say,
however, that he regretted the break
ing. of the story at this time because
of the families of Cobb and Speaker.
He said the guilty had been punished
and that neither Cobb nor Speaker
would ever return to the. American
league in any capacity. Johnson hint
ed that Cobb and Speaker saw the
impending crash coming and resigned
before the scandal became public. He
declared furthermore, that his cam
paign' against gambling would be car
ried on with increasing vigor and any
players found guilty of any infraction
of baseball laws or conduct would be
Immediately driven out of the game.
"This thing of betting on ball games
was q common practice previous to
the worlds series of 1919," Johnson
said. - Now we have got most of that
type of players out of the major
leagues and we will not tolerate any
wagering again if we know about it.
l know that the club owners of the
American league are back of me in this
regard"
The explosion revealed that baseball
now has a police, or surveillance sys-
tenn that keeps the, players constantly
under observation. This system has
been in operation since Commissioner
Lands assumed control of the national
sports
1t has not been generally known
among the fans, although suspected
among the players for some time, that
Commissioner Landis was keeping
every player in the major leagues un-
der observation. Players guilty of
minor infractions, much to their sur
prise, occasionally have been called be-
fore the commissioner and warned that
a repetition of their particular offense
would result IN drastic action.
The reverberations of the scandal,
some tending to show Cobb and
Speaker blameless, and others indicat-
ing that Leonard's charges eventually
may be substantiated, echoed from
coast to coast.
Leonard refused to be seen at his
home in Fresno, Calf, but there We're
intimations that eventually he would
have more to say. @t'
Joe Wood, former Cleveland pitcher,
also named in the betting charges, de-
MED any knowledge of alleged bets on
the game of September 25, 1919, but
admitted he knew of betting on other
occasions The whole Washington team
went broke betting on Walter Johnson
to defeat him once Wood said.
= Friends of Speaker suggest that ne
was willing to retire from the game
in order to protect Woods name from
any stigma in the scandal, which was
known to few baseball men as early
as last fall.
The chief evidence in the commits
sfoner's hands was the letters from
Cobb and Wood to Leonard. which the
latter admittedly turned over to Presi-
dent Johnson to "get revenge" on
cobb for his release from the major
leagues Years ago Leonard was a
members of the Boston Red Sox with
Speaker, but the inclusion of the
name of Iris in the scandal which
Leonard exposed to get revenge on
cobb was the chief enigma of the case.