from Black Sox to Three-Peats

A Century of Chicago's Best Sportswriting from the Tribune, Sun-Times, and Other Newspapers

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Contents

CHAPTER 1

PIONEERS

It is hard to know where Ring Lardner's newspaper columns left offand his fiction began, and for good reason. While Lardner's popularityand influence extended far beyond the sports page—ErnestHemingway wrote articles for his high school newspaper under thebyline Ring Lardner Junior and Virginia Woolf, who didn't know secondbase from Westminster Abbey, was an admirer—the truth is he neverreally left sportswriting.

Almost until the end of his life, even while writing the classic storiesthat made his reputation and his fortune, Lardner continually returnedto sports in syndicated newspaper columns and magazine articles. Hisgrandson James wrote in the New York Times in 1985 that as Lardner wasturning out seven columns a week for the Chicago Tribune between 1913and 1919, he also found the time to write You Know Me Al, Alibi Ike, Gullible'sTravels, Champion, and many other short stories.

Let me repeat that. The man wrote a column every single day and stillfound the time to write some of America's most enduring fiction. Themind reels. The fact that the overall quality of his columns was so high,says Lardner's biographer, Jonathan Yardley, "must be counted among theextraordinary accomplishments of American journalism."

So perhaps it is no surprise that Lardner's "In the Wake of the News"columns in the Tribune bear all the hallmarks of his stories: loopy dialogue,misspellings, haphazard punctuation, and odd abbreviations. Hemust have driven his copy editors crazy. The column reprinted here isone he wrote before the 1919 World Series, which turned out to be not sofunny after all.

The other pioneers in this section were also Chicago originals, in thepress box and the arena. Frank A. (Fay) Young was a dining-car waiter forthe Chicago and Northwestern Railroad when he started working at theChicago Defender as it was being founded in 1906. He collected whatevernewspapers he could find on his runs out of town and clipped articlesabout black athletes. When he finally quit his day job, Young went on totrain and set the stage for writers at black newspapers around the countryfor the next half century. The article reprinted here is on a topic the blackpress returned to again and again but which few white readers ever cameacross. More's the pity.

Arch Ward, who ran the Chicago Tribune sports staff from 1930 until1955, has been called the most powerful sports editor who ever lived. Heis best remembered for inventing baseball's All-Star Game—he describesits perilous origins in the column reprinted here—and the NFL's CollegeAll-Star Game, which survives today in a different format as the Pro Bowl.Ward was also, in that more ethically relaxed journalistic era, a one-manconflict of interest. He once quit his job to become a promoter and, whilestill at the Tribune, started a new pro football league. Ward was so busywith outside activities, in fact, that Tribune writer Ed Prell told JeromeHoltzman in No Cheering in the Press Box that he and four other writerstook turns ghosting his "In the Wake of the News" column. I'll bet Lardnerwishes he'd thought of that.

Along with Dave Hoekstra's twenty-one-gun salute to Double DutyRadcliffe, baseball's oldest player, this section contains tributes to Chicagosports pioneers by some well-known columnists who just happenedto be among their closest friends. Jack Griffin and George Halas, DavidCondon and Ray Meyer, Jerome Holtzman and Bill Veeck.

Sports columnists all over the country mourned Veeck's passing—Iwrote a tear-stained tribute myself—but I think Bill would have likedHoltzman's, in which old friends tell their favorite stories about him.Some of them might even be true.

A Hot Tip from the Umpire

RING LARDNER

Chicago Tribune October 1, 1919

CINCINNATI, O—Gents: The world serious starts tomorrow with a bigsurprise. A great many people figured that the White Sox would be scaredout and would never appear. But sure enough when we woke up thismorning and come down to breakfast, here was the White Sox as big aslife and willing to play. The first bird I seen amist them was Ray Schalk,the second catcher.

"Well, Cracker," I said, "I never expected to see you down here as I hadbeen told that you would quit and would never appear." "Well, Biscuit,"was his reply, "here we are and that's the best answer."

So after all that is said and done the White Sox is down here and tryingto win the first 2 games on their merits so it looks like the serious wouldnot be forfeited after all.

Most of the experts went to the 2 different managers to try and learnwho was going to pitch the opening game. So to be different from the restof them as usual, I passed up the two managers and went to the umpires.The first one I seen was Cy Rigler and I have known him all my life. "Whois going to win, Cy?" I asked. "I don't know," was his ample reply. You cantake that tip or leave it. Personally I am betting on his word. He will givethem the best of it if possible.

The next umpire I seen was Quigley. "My system," he said, "is to calleverybody out."

The 2 American league umpires could not be seen as they was bothup writing their stuff, but you can be sure that neither of them will giveanybody the best of it. So all and all, it looks like a even break in theumpireing.

That brings us to the hotel accommodations. A large Chicago newspaperhas got the prize rm. of the lot, namely, the smoking rm. off theball rm. in the Gibson. This means that if anybody wakes up at 3 in themorning and wants to smoke why they can do so without moving out oftheir rm. And if they want to dance why all as they have to do is go in thenext rm. And look for a pardner.

A great many people has written in to this hotel to ask how I am goingto bet so they can do the opposite and make big money.

Well gents I might as well tell you where I stand. I dont believe eitherclub can win as neither 1 of them has got a manager. But I do know bothof the socalled managers personally and I have asked them who is goingto pitch the opening game and they both say everybody on the staff so itlooks like a free hitting game with Gerner and Mayer in there at the startand Mitchell and Lowdermilk to relieve them, but neither has made anyprovisions in regards to who is going to relieve us newspapers guys.

The other day as you may remember, I tried to make a comparison ofthe 2 clubs man for man and when I come to the shortstops why I said thelogical thing, which is that no shortstops can win the serious as nobodyever hits to the shortstops in a big event like this. But thousands of birdswrote in personal letters to know what I thought of the 2 shortstops anyway so I suppose I have got to tell them.

Well of the 2 shortstops mentioned Risberg and Kopf will be in there atthe start of the serious but they will both be took out before the serious is9 games old.

Compareing the both of them, Risberg is a Swede, but on the otherhand Kopf hits from both sides of the plate. Both of them is tricky and islibel to throw a ball to a different base than expected. Kopf is the betterlooking but Risberg is the tallest and if they ever try to drive a high linedrive over his head they will get fooled.

The 2 stars of the comeing serious has both been overlooked by the expertsand I refer to Sherwood Magee and John Collins whom a lot of youthink wont be in there. Even if they are not they are both good fellows.

Another question the public keeps asking we experts is who gets theadvantage of having the serious 9 games in the stead of 7. Well gents allas I can say is it isnt the newspaper men. Further and more I wouldnt besurprised if neither ball club liked the new regime as I have nicknamed itas it looks to me like both mgrs. would use up all the pitchers they havegot tomorrow and wouldn't know what to do next.

All together it looks like a long serious, and whoever made it 9 gameshad it in for us.

A Polecat in the Hotel

Major Leaguers Fail to Drop Color Bar

FRANK A. YOUNG

Chicago Defender December 12, 1942

The National and American League owners and managers quietly and superblysidestepped the question of admitting Negroes into the big leaguesat the annual meeting of the two leagues at the Palmer House, which wasa busy place last week.

They discussed every other angle—transportation, trades, springtraining dates and everything else relating to the game. But when the Negronewspaper man made his appearance, things changed in a hurry.

Mr. So and So, president of this or that club, could not be reached evenby phone. One or two who were collared "had nothing to say," at this time.Anybody would have thought a polecat had come into the hotel.

One newspaperman ventured to confidentially tell us just what thetrouble was but only on the promise that his name would not be used.

He believed the time was ripe for Negroes to get in major league baseballbut that those behind the move had gone about it in the wrong way.First, he said, there are owners, who, like Clark Griffith of the WashingtonSenators, believe the two Negro leagues ought to clean themselves up. Bythat he said it was generally known that there are men connected withboth leagues who couldn't stand to have light shed on their businesses.He said major league baseball had no place for such operatives.

The general impression was that the Communists were behind themove. Asked how the Chicago Defender and millions of baseball fansof color could be classed as Reds simply because they demanded a fairdeal for all, this informant said he knew but was telling us what othersthought.

On Thursday afternoon, a committee of 19 members of the CIO wasbalked in its efforts to place the matter of discrimination against Negroballplayers before Judge Landis and the joint committee of the Nationaland American Leagues, which was in session at the Ambassador East hotelon the North Side. The committee desired to present its case but wasmet at the door by Les O'Connor, secretary to Judge Landis, and told thatthe committee would be given a hearing if a place could be found on theprogram.

After a long wait, the committee told O'Connor that if the committeewas not given a hearing that the matter of Negroes being employed inthe major leagues would be taken up with the Fair Employment PracticesCommittee. This riled O'Connor who went back in to the joint meetingand returned with Landis' "No," with regard to any hearing.

The time was ripe last summer to inject Negroes into major leagueswhen a wide amount of publicity was given Larry MacPhail, then presidentof the Brooklyn Dodgers but now an officer in the Army, and PresidentWilliam Benswanger of the Pittsburgh Pirates who made a statementthat Pittsburgh would give three or four a tryout at the end of the season.

What the end of the season meant no one but Mr. Benswanger knowsas no Negro players even got a chance to appear with the Pittsburgh clubin a workout.

The whole question died down with the coming of the World Seriesalthough it is reported that it came up in New York at a meeting and thingswaxed so warm that the phonograph record of the meeting was orderedsmashed.

The following telegram was sent to the Pittsburgh club president bythe Chicago Defender:

William Benswanger
President, Pittsburgh Pirates
Palmer House
Chicago, Ill.

Last summer the Chicago Defender was among the first to congratulateyou on your decision to give tryouts to four Negro baseball players.We again want to congratulate you on your stand for fair play to all racesin the major leagues. However, we believe that the question of Negroesin big league baseball must be before the major leagues meeting now inthe Palmer Hotel. In the interest of national unity and morale in thesecrucial war days, we believe that you should act to place this importantquestion before the current meeting by insisting that it be placed on theleague agenda. You will be making a major contribution to our war effortthrough this action, which will go a long way towards breaking that racialbarrier holding back the all-out prosecution of the war against the race-hatingaxis.

John Sengstacke
General Manager
Metz T.P. Lochard
Editor
The Chicago Defender

The Game of the Century

ARCH WARD

Chicago Tribune July 6, 1933

The Game of the Century at Comiskey Park this afternoon is the answer tooft-repeated statements that major league baseball is a stenciled, unvaryingprocedure that shuns extraneous innovation.

Scores of fans have written to this department since the game was announcedventuring the opinion that eloquent persuasion must have beenrequired to win approval of the league presidents and club owners.

There is no better time to make known that the proposal was receivedenthusiastically right from the start by nearly every man connected withthe game. Save for a few minor details the game will be played exactly asoutlined in the original suggestion.

The first person to whom we mentioned the idea was William Harridge,president of the American League. Our selling points were these:

1—Baseball needed an opportunity to show it was not in a state ofdecadence.

2—A Century of Progress Exposition was an ideal setting for baseballto display its wares.

3—All profits of the game would be donated to the Baseball Players'Charity fund.

4—THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE guaranteed all expenses in case thegame was rained out.

5—The fans of the nation would be invited to help pick the all-starteams.

We asked Mr. Harridge for his candid reaction. He answered as follows:

"I am all for it. While there has never been anything like it, I know noreason why it is impossible."

This was on April 20. Harridge promised that if we could interest theNational League in the proposal he would submit the idea to the Americanleague club owners at their meeting in Cleveland May 9.

The next day we called upon William Veeck, president of the Cubs.He said it was just the tonic baseball needed and offered to help interestother National League clubs.

Fortified with the endorsement, we wrote President John Heydler ofthe National League. His immediate reply was strong personal supportand a promise to take a mail vote of the club owners.

There was nothing to do then but to wait. The American League at itsmeeting May 9 officially approved the game and instructed President Harridgeto make necessary changes in the schedule to clear the way. From aNational League owner we learned the vote was progressing satisfactorilyin that organization.

On May 15 when it looked as if everything was set we received a wirefrom Mr. Heydler stating that the National League would be unable toaccept the invitation, due to the objection of a few of the club owners.

The objections, we learned, came from St. Louis, Boston, and New York.St. Louis feared precedent, but said it would not take the responsibility ofblocking the game. The complication involving New York and Boston wasa doubleheader scheduled between those teams at Boston July 5, the daybefore the game in Chicago. It is impossible to play even a single game inBoston and be in Chicago the next day.

The Giants were playing the Cubs at Wrigley Field at the time, so wecalled upon Secretary Jim Tierney. He said New York would have no objectionto the interleague contest if it could get out of the twin bill at Boston.That left the Boston club the last obstacle in the way of the big game.A telephone call to Charles Adams, owner of the Braves, brought the informationthat they would make no protest if President Heydler orderedthe doubleheader shifted to another date.

Mr. Heydler came to Chicago the next day. When he learned St. Louis,New York, and Boston were willing to take part, he immediately gave officialapproval and the game was on.

THE TRIBUNE then invited 55 newspapers in all sections of the UnitedStates to cooperate in conducting a poll of the fans to determine their ideaof the strongest teams that could be recruited. All 55 papers accepted and500,000 fans participated in the voting.

This is truly America's game. Never have so many people had a hand inthe arrangement of a sports event.

The first All-Star Game was a great success, drawing 47,595 fansto Comiskey Park and featuring a home run by Babe Ruth as theAmerican League won, 4–2. The game quickly became a highlight ofthe baseball season.
(Continues...)Excerpted from from Black Sox to Three-Peats by RON RAPOPORT. Copyright © 2013 The University of Chicago. Excerpted by permission of THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS.
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