CHAPTER 7

1926 and the Dutch Leonard Affair

When the calendar flipped to 1926 in January, Walter was back home in New Jersey spending time with his wife and baby daughter. The A’s wouldn’t head south for spring training until the second week of February but the “hot stove league” was already in mid-season form. In its preview of the upcoming season the Miami News noted that Connie Mack had only planned a couple of changes. “Only two changes are in prospect for the Philadelphia Athletics, runners up in the American League race last season. In right field, Walter French, erstwhile all-around Army stag, who played brilliantly toward the close of 1925 is slated to succeed Bing Miller.”¹

In his biography of Connie Mack, Norman Macht observed that in 1926 “Connie Mack had no holdouts; Cochrane had signed a three-year contract, starting with an 80 percent raise to $8,000 for 1926, $9,000 for 1927 and $10,000 for 1928. Simmons signed a new three-year contract doubling his salary to $11,000 for 1926.” Lefty Grove was in the second year of his original contract and “just about everybody else received a satisfactory raise.”²

Another subject of discussion in the “hot stove league” was the future of Connie Mack as the A’s manager. Mack was turning 63 years old in 1926 and although he bristled when anyone ever speculated about his retirement the fact was, according to Norman Macht “Connie Mack was tired. One writer described him in the spring of 1926 as ‘gaunt, wrinkled and gray.’”³

So, before the start of the 1926 season, Mack added Kid Gleason to the coaching staff. Gleason was born in 1866 in Camden, New Jersey. He started his major league career in 1888 playing second base and pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies. Over the next 20 years he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, and New York Giants before returning to the Phillies to finish his playing career. After his playing days were over, Gleason got into coaching and was the manager of the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox who were found to have thrown the World Series in what became known as the Black Sox scandal. It was determined that Gleason was not involved with throwing the Series but after managing the White Sox for a few more seasons he decided to retire and stayed retired until Connie Mack approached him about coming over to the A’s.

The A’s arrived in Ft. Myers during the second week of February to start their training. On hand to meet the team was inventor Thomas Edison. “The Wizard of Menlo Park” owned a home and botanical laboratory in Ft. Myers and was a rabid baseball fan. He was particularly fond of the Philadelphia Athletics and was a close friend of Connie Mack. After being introduced to some of the players, he was handed a bat and took a couple of swings. During spring training, the team visited Edison and posed for a picture in front of his home. The copy of the picture currently on file in the archives at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY was a gift to the Hall of Fame from Walter French.

At the plate in spring training in 1926, Walter seemed to have picked up right where he left off at the end of 1925. The one part of his game that Mack wanted him to work on in camp was his fielding. Kid Gleason, in much the same way as Hans Lobert had at West Point, took Walter under his wing. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that “Mack has a number of combinations in mind, all depending on whether Walter French will be in the regular line up when the race starts … French simply cannot keep attention away from him because of his consistent batting while he is fielding and throwing much better than he did last season. Kid Gleason took him in hand during morning practice. He started hitting fungoes over his head. He made French run to get each ball. He never gave him an easy chance and also changed his style of catching balls. French always was timid to catch a ball with his hands high but held them down. Gleason broke him of this habit and now he is catching balls in orthodox style.”⁴

Thomas Edison loved baseball and was especially fond of the Philadelphia Athletics. Manager Connie Mack and Edison were friends. In 1927, while in Ft. Myers, Florida for Spring Training, the team visited Edison’s home and botanical laboratory. (Courtesy of French Family)

It is easy to see why Walter responded so well to the suggestions of fellow New Jersey native Kid Gleason. Gleason was born less than 10 miles from where Walter was raised and was undoubtedly known to him. Today they are both in the South Jersey Baseball Hall of Fame.

As the regular season approached, the sportswriters were beginning to write their articles about the A’s assuming that Walter had beat out Bing Miller as the starting right fielder. Billy Evans writing in his syndicated column commented that “with French in right field and Al Simmons in center, the Athletics will present the unusual spectacle of two players using baseball stances that are entirely unorthodox. Simmons pulls badly from the plate yet is one of the greatest batsmen in the American League. Some critics refer to him as ‘foot in the bucket Simmons’. American League pitchers say a lot or worse things about him. French hits the ball with his feet wide spread. He doesn’t step into the ball but rather hits from a flat-footed position. Opposing pitchers ridicule his style, but Walter does more than that to their offerings.”⁵

On April 13, when Connie Mack filled out his lineup card for the first game of the 1926 season, Walter French was installed as the starting right fielder. He was batting third in the batting order between left fielder Bill Lamar and Al Simmons. The balance of the A’s lineup that day included Max Bishop at second base, Joe Hauser at first base, Mickey Cochrane was catching, Jimmy Dykes was at third base; Chick Galloway was at shortstop and Eddie Rommel was the starting pitcher. Rommel was a 6'2", 197-pound, right-handed pitcher who spent his entire 12-year major-league career with the A’s. His best year was 1922 when he won 27 games and he was coming off his second-best season in 1925 when he notched 21 victories.

The A’s first opponent of the 1926 season were the defending American League Champion Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium. On the mound for the home team was Walter Johnson, who was starting his twentieth season. An opening day crowd of 25,000 including then Vice-President Charles G. Dawes braved the chilly weather. The Senators’ player-manager Bucky Harris was presented with a floral piece, and Johnson was given a loving cup prior to the start of the game and after Vice-President Dawes threw out the first pitch, Walter Johnson took the mound.

It was clear from the outset that both starting pitchers had their good stuff on this day. Johnson held the Athletics hitless for the first four innings and Eddie Rommel was employing a “bend but don’t break” strategy, as the Senators were getting their hits in the early going but they were unable to push across any runs. On and on the game went with both pitchers holding their opponent in check and after nine innings the game was still a scoreless tie. Both pitchers remained in the game and one of the greatest pitching duels continued. Twice the Senators had the bases loaded but Rommel was able to bear down and get out of trouble. As the game entered the fifteenth inning both starting pitchers were still in the game. After Johnson got the A’s out in the top of the fifteenth, Bucky Harris opened the bottom of the inning with a single. He then advanced to third on a double by “Goose” Goslin and then scored the winning run on a single by Joe Harris.

Walter Johnson had struck out 12 A’s while Rommel only struck out just one of the Senators. Johnson issued three walks in the marathon game, while Rommel gave up six. The Senators finished with nine hits off Rommel, while the A’s had six off Johnson. It was the seventh opening day shutout of his legendary career.

For his part, Walter French finished the game one for five. His loan hit, a double, was the A’s only extra base hit. He also made two successful sacrifices.

It is hard to imagine, in the way the modern game is played, a situation where the two starting pitchers would both complete a 15-inning game, let alone the fact that it was the first game of the season. Even more remarkable, by today’s standards, the 15-inning game was completed in just a little over two and one-half hours.

After being shut out again the next day, the A’s finally generated some offense in the third game of the series, as they cruised to a 9–2 victory. Once again batting third in front of Al Simmons, Walter had three hits in five at-bats and scored two runs. The Senators again won the fourth and final game of the series by a score of 4–3, but in this game, Walter had four hits in his five at-bats. For the first series of the season Walter had rewarded the faith placed in him by Connie Mack by collecting a total of eight hits in 18 official at-bats for a batting average of .444.

From Washington, the A’s traveled to Boston where on April 17 they were victimized by another strong pitching performance. This time it was Red Sox right hander Howard Emke, who gave them fits, when he pitched a two-hit gem leading the home team to a 6–1 victory. The A’s bounced back in the first game of the Patriot’s Day double header with a 3–1 win behind the three-hit performance of Lefty Grove. In that game Walter reached base via a walk and scored one of the A’s runs. After losing the second game of the double header the A’s headed home with a 3–7 record.

In the A’s first home game of the 1926 season, a 5–2 victory over the Senators on April 21, Walter had no hits but drove in one run with a sacrifice fly. He also reached base on a walk and came around to score a run. The A’s then proceeded to lose two of the next three games against Washington.

Next on the schedule was a three-game series with the Yankees in New York. After losing the opener by a score of 7–2, the A’s had to feel pretty good with Eddie Rommel going in game two. He came into the game with a 2–1 record, his loss coming in the epic, extra inning battle with Walter Johnson. As with most of the games in the first weeks of the season, Walter was starting in right field for the A’s and batting at the top of the order. His counterpart on the Yankees, one Babe Ruth, was the cleanup hitter for what was to be known as Murderers’ Row. Preceding Ruth in the Yankees’ lineup was Lou Gehrig and behind him was Bob Meusel and behind him Tony Lazzeri. Only one pitcher had been able to last against the Yankee lineup to that point in the season and they had won nine of their first 12 games.

The Yankees hit Eddie Rommel hard. Writing in the New York Times, sportswriter James Harrison couldn’t resist rubbing it in: “Mr. Rommel’s control was excellent. He hit the Yankee bats with admirable consistency.”⁶ In the fifth inning, with the bases loaded, Babe Ruth hit a ball at A’s second baseman Max Bishop so hard that Bishop was almost killed. As Bishop attempted to field the ball it struck him in the neck. The ball had been hit with such force that it rolled all the way to the wall in right field. When it was eventually chased down by Walter French, the bases had been cleared and Ruth was standing on second base.

At the plate Walter had a triple in the sixth inning and scored on an infield ground out. From an offensive perspective this game was typical for Walter in this part of the season. While his bat had cooled off from his torrid start in 1926, he was still getting on base, stealing bases, and most importantly scoring runs for his team.

After a slow start to the season the A’s went on a winning streak. Starting on May 3, they won 12 of their next 13 games, including a sweep of the Yankees in Philadelphia. This pulled them to within three games of first place. However, by the middle of May, Walter was struggling at the plate and Connie Mack removed him from the everyday lineup relegating him to pinch hitting and pinch running.

On May 23, the A’s were back in the nation’s capital to play again against the Senators. By this time it must have become evident to his manager that Walter seemed to have a knack for hitting against Walter Johnson. To this point in his career he had faced him eight times and had four hits against him, and so Mack placed him back in the lineup, playing right field, and batting seventh. He responded by getting two hits in his two official at-bats. In his other two plate appearances he successfully executed a sacrifice bunt and was hit by a Johnson pitch. The A’s won the game by a score of 5–3, knocking the Senators’ ace out of the game in the eighth inning. Walter French had now faced the great Walter Johnson 10 times and had accumulated six hits.

Walter was back in the starting lineup to stay and the A’s won four of the next five games against the Senators and climbed into second place in the American League, although they were still six games behind the Yankees, who were on a 16-game winning streak when the A’s arrived for a crucial series on Friday May 28. In the series opener the Yankees sent their most dominant pitcher, Waite Hoyt to the mound to face Lefty Grove for the Athletics in the first game of a double header.

Chick Galloway knocked in the game’s first run with a sacrifice in the second inning. Earlier in that inning Walter had singled but was later forced out at second, but in the process broke up double play which kept the inning alive for Galloway’s RBI. In the fourth inning Walter French knocked in what would prove to be the winning run in the A’s 2–1 victory, when he hit a triple off the Yankee ace. Meanwhile Lefty Grove was keeping the Yankees in check and keeping them scoreless until the seventh inning.

By the end of May Walter’s batting average was sitting at .294. With Walter’s success, Connie Mack saw that Bing Miller was expendable and traded him to the St. Louis Browns for “Baby Doll” Jacobson in early June in a move that would solidify Walter’s position as the A’s regular right fielder.

The month of June was not a good one for the Athletics and their pennant hopes. They went 8–13 for the month and the team dropped to fourth place, 11 games behind the first place Yankees. However, when the two teams met on June 30, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, the A’s came away with a thrilling 5–4 victory, thanks largely to some sensational defensive play by Walter French in right field. With the Yankees leading 3–1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, the A’s loaded the bases and their first baseman, Jim Poole, connected for a two-run double which tied the game. The Yankees took the lead once more in their half of the seventh when they pushed across one run to take a 4–3 lead. In the top of the ninth New York threatened to break the game wide open when they loaded the bases with two outs and future Hall of Famer Tony Lazzeri coming to the plate. Not as well-known as his teammates, Ruth and Gehrig, Lazzeri was a big part of “Murderers’ Row.” In his 13-year major league career he would average 171 hits, 17 home runs, and 111 RBI. He would finish 1926, his rookie season with 117 RBI, second on the team to only Babe Ruth. James Harrison writing in the New York Times described what happened next: “It was at this somewhat pulsing moment that Lazzeri put the wood to the ball and lifted it out toward right center on full wing. The count was three and two and all of the Yanks streaked for home with the pitch, but Lieut. French spoiled the happy scene by galloping back in his West Point style, sticking his glove skyward, leaping agilely and impaling the sphere.”⁷ In the bottom of the ninth inning Al Simmons drove in two runs to give the A’s a much-needed victory. In his summation of the game Harrison wrote “Mr. Poole is entitled to several chaplets of laurel, but the lad who did as much to save the game was Walter French who’s running one hand catch with the bases full choked off at least three runs.”⁸

The thrilling, come-from-behind win over the Yankees seemed to spur the A’s and they went on a streak winning 12 of their next 16 games. Although they were still seven games behind the Yankees, they had managed to climb back into second place. No one on the team contributed more to the team’s winning ways than did Walter French. Walter hit .429 during the stretch and raised his batting average for the season to .329. Among the regulars only Al Simmons was hitting for a higher average.

However, their pennant hopes were not to be realized. The 1926 Athletics’ season was marked by inconsistency. It seemed that every hot streak they put together was followed up by a losing streak of equal length and so after winning 12 of 16, they proceeded to lose 13 of their next 15 games and as the season entered its last two months, they found themselves back in third place, some 14 games behind the Yankees.

Although the A’s could not mount a charge at the pennant, Walter continued to produce for his team and after getting seven hits in 12 at bats against the St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox, his batting average was raised to .326 which was tops on the team at that point of the season. The A’s played out the rest of the season, never getting any further up in the standings than third place. Despite the team’s poor showing, Walter French had to be happy about his performance in 1926. He finished the season with a .305 batting average, second on the team only to Al Simmons who, after a torrid last few weeks, had finished the season with a .341 average. Walter was third on the team in hits and scored 51 runs. As the season came to an end, he felt he had found his place as a regular outfielder on the Athletics and was looking forward to the 1927 season.

In October the Yankees faced off against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. The series, which was won by the Cardinals in seven games, was highlighted by two performances. Grover Cleveland Alexander beat the Yankees twice in the series including a win in Game 6 and finished them off pitching in relief in game seven the very next day. The series is also remembered for the performance by Babe Ruth in Game 5 when he hit three home runs, a World Series record that has been equaled only four times since. Adding to the drama of that performance was the story of young Joey Sylvester, a New Jersey boy who had been injured in a fall. From his hospital bed he wrote a letter to the Yankees asking for an autograph from Ruth. According to the legend, Ruth wrote back and promised to hit a home run for Joey. Newspapers stories at the time, since disputed, claimed that the boy’s condition miraculously improved after the Babe’s performance.

The World Series would have been the final baseball story of 1926 if not for the unexpected news that Tris Speaker, player-manager of the Cleveland Indians, and Ty Cobb who held the same position with the Detroit Tigers, two of the game’s greatest stars, had both announced that they were retiring from the game within a few days of each other. Even though both men were at the tail end of their brilliant, Hall of Fame careers, fans were shocked by this news because they were still among the game’s best. As a player Cobb had finished the season with a .339 batting average and Speaker hit .306. As managers they were getting the job done as well. The Indians had finished the season in second place only three games behind the Yankees, and Cobb led the Tigers to a winning season, although they finished in sixth place of the American League.

The careers of Cobb and Speaker overlapped and depending on who you asked, one or the other was the game’s greatest player, until Babe Ruth broke onto the scene. It would not be a total oversimplification to suggest that most fans felt that Cobb was the better hitter and base runner, at a time when base running was thought of on a par with hitting and fielding, while Speaker was considered the better fielder. However, one would be splitting hairs in either assessment. Until the last few years of his career Cobb ran the bases with reckless abandon and was considered the best at that aspect of the game. Speaker was such a superior defensive player that it was said that his glove was “where triples go to die.” Except for cities of their major rivals, both men were enormously popular. So why, fans wondered, would these two legends of the game both decide to retire? Before the year was out, that question would be answered, as a major scandal was revealed involving both men.

Just before Christmas, the Associated Press broke the story that charges had been made by former Tiger pitcher Dutch Leonard that Cobb and Speaker had bet on a fixed game in 1919, which was the same year that the White Sox had thrown the World Series. The headline read “Charges Cobb-Speaker Bet On a ‘Fixed Game’.” It went on to speculate that the “Managers Supposed to have resigned in Face of Impending Scandal.”

Hubert “Dutch” Leonard was a hard-throwing left-handed pitcher who broke into the majors with the Boston Red Sox in 1913. He had his best season in 1914 when he finished with a record of 19–7 and an earned run average of 0.97, which still ranks among the five best ERAs of all time and the lowest ever recorded in the American League. Among his teammates on the Red Sox were two other young pitchers, a 19-year-old rookie named Babe Ruth and Smoky Joe Wood, who had won 34 games for the Red Sox in 1912.

Leonard was just under six feet tall and was a well-built 185 pounds and it was said that he looked “more like a football player than a baseball player.” His best pitches were a biting curveball, overpowering fastball and a spitball. When the spitball was outlawed in 1920 a handful of “grandfathered” pitchers were allowed to continue to throw the pitch and Dutch was one of them. His tremendous 1914 season was even more impressive when one considers that he suffered a wrist injury in early September and missed four or five starts that would have added to his statistics.

Leonard was given a $5,000 raise for the 1915 season but nevertheless showed up for the start of the season in terrible shape and saw limited action in the first six weeks. As if this was not bad enough, in May, in what was to become a pattern for Dutch, he was suspended from the team for insubordination. He accused his manager Bill Carrigan of mistreating his players. Although he did not return to the mound until early July, he still finished the season with a 15–7 record. The Red Sox won the pennant and Leonard defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, and future Hall of Famer Pete Alexander in Game 3 of the World Series, which was won by Boston in five games.

While Leonard’s talent as a pitcher was undeniable, his value to his team was diminished by his poor attitude. He was always complaining about something and saying that he was being mistreated and taken advantage of in some way. His career was interrupted by World War I and when he returned to the game in 1919, he was included in a trade with the Yankees. Before accepting the trade, he demanded that Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert place his entire year’s salary into a savings account. An enraged Ruppert, who felt his integrity was being questioned, refused to honor Leonard’s demand, at which point he went back to California to pitch in the San Joaquin League. While back in California, in addition to pitching for the team in Fresno, he also focused on his farm, which he built into a very successful business. Teams, believing that his enthusiasm for farming had lessened the importance of baseball in Dutch Leonard’s life, made no effort to acquire his rights from Fresno. Finally, in May, the Detroit Tigers purchased his rights for $12,000 and he soon joined the major league team and became a teammate of Ty Cobb.

In 1914, while Leonard was pitching for the Red Sox in a game against the Tigers, Cobb laid down a bunt and raced to first. Leonard came over from his position on the mound to cover first base but when it became apparent that both men would arrive at the base at the same time, Dutch veered off to avoid colliding with Cobb. Ty, who always approached the game with a “take no prisoners” attitude, was appalled by what he thought was a cowardly act on the part of Leonard, and he never forgot it. However, even if this had never happened, Dutch Leonard was simply the type of person that rubbed Cobb the wrong way. He had a “me first” attitude, was always making excuses when he pitched poorly, and worst of all he did not always give his best effort when he took the mound.

While Cobb was able to tolerate Leonard when they were simply teammates, that all changed in 1921 when Ty was named as the team’s player-manager. Almost immediately upon assuming his new role Cobb started to come down hard on Leonard. If Dutch violated some team rule, that another player might have gotten a pass on, such as breaking curfew, he would always be subject to the harshest discipline.

“In 1925 … the toxic relationship between him (Leonard) and Cobb resumed where it had left off … they constantly clashed. Despite Leonard’s success that year, Cobb accused Leonard of not putting forth his best effort and scolded the pitcher in front of the team. Both men were getting older and Cobb’s long dislike of Leonard grew to new levels of hatred.”⁹ In July of that year Cobb kept Dutch in a game for the full nine innings even though he had given up 12 runs to the Athletics, the worst beating of his career. Finally, Cobb put Leonard on waivers, and it soon became apparent that no team was going to pick him up. At this point, in addition to his reputation as a malcontent, he was experiencing some nagging injuries that lessened his effectiveness.

One team that Dutch felt he might have had a chance to join was the Cleveland Indians, who were managed by Tris Speaker. Speaker and Leonard had been teammates for three seasons with the Boston Red Sox, but that didn’t make any difference as Tris was not interested in the services of someone with Dutch’s reputation. The 1925 season would be his last in baseball. He was just 33 years old.

In May of 1926 Dutch Leonard traveled from his home in California to Chicago to meet with American League President Ban Johnson. He was angry with both Ty Cobb, for releasing him from the Tigers, and Tris Speaker for not picking him up for the Indians when he was released. During the meeting with Johnson, Leonard claimed that prior to the final game of the 1919 baseball season, he met with Cobb, Speaker, and Smoky Joe Wood, who at this point was a member of the Indians, under the grandstand at Navin Field in Detroit. The Indians had clinched second place and were playing a meaningless game, for them, against the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers, on the other hand needed one more win to finish the season in third place, which would have awarded each man on the team a $500 bonus. Finishing fourth would get them nothing. According to Leonard, Speaker told them that he would have no problem getting his team to “lay down” against Detroit assuring the bonus for Cobb and his team. He went on to claim that the group figured that if the fix was in on the game anyway, why not get some bets down on the Tigers and cash-in even more on the caper. Leonard also claimed that Cobb had arranged for Fred West, an employee of the Detroit Tigers, to place the bets for them.

At this time Johnson, who had founded the American League in 1901 and had acted as its president since, was in a power struggle with then Baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Landis was a former federal judge whose handling of the Black Sox Scandal was credited with saving the game. Johnson felt that he should be the ultimate authority over the American League, while the owners and Landis felt the final say should reside with the Office of the Commissioner. So when Leonard also mentioned that he had in his possession two letters, one written to him by Cobb and a second one sent by Wood, that Dutch claimed proved that what he was alleging was in fact true, and that he planned to sell the letters to the highest bidding newspaper, Johnson was worried that the scandal would hurt the credibility of the American League and his own standing in the power struggle with Landis. To stop Leonard from selling them to the press, Johnson agreed to pay him $20,000 for the letters.

There are two interesting things about the letter that Cobb sent to Dutch. The first is that the tone of the letter gives no hint regarding the animosity that the two men felt toward each other. “Well, I hope you found everything in fine shape at home and that all of your troubles will be little ones”¹⁰ he wrote. The second is that Cobb’s letter never mentions a wager of any type let alone on a ball game. Instead, he references only a “business proposition”¹¹ and while one could say that the letter was written intentionally vague, the fact was that it was not the smoking gun that Johnson feared.

Wood’s letter was certainly more damning as it laid out the details of the wager that they planned to make and the one that they were actually able to make. Taking such a sizeable bet so close to the day of the game made the bookies nervous and they only accepted a much smaller wager than what the men had originally hoped. Wood wrote “if we ever have another chance like this we will know enough to get down early.” Wood also seems to exonerate Cobb in his letter writing “Cobb did not get up a cent.”¹² Finally, although Wood referred to the proceeds of the bet being split three ways, Wood, Leonard, and someone else from Cleveland, there is no specific mention of Tris Speaker in Smoky Joe’s, nor in Cobb’s letter as well.

After he bought the letters from Leonard, Ban Johnson kept Commissioner Landis in the dark about the entire matter, while he conducted his investigation. He paid private investigators to follow both Cobb and Speaker and to report on any suspicious activity that they might have observed. The surveillance revealed nothing with respect to Cobb, but the detectives reported that Speaker liked to gamble on the horse races.

Finally on September 9, Johnson convened a closed-door meeting of the American League owners at the league office in Chicago to brief them on the claim being made by Leonard. Much to his displeasure the owners voted to turn the matter over to Commissioner Landis for him to investigate and ultimately rule. For his part, upon learning of the case, the commissioner agreed that he would conduct his own investigation into the affair.

Johnson ignored the owner’s action and continued to act as if he were the ultimate authority. He met with Cobb and Speaker and told them that they would have to resign their positions as player-managers and retire from baseball, a ruling, with which, oddly enough, they both complied.

Once the story hit the press, however, Ty Cobb went on the offensive. UPI reported that “in a tremendous voice Cobb rested his case ‘with the baseball fans that have watched me play to win for twenty-two years.’” He admitted “I knew that something was afoot but I never bet a penny on an American League baseball game in my life and I did not have a cent on that game.” Adding “the business deal mentioned in the letter to Leonard did not involve betting.”¹³ A few days later he charged Leonard with blackmailing the American League. “Cobb charges Leonard with Blackmail” read the headline in a UPI article on Christmas Eve. “Ty Cobb has hurled the charge of blackmail at Dutch Leonard and the American League.” He was quoted as saying “I think the officials and the president of the league can tell you more about that than I can. It is sufficient for me to say that they paid money to a man that demanded it, and in so doing became parties to a blackmailing scheme.” When asked by a reporter “what about the statement credited to Ban Johnson, president of the American League, to the effect that you and Speaker had ‘seen the handwriting on the wall’ and stepped down and out of baseball for that reason?” he replied “Oh well—what might one expect from a crowd that buys a blackmailer off for $20,000? … it almost brings a fellow to the point of doubting an all-wise Providence, until he is brought face to face with the splendid spirt of loyalty I see exemplified by my friends, the public. And I may say that I have faith enough to believe absolutely that it is going to come out all right in the end.”¹⁴

Landis planned to bring all the participants to his office in Chicago to hear all sides but Dutch Leonard refused to make the trip from his home in California. He told the Associated Press that he was afraid that he would be “bumped off” if he came to Chicago and so Landis traveled west and met with him there.¹⁵

While Landis was trying to conduct his inquiry without any outside interference, almost everyone had an opinion and most sided with Speaker and Cobb. Even politicians weighed in on the matter and it was not just members of their own congressional delegation. Senator James Watson, Republican of Indiana, issued a statement of support for the two stars. UPI reported that “As a lover of baseball Senator Watson, today expressed entire confidence in Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker against whom charges of throwing a game in 1919 have been placed. ‘In my opinion, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins and Walter Johnson, have done more to make baseball a clean game than any other men,’ Watson said.”¹⁶

After returning from his meeting with Leonard, Judge Landis brought in the other three men to question them and to hear their side of the story. Ty Cobb was the first to meet with Landis on December 20. After some preliminary questions Landis asked Cobb when he became aware that a bet was being put down on the ball game. Cobb claimed that his role was only to arrange for someone Leonard and Wood could trust to place their bet. Landis then questioned Cobb about Speaker. Ty maintained that he never spoke with Speaker about the game and vehemently denied having put any money on the game, nor had he ever had any intention to do so.

Landis then asked about the meeting under the grandstand at Nevin Field at which Leonard claimed that the plot to throw the game and to place the bets was hatched. Cobb was adamant that the meeting had never taken place and again maintained that his only involvement was in recommending West to assist with placing the bet. Cobb told Landis that when the story began to come out in the latter part of the 1926 season that he approached West and asked him if he had in fact made the bet for Wood and Leonard and that he admitted that he had. “Cobb’s responses were carefully crafted and left Landis with nothing to hang him on about the affair, instead shifting all of the guilt on Wood whom Cobb asserted wanted to wager on the game. Cobb claimed to have been merely an intermediary to get Wood to West so that a bet could be placed. Cobb asserted that he only put money on two games in his life, losing $150 on the first two games of the 1919 World Series.”¹⁷

For his part Tris Speaker told Landis that he had no knowledge of a bet on the final game of the season. He also denied the conversation under the stands where Leonard claimed that he offered to have his team “lay down” to assure the third-place finish for the Tigers. He also stated that he never spoke with Joe Wood about the matter until it came out that Wood had written his letter to Leonard.

From there Landis focused his line of inquiry on the game in question and some of the moves that Speaker made as manager. Here is where Speaker made the strongest case for his innocence. Speaker pointed to the fact that he played his regulars in the game, that they held Cobb to one hit, and reminded the commissioner that he himself had three hits in five at bats.

Next to meet with Landis was Joe Wood. Landis went right to the line in the letter Joe had written to Leonard where he explained that the proceeds from the bet were divided three ways. Who was the unnamed “friend from Cleveland” that was in on the bet? Landis asked. Wood replied that the friend was not in baseball and refused to provide the Commissioner with the individual’s name.

Before leaving Landis, both Cobb and Speaker insisted that the commissioner release to the public all of the evidence in his possession including the testimony that they had just given. The next day Landis complied with the request releasing all of the information that he had along with the transcripts of the men’s testimony, and that of Leonard from their meeting in California. He also announced that he would render his decision on the fate of Cobb and Speaker over the winter.

Landis realized that he was in a tough spot. For starters, public opinion was squarely behind the two ballplayers. Leaders in politics and business all expressed their support for them. Even Babe Ruth, who had a love-hate relationship with Cobb came out in their defense. “This is a lot of bull,” he told a crowd in San Francisco, adding “I’ve never known squarer men than Cobb and Speaker.”¹⁸ In addition to the wave of support the players were getting, Landis was also faced with the fact that if the men were not exonerated it would not only put a stain on their reputations and legacy, but also it would call into question the integrity of the game of baseball which he had worked so hard to re-establish after the Black Sox Scandal. Finally, at this time, there were some rumblings that a group of businessmen were contemplating the establishment of a new league and the Commissioner did not relish the notion that two of the game’s biggest stars might wind up in a rival, startup league.

Finally, on January 27, 1927, Landis issued his ruling clearing both men. This meant that “Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker, two of the most famous outfielders in the history of baseball, have been placed on the reserve list of the clubs they formerly managed. They have been completely exonerated of any wrongdoing.”¹⁹

While Landis, in his ruling, had indicated that Cobb and Speaker would now be the property of their former teams, both Cleveland and Detroit gave permission to the players to entertain offers from other teams. In other words both men were being released.

There was no shortage of teams with an interest in Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb. “On hearing the news, Connie Mack reacted like a teenager turned loose in a mall with an unlimited credit card.”²⁰ Coming into the 1927 season the A’s had a pretty set outfield but in Connie’s mind Cobb and Speaker still had some good years left and that they would add two big names to draw fans. He was not alone in that belief. “The line quickly formed … The White Sox and Yankees were interested in Speaker but not Cobb. The Browns wanted Cobb, not Speaker. Jack Dunn offered Cobb $25,000 to come to Baltimore.”²¹

The team most interested in Speaker was the Washington Senators. Clark Griffith, the team’s owner, was the first to make an offer to Speaker and after some back-and-forth negotiations Griffith agreed to all his conditions and he accepted the offer. He would be paid $30,000 for the 1927 season. Connie Mack reached out and said that he would top the Senators’ offer but Speaker said that he had given his word to Griffith and that he felt duty bound to honor it.

With Speaker out of the equation, Mack made a big push to acquire the services of the man nicknamed the “Georgia Peach.” Connie sent a letter saying that he was coming down to meet with Cobb and his home in Augusta, Georgia. When he arrived on February 4, he learned that Dan Howley, manager of the St. Louis Browns, was also in town to meet with Cobb. “That evening Cobb invited them both to his home, where they enjoyed a pleasant, noncommittal evening with their coy host and his family.” The next day the three men boarded a train for the northeast for a series of sportswriter’s dinners in New York and Philadelphia. During the train ride, Mack met with Cobb in his drawing room. “Mack probably put his offer on the table—a $10,000 signing bonus, $50,000 salary, a cut of exhibition games (which would earn him an additional $5,350.83) and $15,000 if the A’s won the pennant.”²² After the dinner in New York Cobb traveled to Philadelphia for that city’s event and met with Connie Mack in his office at Shibe Park and then he headed over to the Adelphi Ballroom in Philadelphia for the writer’s dinner. When it was his turn to address the writers, Cobb first thanked them for inviting him. He mentioned that he was particularly touched by the fact that the invitation had come prior to the decision by Judge Landis that reinstated him to baseball. He then added “I am happy to announce I will be associated with the Athletics this season”²³ and with that, on February 7, 1927, Ty Cobb officially became a member of the Philadelphia Athletics and a teammate of Walter French. That association would have a major impact on the trajectory of his career and not in a positive way.