Net54baseball.com Forums - OT: Cobb, Speaker, Wood, Betting Conspiracy

Listening to Mike Francesca and he's been talking about the whole Pete Rose situation. Knowing Cobb's questionable character I googled if he had ever bet on baseball and came across this, very interesting!

LEONARD COBB SPEAKER AFFAIR

By Bill Burgess III

Every once in a while, in baseball discussion groups, one is asked, "Didn't Cobb once fix a game?", or "Wasn't Ty accused of throwing a game?"

And I was recently asked about the Leonard/Cobb/Speaker controversy. This was one of the traumas of Cobb's career. Although he & Speaker

were totally exonerated by Judge Landis, there remained many critics, who sneered that Landis had looked past their "misdeeds".

Allow me to give my understanding here. You will find no whitewash here.

Dutch Leonard had been a good pitcher in the AL. Boston, '13-18, and Detroit, '19-21, '24-25. In '14 he had an ERA of 0.96 for 224 innings,

and 19-5. Of course, he had Speaker, Hooper & Lewis performing their circus catches in the OF, to make the whole staff look real good, but still,

0.96 IS startling! By '25, he was on Cobb's Detroit staff, and not getting along with his manager. He rep was that he ducked the good teams

and loaded up on the weak sisters. Cobb's lost it when Leonard refused to take the mound when ordered to, to help the team. So Cobb put him on

the market, for $7,500., and no one claimed him. So he passed out of the league. And he blamed Cobb and also Speaker who he hoped would pick

up his waiver. Speaker had been his teammate and friend on the '13-15 Red Sox. But Tris passed on him. There is no doubt in my mind that Tris

would have called Cobb and gotten Ty's version of why he was trying to unload Dutch. Dutch burned with frustration and held Ty & Tris responsible

for railroading him out of the league and his career. He was only 33 yrs. old. He withdrew to his home in Fresno, California.

In May, 1926, Dutch came East and contacted the office of the Tigers and informed Detroit owner, Frank Joseph Navin, that he held proof that Ty

& Tris had fixed and bet on a game, played on Sept. 25, 1919. He contacted Ban Johnson's office as well. After traveling back and forth, Navin

& Johnson, believed Leonard's story, and agreed to buy him off for $20,000, the amount that Leonard believed that Detroit owed him. So, Dutch

surrendered his 2 letters to them. They, in turn, notified Judge Landis of the events, as a courtesy.

Next, Johnson contacted the 2 players and called them into his office. Cobb and Speaker denied the charges and Johnson totally thought they were

lying. He told them they had to quit. On Nov. 2, Ty left a letter of resignation at Navin's office. The next day he boarded a train and left for Atlanta,

where he told the press that he had resigned. On Nov. 29, 1926, Speaker's resignation was announced, with no explanation given. The BB world

buzzed and wondered what was going on. In the meantime, 2 newspapers had gotten wind of the controversy, and threatened to publish what

they had. Judge Landis had conducted his own investigation. Dutch refused to come back to Chicago, saying pople "got bumped off there", so

Landis went to Cal. He bided his time for the moment. By this time, Cobb & Speaker, who originally had acquiesced to being coerced into the railroad

to keep the story from breaking in the national media, now realizing that the story was going to break anyway, changed their minds and decided to

fight the charges. They hired attorneys and began commencing their legal defense in tandem. They demanded that Landis release whatever he had.

That, on top of the 2 newspapers giving him a deadline to announce everything, forced his hand, and he made the announcement on Dec. 21, 1926.

What a jolt that was to the BB community!!

Leonard's Accusation

Before he could rule on that case, another case exploded in his face. So he dealt with another big scandal before he got back to the Leonard/Cobb case.

Where Leonard had accused the others (and himself) of fixing the game in question, he had no evidence outside of his word, that there had been a

plan to pre-arrange the results of the game. His only evidence, the 2 letters, strangely never referred in any way to a fix. They only referred to betting.

Leonard's accusation was based on his hope that people would assume that where there is smoke, there is fire. This was his basic charge.

Dutch accusation was based on the hope that people would assume that if there was evidence of betting, then the betters probably fixed the results.

So, that was Dutch Leonard's thinking, and the entire premise of the accusation. Betting was beyond question. Fix? His word against 2 teams.

The day before the game in question, Cleveland had clinched 2nd place for the '19 season. On the day of the game in question, Leonard was talking

under the grandstand with Joe Wood and Tris Speaker, and they plotted to fix the game for Detroit to win. Just then, according to Leonard, Cobb

came along, joined the conversation and agreed to plan for Detroit to win, and they all agreed to bet $2,000. on the game. That was Dutch Leonard's

accusation. The only thing missing is that he had no evidence of anything, except his own word, along with 2 letters, which spoke clearly of a bet,

but not on what the bet was based on. It could have been a bet about anything. And he had no evidence whatsoever of any fixing of anything.

So, Dutch was desperately hoping that others would make assumptions, and draw conclusions based on his version of events.

By January 27, 1927, Landis had finally dealt with & gotten clear of the other scandal, and he announced his verdict in the Leonard/Cobb affair.

He said that he could not find any proof of any fix at all. He exonerated both Cobb & Speaker, completely. He implied that they had bet, when he

said that what they had done was inappropriate & reprehensible, but not corrupt.