[rats60]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

Also add Peaches Graham (known as Billy Maharg, Graham spelled backwards) in his role in the scandal:

1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal[edit]
Maharg's third connection with major league baseball came in 1919 as he conspired to fix the 1919 World Series—the infamous Black Sox Scandal. Several White Sox players, including Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, and Swede Risberg, conspired with Sleepy Bill Burns, a former big-league pitcher, to throw the World Series in exchange for $100,000. Billy Maharg worked with Burns to find financing. Maharg and Burns approached New York gambler Arnold Rothstein to raise the money for the players. Other gamblers soon entered the picture, whereupon the players, Maharg and Burns suffered multiple double-crosses. The White Sox did in fact lose the Series.

In September 1920, a disgruntled Maharg gave the full details of the plot to a Philadelphia writer. Eight White Sox players were indicted for throwing the Series. When Maharg was called as a witness in the criminal trial, someone noted, “He flashed enough diamonds on his fingers to buy a flock of autos.” Maharg was asked, “Are you a ballplayer named “Peaches Graham?” The answer was, “No! I have never been anything but Billy Maharg. I know Graham, but I am not he.” (It has long been believed that Maharg's real name was Graham, or Maharg spelled backwards.)

The Chicago jury found the eight players not guilty, and Maharg celebrated with the players afterward. All eight were subsequently banned from baseball for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Three of the former players implicated in the Black Sox Scandal were members of the 1912 Detroit Tigers: Sleepy Bill Burns and Jean Dubuc were both pitchers for the 1912 Tigers, and Maharg was one of the 1912 replacement Tigers.

Actor Richard Edson played the part of Maharg in John Sayles' 1988 film Eight Men Out.

George "Peaches" Graham and Billy Graham aka Maharg were two different people.