Charles Comiskey in my mind was the dirtiest and cheapest owner in the history of our great game of Baseball. I believe if it wasn't for Comiskey, the Chicago White Sox would not of "thrown" the 1919 World Series and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson would currently be in the Hall of Fame.
Charles Comiskey was the owner of the White Sox from 1900 until his death in 1931. He had been a Major League ball-player and manager, but is best well-known for being the owner of the Chicago White Sox.
Comiskey's players hated him. He was notoriously stingy, his defenders called him "frugal" but it's safe to say Comiskey was a very cheap man. The stories of Comiskey's cheapness are famous. The White Sox actually got the name "Black Sox" before the 1919 World Series because Comiskey forced his players to pay to launder their own uniforms when the players refused Chicago sports writers named the team the "Black Sox" for their filthy unlaundered uniforms.
In an era when professional athletes lacked free agency, the White Sox's formidable players had little choice but to accept Comiskey's substandard wages. Even when ball-players around the Major's were not making very much money and most of Baseball's owners were stingy, Comiskey's White Sox were extremely underpaid compared to their contemporaries. Two of the White Sox best players in 1919, Joe Jackson and George "Buck" Weaver made only $6,000 a year. Eddie Cicotte, Chicago's best pitcher had been promised a $10,000 bonus if he could win 30 games in a season. When Cicotte closed in on the 30-game goal with his 29th win, Comiskey had him benched to keep him from reaching the mark. In one incident, Comiskey promised his players a bonus for winning the 1919 pennant, the "bonus" turned out to be a case of flat wine.
The "topper" for me is the $10,000 bonus promised to Eddie Cicotte. When Cicotte was asked if he wanted to "throw" a couple of games in the upcoming 1919 World Series for an amount of $10,000, I have to believe Cicotte would of never thought about it if he had received his promised bonus from Comiskey. The same goes for Jackson and the rest of the White Sox, they were all underpaid. This is not an excuse for the players to "throw" the Series but just the reason why they did. The reason being, Charles Comiskey; the cheapest man in Baseball history.
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