Hot Stove Luncheon: “They Beat the Black Sox: The 1919 Cincinnati Reds”
[Ed. note: Many baseball biographers and historians have documented the tragedy of the 1919 Chicago "Black Sox." Less well-known is the story of their opponent, the Cincinnati Reds. Longtime SABR member Steve Gietschier talked about some of the details of that team in "They Beat the Black Sox: The 1919 Cincinnati Reds," presented at last Saturday's Hot Stove Luncheon.]
Edd Roush loathed spring training until long after he retired from the diamond. “Why should I go down there and fuss around,” he used to grumble. “Twist an ankle, or break a leg. I did my own spring training, hunting quail and rabbits . . . .” Roush didn’t catch all of spring training until long after 1931, his last year as a player. In his sixties, he and his wife would leave the Indiana cold for Bradenton, then the Florida home of the Milwaukee Braves. Each morning Roush would don a uniform, work out a bit, and prepare for the annual old-timers’ game. But in the afternoons, he would escape to the press box, purposely sitting with his back to the field to show his disdain for modern baseball. And occasionally, when asked, he would talk about the 1919 World Series.
In the summer of 1912, Roush, then 19, signed a professional contract with Evansville of the Kitty League. The following year he hit .317 in 89 games and gained the attention of Charles Comiskey, who purchased his contract for $3,000. Comiskey kept Roush in Chicago awhile before sending him to Lincoln in the Western League. Over the following winter, Roush signed with the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the upstart Federal League and helped them win the pennant. In 1915, the Federal League’s final season, the Hoosiers became the Newark Peppers and finished fifth. Players from the disbanded league were put on the market, and the Giants purchased three Peppers: Benny Kauff, Bill McKechnie, and Roush, and in July 1916, John McGraw traded McKechnie, Roush, and Christy Mathewson to the Reds. Roush would play eleven seasons in Cincinnati but win the pennant only once, in 1919. (continue reading)