Eddie Cicotte: The Life and Career of the Banned White Sox Pitcher by David L. Fleitz (review)

Eddie Cicotte (pronounced "see cot") has always been an enigma to me. Having taught baseball history for more than a decade, one of the key events I focus on is the Black Sox Scandal. At the time, Eliot Asinof's book Eight Men Out, and the movie based on it, were still the most definitive sources on the biggest scandal in baseball history. Cicotte was clearly a pivotal figure since he started the first Series game and had to signal on the initial pitch that the fix was taking place. While his guilt was obvious, he was portrayed as a victim of circumstances, especially due to owner Charles Comiskey's tightness in compensating his players. In particular, the pitcher was promised a significant bonus that never materialized. Hence, there was motivation to throw the Series to replace the lost money.

The book and movie developed further impressions that Cicotte was a victim of circumstances. His key pitch, the spit ball, was outlawed the next season and threatened his career. Since he wasn't compensated fairly by Comiskey, it was difficult to provide for his family. As one of the White Sox players who hung around with first baseman Chick Gandil, he was influenced by the latter's persona, gambling ties, and peer pressure. Again, he was more victim than perpetrator.

David Fleitz's book does much to alter those impressions. Fleitz has authored numerous books about baseball's dead ball era and its players. He is well versed in the extensive research done in recent years to alter some of the knowledge Asinof formulated about the Black Sox scandal and its participants. The result is a biography of Cicotte that is truly revisionist. The pitcher had far more of a leadership role in the scandal, motivated in part by his style of living and his greed. The threat of losing the spitball was never a concern since he was one of two pitchers on the Sox who would be exempt. Further, there is little to no evidence that Comiskey ever offered, let alone blocked, Cicotte from winning thirty games, which would supposedly have resulted in the major bonus.

There are many other interesting points in the book. Among those, Cicotte had a major role in developing another pitch that has since been instrumental to many players careers, including some Hall of Famers. His success with the White Sox, after failing to succeed with both the Tigers and Red Sox, may have had a lot to do with Cicotte becoming more disciplined about his physical conditioning. With those changes, he was able to win twenty or more games three times and was one of the league leaders in ERA.

I hoped to learn more about Cicotte and I certainly wasn't disappointed. In my opinion, some sections had too many details on individual games, though some readers will enjoy that information. To Fleitz's credit, he was able to avoid the frequent trap of becoming defensive of his subject. Instead, Cicotte's human nature with its talents and foibles comes through. In essence, the biography offers much about both Cicotte's career and his role in the Black Sox scandal. In that regard, this is an important book in understanding one player's contribution to one of the major events in baseball history.