The trial of former star pitcher Roger Clemens on charges that he lied to Congress when he denied taking steroids and human growth hormone is just the latest example of a big name from baseball becoming embroiled in scandal.
With Clemens’ friend Andy Pettitte retaking the stand Wednesday, this is a look at some of the other cases in which the sport’s major figures got into hot water.
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March 12, 1921 _ Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, Chicago White Sox pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude “Lefty” Williams, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Charles “Swede” Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, outfielders “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Happy Felsh and infielder Fred McMullen were suspended for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The players had already been suspended by the team on Sept. 28, 1920, following their indictment on criminal charges.
The “Black Sox” were acquitted on Aug. 3, 1921, but banned from the game by Landis the following day.
“Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball,” Landis wrote.
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April 9, 1947 _ Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was suspended for one year by Commissioner Albert B. “Happy” Chandler “as a result of the accumulation of unpleasant incidents in which he has been involved which the commissioner construes as detrimental to baseball.”
Chandler refused to say if the incidents included associations with gamblers, but Durocher’s friends included actor George Raft, alleged to have worked at gambling clubs, and mobster Bugsy Siegel. The previous month, Durocher and Dodgers President Branch Rickey accused Yankees President Larry MacPhail _ the former Dodgers president _ of having two alleged gamblers, handicapper Memphis Engleberg and casino manager Connie Immerman, in his box during an exhibition game between the Dodgers and Yankees in Havana. MacPhail retaliated by filing a complaint with Chandler.
More dirt: in April 1946, Durocher had been found not guilty in Brooklyn of second-degree assault involving 23-year-old John Christian at Ebbets Field on June 9, 1945. Durocher had been accused of breaking the fan’s jaw. Durocher also had been criticized by Brooklyn’s Catholic Youth Organization for having an affair with actress Laraine Day, who was married. Durocher and Day married in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 21, 1947, a day after she obtained a divorce in Juarez, Mexico, from Ray Hendricks.
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Feb. 3, 1993 _ Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was suspended for one year and fined $25,000 by the game’s executive council for bringing “disrepute and embarrassment” to baseball with her repeated use of racial and ethnic slurs. The suspension was shortened to eight months for good behavior.
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From 1987-90 _ Arbitrator Thomas Roberts (Sept. 21, 1987) and arbitrator George Nicolau (Aug. 31, 1988, and July 18, 1990) rule baseball management conspired against free agents following the 1985, 1986 and 1987 seasons in violation of the sport’s labor contract. Management settled the cases for a $280 million payment made on Jan. 2, 1991. Among the players affected: Jack Morris, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Jack Clark, Lance Parrish.
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Aug. 24, 1989 _ Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti announced Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball following an investigation of his gambling, which concluded Rose made 412 baseball wagers between April 8 and July 5, 1987, including 52 on the Reds to win.
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Dec. 13, 2007 _ A 409-page report by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to baseball Commissioner Bud Selig links 85 players to performance-enhancing drugs, among them are Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Jose Canseco, Miguel Tejada and Pettitte. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds hearings on the report in early 2008. On Aug. 19, 2010, Clemens is indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on one count of obstruction of Congress, three counts of making false statements to Congress and two counts of perjury, all related to his testimony and a deposition he gave committee staff on Feb. 5, 2008.
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