"The International Jew" Study Hour - Episode 50

June 6, 2013

Hadding Scott and Carolyn Yeager  read and comment on Chapter 45, “Jewish Gamblers Corrupt American Baseball.”

The corrupting influence of Jews in sports, particularly the “all-American game” of baseball is the subject of the next two chapters. The 1919 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Black Sox was “thrown,” it was believed, and Jewish gamblers were at the heart of it. Many others baseball scandals are discussed.

Some players went along with it seemingly easily, for money. One, pictured at right, was Hal Chase, a highly regarded first baseman who played for both the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds between 1913-1919. He gambled on baseball games, and also engaged in suspicious play in order to “throw” games in which he played.  Some good info on him, with great pictures, can be found here. Because of this he was kicked out of the major leagues and excluded from the Hall of Fame. He later said:

I wasn’t satisfied with what the club owners paid me. Like others, I had to have a bet on the side and we used to bet with the other team and the gamblers who sat in the boxes. Once the evil started there was no stopping it, and club owners were not strong enough to cope with the evil.” [...] I was a wise guy, a know-it-all, I guess.

TIJ points out that Jews are not sportsmen, but can be found in sports as exploiters and corrupters. Next week, we will finish this chapter and go on to Chapter 46.

Note: We are using the Noontide Press publication of The International Jew — The World’s Foremost Problem which can be found online here as a pdf file.