Talk of a Sold Out Game in 1876

The West End baseball club formed in Milwaukee in 1875 as a pure amateur club. For the 1876 season the club had decided to go semi-professional. Club officials explained to the public that by playing exhibition games with the leading professional clubs in addition to playing match games with amateur clubs of the country and state, their dream was to bring baseball back into the limelight in Milwaukee

The Detroit AEtnas visited Milwaukee in mid-September 1876 as part of festivities during State Fair week. (Earlier, on September 2, West End had defeated the AEtnas 7 to 3 in Milwaukee.) Good gates were expected, but bad weather prevailed and a number of games were rained out. It was costing both the Detroit and Janesville (Wisconsin) clubs money to stay in Milwaukee with no income from these lost games.

On Friday, September 15 West End beat the AEtnas, 5 to 1. A scheduled game the next day between West Enders and the local Alert ball club was postponed so West End could play the AEtnas again. On this Saturday West End again beat the Detroit club 3 to 2, in “the closest and the prettiest [game] ever played in the city.” It was reported the only reason the AEtnas made a close game of it was Milwaukee pitcher Harry Chandler’s lame arm.

A third game was played on Monday September 18, the AEtnas winning 18 to 0. It was reported betting had been heavy on this game. The Milwaukee Sentinel reported the next morning “The talk of the town is that the game was sold.” The reasons given for the loss were Chandler’s lameness, some bad fielding and weak batting by the West End club. The lack of hitting and some “inexcusable errors” was what caused some to suspect a sold out game. The Sentinel believed: “It is a serious charge, and for this reason we desire to say nothing either in apology or condemnation without good evidence.” However, the newspaper did give the team this much: “So far as a majority of the West End nine are concerned, The Sentinel can hold up its right hand and swear they would quit the club if they believed one of its games had been sold.”

The same day in its initial report the Evening Wisconsin stated the game was “not satisfactory to the public. The ridiculous score of 18 to 0 is either the result of inexcusable carelessness or culpable fraud.” The Milwaukee newspaper continued:

Remembering that before any of these three games were played knowing ones were willing to bet that the West Ends would win the first two games and the AEtnas the last by a decided score, we ask the West End managers and players, if yesterday’s game was a strictly honest one? Calling to mind that during the morning of yesterday young “sports” were willing to bet against the home club with heavy odds, we ask again, Was yesterday’s game a “put up job” with a certain class of the betting fraternity? If the West End Base Ball Club is to be run in the interest of gamblers it will no longer receive support from the public.

The Evening Wisconsin conceded Chandler’s arm was “black and blue,” but it had been in the same condition the day before when West End won 3 to 2. Fisher made two “muffs which any amateur would blush to make.” However, “take it all around the fielding was excellent.” The paper laid the blame for the loss on the batting. The Evening Wisconsin concluded: “If there really was any understanding with the betting fraternity, it does not imply that all members of the club were in the ring. Two, three, or four, could have done the mischief.”

Prior to going to press, the president of the West End Association [presumably John M. Ewing] requested the Evening Wisconsin to print a statement that “if any person possesses facts to prove the dishonesty of anyone connected with the club, the information will be thankfully received and thoroughly published.” The management had “not the remotest suspicion” that any sell out had occurred, but promised if any evidence showed otherwise “the matter will be settled to the entire satisfaction of the public.” The management attributed its team defeat to “weariness” and “the good luck which at times seems to overtake a club that has been badly defeated.”

A third Milwaukee newspaper, the Daily Milwaukee News, had this to say:

Assertions that the game was “sold” have been glibly made, especially by those to whom loss resulted, but the charge which is a grave one against both the management of the West Ends and the members of the nine, seems entirely without foundation in fact, and so far as inquiry has thus far been developed anything, it has seemed a thing impossible to find men to father the assertion.

The paper told its readers at the last moment four of the players who knew they were not in condition to play, appeared in the game under protest. After falling behind early the team became “thoroughly and unaccountably demoralized.”

The Milwaukee Sentinel of September 20 told its readers the throwing of a game was a serious charge, and the paper was “anxious to acquit the boys entirely of the charge unless some one can bring forward better evidence than inexcusable errors.” The morning daily concluded “under the circumstances, considering the fact that the players were legitimately entitled to play badly in view of a tiresome series, we are inclined to believe there was no selling, If there was any selling it was done by the AEtnas in Friday’s game with the view of securing bets for Monday, as they knew Chandler’s condition would be such as to allow them to win.”

Exactly what happened in this September 18 game between West End and the AEtnas is hard to find, as it was later reported “no complete score of them [this game and another of September 30 against the Liberty club of Chicago] having been kept”.

The matter laid dormant to the public for three and a half months. Then on January 6, 1877, the three newspapers cited above reported the West End management had conducted an investigation into the September 18 game and Cherokee Fisher had confessed to being a part of selling out the game against the AEtnas. The Sentinel and Evening Wisconsin reported Fisher confessed to selling out to a Milwaukee businessman, the Evening Wisconsin giving $100 as the amount Fisher obtained. The Daily News reported Fisher confessed “he helped to throw the game at the instigation of a well known man in this city who holds an important position.” Although Fisher named this man, the newspaper withheld the name “because The News will not be a party to the injury of any person upon the statement of a man like Fisher.” The Chicago Daily Tribune also reported of this unnamed man, calling him “a prominent gambler and betting man.” According to the Chicago paper, this unnamed man also gave up the story to West End management. The Tribune also reported Fisher pocketed $100. However, the Milwaukee Daily News story reported Fisher claimed he was to get a “liberal percentage of the money won, but that he only received $15.” The plot to throw the game was said to have taken place in a side room saloon of a downtown Milwaukee hotel, the Newhall House, where two other persons dropped in. These two unnamed persons said nothing, but won large bets from the inside information.

According to Milwaukee newspaper reports, Fisher also named two AEtnas players—Hawes and Farrell–as having been “bought up.” But “with considerable trace of honor” Fisher would not name the West End player or players who helped him in the sell out. The Daily News suggested there was much more to the whole story when it reported on January 10, 1877:

It is claimed that Fisher let just enough of the cat out of the bag so that it was plain to see that it was a cat, and then hauled the metaphorical feline into the bag again. But a cat of that color was certain to be recognized if ever seen again; and the management are said to have secured the animal, bag and all. There is talk that some really rascally crookedness will be shown up where it has been least expected to exist.

The only further story I could find on the September 18 “sell out” was a report in the Daily News of January 14, 1877, that stated the scandal would make the West End management more particular when selecting players in the future. Of course, Fisher was let go from the club. A few days before Christmas 1876—two weeks before the scandal hit the newspapers–it had been reported Fisher would not play for West End in 1877.

William “Cherokee” Fisher had been signed by the West End Club around September 1, 1876, as a first baseman. He was born in Philadelphia in 1844, and had played with four different National Association teams from 1871 to 1875. Fisher had started the 1876 season in Cincinnati with the National League club, being released in July with a 4 and 20 record. According to Neil W. Macdonald’s research in his book “The League that Lasted,” Fisher was released around the same time he learned his son was in declining health and dying in a Philadelphia hospital. Macdonald quotes a Hartford Courant story that stated “Fisher resigned by request,” which added “he was too much of a beer pitcher.” Between his release from Cincinnati and signing with the West End club Fisher played with the Jackson (Michigan) Mutuals and umpired some games in Michigan. According to the “official” averages of the West End club, published in the Milwaukee Sentinel on December 21, 1876, Fisher played in 15 games, having 20 hits in 80 at bats. In the field he had 120 put outs, 10 assists and 22 errors.

According to the Chicago Tribune report of January 7, 1877, someone arranged a farewell party in Milwaukee for Fisher, with a considerable number of tickets being sold. However Cherokee “went away unostentatiously” with the proceeds without waiting for the party, which never came off. Fisher reportedly left Milwaukee for Philadelphia, but in early February it was reported in a Philadelphia newspaper he had been “run in as a vagrant” by the Chicago police.

Fisher played in 1877 for the “amateur” Franklins of Chicago. On July 16 of that year the Chicago White Stockings of the National League came up a player short, when George Bradley became sick, and the White Stockings needed a replacement third baseman. A man named Parker from the Franklins took third base. This “Parker” was identified by the Chicago Inter-Ocean the next day as Cherokee Fisher. A month later the manager of another Chicago amateur club, the Liberty Base Ball Club, wrote to the Inter-Ocean stating a number of the players on the Franklins were professionals, naming one as Cherokee Fisher.

Fisher’s next, and last, appearance in the National League came on July 7, 1878, in Cincinnati, where he pitched for Providence, losing to the Reds, 12 to 4. The Providence Grays had played its previous series in Chicago and took Fisher with them to Cincinnati, no doubt looking to him to fill a void in their pitching.

It appears Fisher returned to Chicago to play, as a reader’s question to the Chicago Tribune in April of 1879 asked: “Why is Fisher, of the Franklins, called ‘Cherokee’.” The Tribune’s answer may interest some: “The name was applied to him several years ago in recognition of the fact that he frequently displayed the wildness and enthusiasm peculiar to Indians.”

Fisher worked and retired from the Chicago Fire Department, and lived in that city until at least 1910 according to city directories. William Charles Fisher died in New York on September 26, 1912, from arterio-sclerosis at the age of 67, and was buried in Mount Carmel cemetery, Hillside, Illinois.

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I would like to thank David Ball for looking up the article in the Cincinnati Enquirer regarding the 1878 game in Cincinnati and Cliff Blau for the article on the 1877 Chicago game. Neil Macdonald was kind enough to read my essay and help with information on Fisher and his son. In addition, Royse Parr was extremely helpful in sending me the letters and documents he has obtained on Cherokee Fisher over the years. Plus there is the person who sent me some copies pertaining to Fisher (no return address or accompanying note.)