Talk:Charles Comiskey

Picture

The baseball card, in my opinion, stinks. I got a picture, I just don't know how to upload it...

Black Sox

"Comiskey was notoriously frugal, even forcing his players to pay to launder their own uniforms." [Was that unusual?] "Interestingly, it was the inevitably filthy uniforms that actually led to the team being known as the "Black Sox"; the nickname existed well before the gambling scandal."

It was? as a nickname for his team? --P64 20:08, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

This is not true. There is no evidence the team played regular season games in dirty uniforms. Or had to spend their own money to have their uniforms laundered. The issue is addressed in detail in an article I'm posting a link to. The article includes citations.

https://jacobpomrenke.com/black-sox/dirty-laundry-and-the-black-sox/

Most of the information in the Charles Comiskey wikipedia article pertaining to his role in the Black Sox scandal is incorrect. It needs to reviewed and rewritten. Research by SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) and other baseball historians on the Black Sox scandal has found many of the popular narratives about the events have been exaggerated or misrepresented. Including that team owner Charles Comiskey was a penny pinching miser who refused to pay his players their fair value compared to other teams in baseball.

I've noticed the same myth about the Black Sox laundry is repeated in the wikipedia Black Sox Scandal article. It also needs editing. (This isn't the fault of the original writers of the wikipedia articles. Until SABR did the extremely difficult work of finding out how much the players really made or whether the team really played with dirty uniforms. There was nothing we could do but accept what had already been written about the issue. We owe SABR a huge debt of gratitude.)

I believe anyone writing or editing articles regarding baseball history should be familiar with SABR's work on the topic they're writing about. Here is a link to one of many SABR articles about the issue I raised.

https://sabr.org/eight-myths-out

Here's a couple of relative bits I pasted from the article.

The 'Dirty Laundry theory' came from the players' defense attorneys at their trial for conspiring to fix the World Series. It was one of many tactics used to discredit Charles Comiskey and evoke sympathy for the players with potential jurors. (Another defense strategy — which Asinof highlighted in Eight Men Out — was to accuse Comiskey of under-paying his players and reneging on promised bonuses, a theory that also falls apart under closer scrutiny.)

Historian Bob Hoie says the only contemporary reference anyone has found to the White Sox’s unclean uniforms prior to the scandal came in 1918 — when the team celebrated its World Series championship with a pennant-raising ceremony on June 11 at Comiskey Park.6 It was a hot and windy7 day, and by the time the White Sox completed their 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox, their white home uniforms were likely drenched with sweat and dust. When the players showed up to the ballpark the next morning, they learned “their domestic toggery was delayed at the laundry … [so] the champions performed in their gray road uniforms.”8 They also wore the grays for the series finale on the following day. Therevverend (talk) 16:21, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

External links modified

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Infobox size

Can someone who has more experience with adjust Wiki page sizes do something with the infobox? Its about twice as wide as it needs to be considering the length of the content lines. For instance the infobox on Pete Rose's page is about 40% as wide as this one. Thanks much - Ckruschke (talk) 18:17, 13 September 2017 (UTC)Ckruschke

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Charles Comiskey didn't underpay the Black Sox

It is not true that the 'Black Sox' were underpaid. Research by SABR has found the 1919 White Sox had one of the biggest payrolls in the league. The team's star players were well paid for their contributions.

https://sabr.org/journal/article/1919-american-league-salaries/ Therevverend (talk) 16:29, 26 December 2024 (UTC)

New section: Labor relations and the reserve clause

I've added a new section documenting Comiskey's role in the 1914 American League Baseball Club of Chicago v. Chase case. This addition is warranted for several reasons: Relevance: Comiskey was directly involved as the plaintiff in this landmark legal case. As co-author of the National Agreement (1903) with Ban Johnson, he had significant personal investment in defending the reserve clause system that the court ultimately ruled was an illegal monopoly. Historical significance: This was the first successful legal challenge to baseball's reserve clause, preceding the more famous Curt Flood case by 56 years. Justice Bissell's ruling that baseball operated as "a complete monopoly" in violation of common law is historically important to understanding early baseball labor relations. Biographical completeness: Comiskey's involvement in baseball's labor structure is central to understanding his role as an owner. The case reveals his willingness to use legal action to maintain control over players, which provides important context for his management philosophy. Well-sourced: The addition uses primary sources including the court citation (149 N.Y.S. 6) and contemporary newspaper coverage from The Sporting News and Chicago Tribune, including Ban Johnson's 1918 acknowledgment of blacklisting. NPOV compliance: The text presents facts from court records and contemporary sources without editorializing. It notes both the legal ruling and the subsequent consequences, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. This section fills a gap in the article's coverage of Comiskey's involvement in baseball's institutional structure and labor relations. Dcg3003 (talk) 17:15, 1 November 2025 (UTC)