1909 St. Louis Black Sox

A Calendar, Including Newspaper Clippings, of the 1909 St. Louis Black Sox

1909 St. Louis Black Sox

Stories are placed in order of the date they appeared.

May 22, 1909

Indianapolis, IN
"Police Interrupt Home Run of Henry Kuebler. - Manager of St. Louis Black Sox Makes for Home with Board Bill On Base - Umpire Whallon's Ruling. - Henry Kuebler, manager of the Black Sox baseball club, of St. Louis, must have felt like a pitcher knocked out by a bunch of bingles when Judge Whallon swung on him in the Police Court last week, with a score of $10 and costs for ten days in the workhouse for jumping a board bill with his husky players. The usual luck of the tailenders was smeared on Kuebler almost from the time he got off the train from St. Louis until he made a quiet getaway in the direction of home. The Black Socks, or Sox, is a colored organization of ball tossers, and Kuebler is a white man. They came to Indianapolis, twelve strong Saturday to play the A.B.C. club at Northwestern Park. Games were scheduled for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Kuebler was to get 50 per cent of the gate receipts. The kizosh on the Black Sox first appeared when the train arrived too late to play the Saturday game, and as the Black Sox had to eat Kuebler saw a crimp appear in his share of the gate receipts. The club took up its lodging at Sam Herron's home, 453 West Fiftieenth Street, and prepared for the Sunday games, as it was decided to play two games for a single price of admission. - Black Sox Win Game. - The A.B.C.s had been touted as hot stuff and the Missourians laid away from any propositions to back their judgement of the score. Two warm games were pulled off before a crowd of ordinary size and the Black Sox gave the locals a cleaning. They were greatly elated, but sorry they did not get a few of the loose dollars that seemed to be about the park in handfulls. Monday the excitement between the two teams was great. Encouraged by success the Black Sox boasted they had another wallop for the Indianapolis bunch and were willing to back up their judgement. To make a long story short they got together and what the A.B.C.s did to them was plenty. There was no direct evidence that there was any gambling on the game, but there is a suspicion that some of the St. Louis boys would have had to go home in barrels if the A.B.C.s had wanted their clothing. When a settlement was made Kuebler received $87.50 as his share of the gate receipts for the two days. The railroad fare home meant twelve times $7 and Kuebler paid his men railroad money and told them to hike for the train. - Headed off at Terre Haute. They certainly went south with the money and Kuebler arranged plans for himself. He owed Herron $37.50 board bill, but Herron did not get to stroke the back of a quarter. Kuebler hit the trail for St. Louis at the Traction and Terminal station as it was somewhat cheaper by trolley than train. It did not take Herron long to get wise to what was going on, as he hustled down to the police station and got a warrant for Kuebler on the charge of violating the hotel law. Kuebler left some track that the police found and they headed him off at Terre Haute by telephone. Captain Hyland went after him and the Baseball manager ate supper out of a tin plate at headquarters. By the time the game was called in the Police Court Kuebler had telegraphed his brother in St. Louis and a piece of money large enough to settle Herron's claim was sent to him by telegraph. The action did little good, as shown by Judge Whallon when he went to the bat. To add to the trouble that came toward Kuebler was the news that Ran Butler had kidnapped three of the star performers of the Black Sox. The term kidnapping meant that Butler had induced the ball tossers to stay in Indianapolis and cast their fortunes with the A.B.C.s."