Are you a baseball fan? Have you ever heard about the Louisville Grays? If the answer is no, this doesn’t mean that you are not a true baseball fan because this team was established in 1876 and played just two seasons. However, even after almost 150 years, this former member of the National League is still attractive, at least for those analyzing betting scandals. By the way, this is not the only well-known US sports scandal. From 1978 to 1979 the Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal also made headlines in media.
Of course, we are talking about the infamous 1877 Louisville Grays scandal, one of the biggest match-fixing events in the 19th century. That’s right, even in those days, some people were more interested in making money illegally than participating in regular sports and betting activities.
This Louisville baseball cheating event may have brought disgrace upon the team. Still, it has helped baseball as a sport because fans, players, and authorities became aware of the possibility of illegal activities in this sport. Now let’s learn more about this incident that involved four Louisville Grays players.
What led to the scandal?
Modern readers may not be aware of this. Still, even in the 19th-century, people have witnessed foul play in baseball (and other sports). It seems that once one sport or team has become popular, the criminals start making plans for how to take advantage of that popularity. So, there were many cases when fans believed that players received money to secretly play against their own squads, but no one could prove that. This scandal, on the other hand, was concluded with serious, undisputed evidence.
Photo: Chad Davis, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Needless to say, one of the main reasons for that was the popularity of gambling. This activity was becoming more available and famous in the United States. In fact, William Hubert, a famous American businessman, decided to create the National League in 1876 to prevent fraudulent matches. So, like many other people, Hubert has witnessed the rise of match-fixing cases in the early 1870s. Yet, even in the first year of the National League, there were matches with scores that didn’t add up. These unexpected problems for the National League culminated in 1877 with the Louisville baseball cheating scandal and the banning of the players involved in the process.
The players behind the match-fixing scandal
1877′ Louisville Scandal Team
The criminals in sports cheating scandals are always looking for weak links. It may be challenging to do this in a team sport, but not impossible. This time they were targeting four players that they’ve found “suitable” for bribes.
First, we have Jim Devlin. He was a professional baseball player for over three years. He played in a Major League Baseball team since 1873 and joined the Louisville Grays as a pitcher in 1876. During his first season at this club, his win-loss record was 30-35, a solid record.
Next, there was George Hall. He was another successful player who was 28 at the time of the scandal. Before the Louisville Grays, he played for a few other teams, including the Washington Olympians, Baltimore Canaries, and the Boston Red Stockings (National Association teams). He used the opportunity to play for the newly formed National League in 1876 by joining the Athletic of Philadelphia. However, the Athletics were not very successful that season. On the other hand, Hall was among the best players (he was the first player to score two home runs in a single match, for instance).
Due to the poor results, the Philadelphian team was forced to leave the league, and George Hall joined the Louisville Grays. This was an excellent season for Hall again. He hit .323, hit eight triples, and scored 51 runs.
William H. Craver (Bill Craver) was the third baseball player contributing to match-fixing. He played on two positions in his career – a catcher and a middle infielder. Bill started his journey in the world of professional baseball players in 1871 when William joined the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. Like Hall, he switched a few teams before joining the Louisville Grays (Troy Haymakers, Baltimore Canaries, Philadelphia White Stockings, New York Mutuals, etc.).
