t there. Joe tried to take the envelope containing $5,000 to Comiskey the next morning, but was told Comiskey was too busy to see him. Comiskey knew of the fix before it happened and was now trying to cover it up and protect his own reputation. Comiskey’s lawyer acted as Joe’s lawyer also, although he was really only trying to protect Comiskey. In modern day, Joe would have had his own lawyer from the beginning and Landis would have been convicted of contempt of court since he went against the court’s ruling and banished the eight players for life. Joe would not have had to prove his innocence. Instead, someone would have had to prove him guilty. Clearly, this could not have been achieved. There is no evidence that he did anything wrong, and his statistics clearly support the opposite. Alongside, his performance in the 1919 World Series, Joe’s career batting average of .356 is the third best of all-time (CMG 1). On top of this, he led the league in triples eight times and held the throwing record for distance. It is a shame he was never inducted into the Hall of Fame because of one man’s judgment to ban him from the game. In 1949, and issue of Sports Magazine interviewed Joe to find out his thoughts about the situation. This is one of the first times his feelings were revealed to the public. Joe tells how he never made a plea to Judge Landis to be reinstated because of his nature. He was laid back and calm about the situation and thought sooner or later that Landis would remove his banishment from the game of baseball. The one thing he never understood was that a letter he received three days before the season ended said, “If you are found innocent of any wrongdoing, you will be reinstated. If found guilty, you will be banned for life” (Bisher 7). Joe was innocent and still got banned for life (7). Landis told about the letter later and gave the explanation that Joe was banne...
