The Baseball Game the Gamblers Paid Stanford to Lose

An incident of interest to baseball players, and of peculiar interest to those who look upon amateur sport as a civilizing influence and upon professionalism with doubt, occurred at the second game between Stanford and Tacoma. Out of regard for the men in the Stanford team who were not responsible for the disgrace, nothing has been said about the matter while the Stanford team was in the state, as it would have ruined their trip.

In this second game of the Stanford-Tacoma series, Manager Cox, Pitcher Campbell, Catcher Davey and Fielder Rea entered into a conspiracy with the tin-horn gamblers of Tacoma to throw the game. For their treachery to their colors they were to receive $500. Campbell and Davey being the battery, it looked like a sure thing, and the gambling fraternity bet heavily and secured odds, so that they would quit winners of $4,000 if Stanford lost.

Capt. Sheehan was approached with $100, but he was too thorough a gentleman and too loyal to his university to accept. The game commenced and Campbell began to toss balls over the plate. A reference to the score of that game shows that he only struck out one man of a team of weak hitters. About the middle of the game Capt. Sheehan, Lewis, McLain, Weldon and Calhoun discovered what the traitors were doing. Then commenced a fight between the honorable members of the team and the traitors — the one to win the game, the other to win the price of their treachery. Campbell even went so far as to tell the batters not to hit the ball, that he would give them the base on balls. But so easy did he send the ball across the plate that the temptation was too great, and they would knock slow ones out to Lewis, only to be thrown out at first. Sheehan, Calhoun, Lewis, Weldon and McLain played like demons. They batted like piledrivers, ran bases with desperation, caught impossible flies — and won the game.

The gamblers were a sorry lot after the game. Many had staked their last cent on the result, as a sure thing. They looked in awe at the men who had beat them out of their money and refused bribes. After the game there was a big fight in the Stanford team. The honest men declared their intention of abandoning the trip. But on promise of good behavior on the part of the conspirators, they consented not to leave. Walton and Dyer were sent for so that Rea and Davey could be dispensed with.

Cox is regarded with little favor at the university. The faculty did not wish the team to make the trip under him. His ideas on amateur athletics are not at all good. Campbell has not been allowed to play any games with the university this year, he having played with the San Francisco and Oakland professional teams, and was therefore ruled out of university athletics. Neither he nor Cox are bona fide students of Stanford. Both have obtained leaves of absence from the university, it is generally supposed to avoid being asked to leave. The faculty refused to let Cox be a candidate for manager of the football team.