1919–21 W514 Eddie Cicotte #82
The pitcher who threw the signal pitch, and the first to confess, on the defining Black Sox set.
- Issue
- 1919–21 W514 Strip Cards
- Year
- 1919-21
- Number
- #82
- Subject
- Eddie Cicotte
- Grade
- SGC 3
- Cert #
- 8727623
- Population
- 4 at this grade (per Card Ladder)
1919–21 W514 Strip Cards
Crudely drawn, blank-backed cards sold in strips at candy, grocery and drug stores and cut apart by hand, which is why no two have the same edges. At 120 cards, W514 is the largest and best-known strip set, and its 1919–21 issue dates line up exactly with the Black Sox scandal. It includes seven of the eight banned White Sox (all but Fred McMullin) plus manager Kid Gleason, and for players like Swede Risberg and Lefty Williams it is one of very few cards made during their careers.
More on this issue →Eddie Cicotte
Ace of the 1919 White Sox and, with Chick Gandil, a primary mover in the fix. Cicotte went 29–7 with a 1.82 ERA that season, then hit Cincinnati leadoff man Morrie Rath with his second pitch of Game One — long told as the signal that the deal was on. He took a large advance before the Series and was among the first to confess to the grand jury on September 28, 1920, breaking the scandal open. Indicted, tried in Chicago in the summer of 1921, and acquitted by the jury on August 2, he was banned for life the next day by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis anyway. He never returned to Organized Baseball.
More on Eddie Cicotte →