 Ed
Cicotte
Boston A.L.
 35 Career Shutouts
29-7 in 1919 (with the
Chicago White Sox)
1919- Member of White
Sox 4-man 20 game winning pitching staff (w/ Red Faber, Lefty Williams,Dickie Kerr)
EDDIE CICOTTE
Cicotte, Edward Victor "Knuckles"
b: 6/19/1884, Springwells, Mich. d: 5/5/69, Detroit, Mich.
BB/TR, 5'9", 175 lbs. Deb: 9/3/05
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YEAR TM/L W L PCT G GS CG SH SV IP H HR BB
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1905 Det-A 1 1 .500 3 1 1 0 0 18 25 0 5
1908 Bos-A 11 12 .478 39 24 17 2 2 207^1 198 0 59
1909 Bos-A 13 5 .722 27 17 10 1 2 159^2 117 3 56
1910 Bos-A 15 11 .577 36 30 20 3 0 250 213 4 86
1911 Bos-A 11 15 .423 35 25 16 1 0 220 236 2 73
1912 Bos-A 1 3 .250 9 6 2 0 0 46 58 0 15
Chi-A 9 7 .563 20 18 13 1 0 152 159 3 37
Yr 10 10 .500 29 24 15 1 0 198 217 3 52
1913 Chi-A 18 12 .600 41 30 18 3 1 268 224 2 73
1914 Chi-A 11 16 .407 45 30 15 4 3 269^1 220 0 72
1915 Chi-A 13 12 .520 39 26 15 1 3 223^1 216 2 48
1916 Chi-A 15 7 .682 44 19 11 2 5 187 138 1 70
1917 *Chi-A 28 12 .700 49 35 29 7 4 346^2 246 2 70
1918 Chi-A 12 19 .387 38 30 24 1 2 266 275 2 40
1919 *Chi-A 29 7 .806 40 35 30 5 1 306^2 256 5 49
1920 Chi-A 21 10 .677 37 35 28 4 2 303^1 316 6 74
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Total 14 208 149 .583 502 361 249 35 25 3223^1 2897 32 827
Eddie was one of the greatest pitchers of his era. A master of many pitches, Eddie always featured his 'shine'
ball and his knuckle ball. Ty Cobb said that Eddie was the trickiest 'spitball' pitcher of them all. Many believe
that he was the best control pitcher of his day. In 1919, he won a remarkable 29 games with the Chicago White Sox,
the AL pennant winners. He ultimately fell from grace with the 'game' as he was implicated in throwing the 1919
World Series resulting in the infamous 'Black Sox' scandal.
It should be noted, as the following story will detail, that Eddie and others who participated in the 'fix'
were underpaid by their boss, Charley Comiskey. Eddie felt that Charley Comiskey, the White Sox owner, grossly
underpaid him, considering the effort and the record Eddie had produced for Chicago. Near the end of his career,
Cicotte wanted to retire with a decent salary so he could buy a farm for his family and secure a decent post-baseball
retirement. At the end of the 1919 regular season, Comisky reneged on a promise to raise Eddie's salary (Eddie
won 29 games, Comiskey wanted 30 games. Comiskey had deliberately removed Eddie from a scheduled starting assignment
at the end of the season to prevent a chance for Cicotte to gain his 30th win.).
The following information was graciously contributed by George Cicotte, a great grand-nephew of Eddie Cicotte.
'If you recall the movie "Eight Men Out," where the gambler threatens Lefty Williams' wife - it
was actually both pitchers' wives who were threatened. The depiction of the conversation between Comiskey and Cicotte,
i.e., "29 is not 30," is highly accurate, as is the fact that Eddie's career, despite his performance
in 1917-1920, was about over due to the increasing pain he suffered in his pitching arm. He continued through sheer
force of will and the fact that under Comiskey he wasn't making enough to just quit.'
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