Mighty Casey: Mighty Fraud

Recently unearthed documents conclusively prove what has been whispered among baseball cognoscenti for over a century: that famed 19th-century Mudville slugger Mighty P. Casey deliberately threw one of the most famous games in history, the 1888 contest between Mudville and some other team.

Baseball historian Pete Palmer, who found the 80-plus pages of betting slips and associated evidence implicating Casey, has released his findings in a new book, No Joy In Cheating. In its first week the book ranked third in sales at Amazon.com, and has pushed the Barry Bonds expose, Game Of Shadows, into the background of the baseball world.

Palmer meticulously traces Casey's steps in the days leading up to that fateful game, and shows beyond any doubt that the famed slugger, along with several teammates, threw the game in exchange for a dollar apiece from the mob.

The book is a fascinating voyage into the dark recesses of baseball history, and features methodical analysis of which Mudville players were complicit in the scandal and which were not:

"From the evidence it's quite clear that Flynn, who as we all know was a-huggin' third when Casey came up, was not in on the fix--as he was 3 for 4 in the game despite a season average of just .217.

"And if there was in fact 'ease in Casey's manner, as he stepped up to the plate'--as scholars have long maintained--it seems this relaxed attitude stemmed from the fact that he was about to realize his dream:
to use his take to buy a horse farm."

For those who were in attendance at the legendary game, suspicion was immediate and widespread. Palmer quotes dozens of recently unearthed personal correspondences, including a letter from Bennett Fuller, a bootblack who was in the stands that day:

"Of course Casey was throwing the game: He let the first two pitches go right down the middle for called strikes! And they didn't even need a homer--a little flare single would have tied the game!

"You're the best hitter on the team, just stick your bat out and poke the damn ball to right-center. And that strike-three swing? He nearly threw his back out.”

"What made me angriest was that ten thousand eyes were on him, as he rubbed his hands with dirt--yet still the legal authorities appeared oblivious. Or, worse yet, complicit."

"Why did this scandal remain undiscovered for so long?" writes Palmer in his conclusion, "There are several reasons. First, the technology at the time was so primitive: There was no film of the game, of course, and no fingerprint tests to definitively link him with the betting slips. Also, it may be a factor that, for over a century, the primary historical source on the matter was a poem written by someone who'd never seen a baseball game."