Raymond William Schalk was an American professional baseball player, coach, manager. He established himself as one of the American League's outstanding defensive catchers.
Background
Raymond William was born on August 12, 1892 in Harvel, Illinois, United States, the son of Herman Schalk, a farmer, and his wife. In 1898 the Schalk family moved to Litchfield, where Schalk worked on the family farm, lugged coal, and delivered newspapers.
Education
Schalk dropped out of high school to enter the printer's trade, learning to operate a linotype machine.
Career
Schalk began his baseball career in 1911, earning $65 a month with nearby Taylorville in the class-D Illinois-Missouri League. The young catcher batted . 398. Before the season ended, the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association purchased Schalk for $750. He began 1912 with the Brewers and caught eighty games into early August.
Schalk's career in the major leagues began on August 10, when the Chicago White Sox acquired him. On the next day, one day short of his twentieth birthday, Schalk played his first major-league game as starting catcher for Sox pitcher "Doc" White in a 9-6 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics.
Early in his career Schalk was nicknamed "Cracker, " supposedly after a teammate commented on how that squirt cracked that ball down to second base. Some insist the name was the result of Schalk's "whiplike manner. "
In 1925, Schalk participated in a remarkable stunt. Before a large crowd and wearing a dress suit and hat, he caught a ball dropped from the top of the 460-foot Chicago Tribune Tower.
Schalk played in the World Series of 1917 and 1919, batting . 286 in fourteen games. In the first Series, Schalk's Chicago White Sox defeated the New York Giants four games to two, with Red Faber winning three contests. On the eve of the 1919 Series, the White Sox were considered far superior to the Cincinnati Reds. However, the Sox were split into two cliques. One group included Schalk and his friends Faber and the second baseman Eddie Collins, whose high salary, double that of anyone else on the team, was the cause of considerable resentment. The second faction, which was to become known as the Black Sox, included the outfield stars Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch, the pitching stalwarts Ed Cicotte and Lefty Williams, and the first baseman Chick Gandil.
Gambling interests were a constant presence in the baseball world of the time, and Gandil had contact with gamblers intent on fixing the Series. Before the Series, rumors of a fix were in the air, but nothing was substantiated. The early betting line was 3-1 in favor of the Sox. On the eve of the first game, the spread had dropped to 8-5. Apparently Schalk suspected something from the first inning of the first game, when Cicotte, the team's best pitcher, hit the first Cincinnati batter and repeatedly ignored Schalk's signals. The hit batsman was the Black Sox signal to the gamblers that the fix was on. The Sox lost 9-1.
At the subsequent trial Cicotte testified, "It's easy to throw a game. I did it by giving the Cincinnati batters easy balls (to hit). Ray Schalk was wise the moment I started pitching. I double-crossed him on the signals. " Cicotte was also the losing pitcher in the fourth game, making the two errors that decided the outcome. Lefty Williams, also ignoring Schalk's signals, was the losing hurler in the second, fifth, and eighth games.
Following the second game, under the stadium grandstand, Schalk physically attacked Williams because of his suspect play. The play had begun when outfielder Felsch had misplayed a routine fly ball into a double. The Sox lost the Series, five games to three.
In the December following this upset, suspicions of a fix were fueled by Hugh Fullerton's press reports in the New York World. In response to these stories, Schalk declared that he knew of seven White Sox players who would not be back in 1920.
As the 1920 season ended, a grand jury convened to investigate the 1919 Series. Cicotte and Jackson confessed, and the trial lasted from July 18 through August 2, 1921. The indictment included the charge of a conspiracy "to defraud Ray Schalk out of $1, 760, " the difference between the winners' and losers' shares. Schalk testified to the suspicious behavior of the defendants, none of whom took the stand in his own defense. Mysteriously, the grand jury confessions were "lost. " The trial judge's narrow definition of the law and his directions to the jury resulted in the acquittal of the Black Sox, but the baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned the fixers from organized baseball. Schalk maintained a public silence about the scandal for the rest of his life, repeatedly spurning lucrative offers to tell his side of the story.
He emerged from the episode unscathed and continued his high level of performance. Following the 1926 season, Comisky hired Schalk as player-manager for the 1927 campaign. Schalk's major-league managerial career was unsuccessful: he lasted less than two seasons, and the team finished no higher than fifth place, with 102 wins and 125 losses.
Having been dismissed as manager halfway through the 1928 schedule, Schalk wanted to remain with the White Sox as a backup catcher at $15, 000 per year. Comisky offered $6, 000, far below the $25, 000 managerial salary. Despite their sixteen-year relationship, Schalk and Comisky were unable to resolve their differences. Schalk resigned.
In 1929, Schalk caught five games as player-coach with the National League's New York Giants, managed by John McGraw. For the next two seasons, the Chicago Cubs, the cross-town rivals of the White Sox, hired Schalk as a coach and scout, his last major-league assignment.
Schalk then began an extensive minor-league managerial career: from 1932 to 1937 he was with Buffalo of the International League; from 1938 to 1939, at Indianapolis; and in 1940, with Milwaukee of the American Association. In 1950 he returned to manage Buffalo for one year.
In 1921, Schalk cofounded Baseball Anonymous, a Chicago-based organization that distributed charity to needy retirees and helped unemployed ex-players find jobs. At the end of his playing days, Schalk opened a successful bowling alley in Chicago that became a meeting place for ex-players. In 1947, Schalk began an eighteen-year term as assistant baseball coach at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind. In 1963 he succeeded Rogers Hornsby as baseball adviser on Mayor Richard Daley's Chicago Youth Foundation.
In 1969, Schalk was elected to the all-time White Sox team.
He died in Chicago.
Achievements
Personality
Schalk was a confident and energetic ballplayer who loved the game. Schalk was a small, agile man - he was only 5 feet 9 inches (1. 75 m) tall - who caught with the energy and mobility of a fifth infielder. Due to his small size and youthful appearance, he was often the butt of jokes from opposing players.
Connections
On October 25, 1916, Schalk married Lavinia Graham; they had two children.