Arnold "Chick" Gandil
| Chick Gandil | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Gandil c. 1917
|
|||
| First baseman | |||
|
Born: January 19, 1888 St. Paul, Minnesota |
|||
|
Died: December 13, 1970 (aged 82) Calistoga, California |
|||
|
|||
| MLB debut | |||
| April 14, 1910, for the Chicago White Sox | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 28, 1919, for the Chicago White Sox | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .277 | ||
| Hits | 1,176 | ||
| Runs batted in | 557 | ||
| Stolen bases | 153 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
|
|||
Charles Arnold "Chick" Gandil (January 19, 1888 – December 13, 1970) was a professional baseball player. He played for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, and Chicago White Sox of the American League. He is best known as the ringleader of the players involved in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Described by his contemporaries as a "professional malcontent", he was physically well-built at 6'2" and 195 pounds, and had a mean and callous expression. He used both to display his toughness, and also did not hesitate to use sheer strength to get his point across.
He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to Swiss immigrants Christian and Louise Bechel Gandil. He was their only child. The Gandil family migrated west and the 1900 census (taken June 8) has their address registered as Seattle, King County, Washington. After 1900, the Gandils moved to California, settling in Berkeley. The young Gandil soon showed an interest in playing baseball. He joined the Oakland High School baseball team in 1902 and played all positions except first base.
After two years at Oakland High School, Gandil left home to make it on his own. He took a train to Amarillo, Texas, and played catcher in the local semi-pro baseball league for the Amarillo team. In 1907, he migrated to Humboldt, Arizona, and worked as a boilermaker in the copper mines. He played catcher for the semipro team that was sponsored by the local smelting company. The Humboldt baseball club experienced financial problems in 1906, and Gandil moved on to a team in Cananea, Mexico, 40 miles from the United States. "I caught on with an outlaw team in Cananea, Mexico, just across the Arizona border. Cananea was a wide-open mining town in those days, which suited me fine. I was a wild, rough kid. I did a little heavyweight fighting at $150 a fight. I also worked part-time as a boilermaker in the copper mines." It was with the Cananea, Mexico, team that Gandil became a first baseman.
...
Wikipedia