Nelson Algren was born in Detroit in 1909. In 1913 his family moved to Chicago, to the city’s South Side. Comiskey Park and the Chicago White Sox were also in this part of the city, and Algren spent his childhood idolizing the Sox. He even gave himself the nickname, “Swede,” in honor of his favorite player, Charles “Swede” Risberg, the team’s shortstop.
In 1919 Risberg and the rest of the White Sox played in the World Series, eight baseball games that will be forever tainted by the infamous Black Sox Scandal—when the Chicago White Sox lost to the Cincinnati Reds.

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Eight Chicago players, including Risberg and the legendary “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, were later accused of intentionally losing games in what baseball historians call the “Big Fix.” Risberg and the rest of the players were indicted by a grand jury in 1920, and they went to trial in 1921. Although all of the men were acquitted, they were immediately banned for life from organized
baseball by newly appointed baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge.

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Author Eliot Asinoff wrote about the Black Sox scandal in his 1963 book, Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series.
The 1919 Black Sox players were recently reinstated by Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. These eight players included both “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Charles “Swede” Risberg. These men will be eligible for entry into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

I write about Nelson Algren and his Chicago White Sox literature in my book, The Short Writings of Nelson Algren. In my book I note that Algren and Asinoff appear to pay homage to each other’s works. For example, scattered throughout Eight Men Out are lines from Algren’s poem, “The Swede Was a Hard Guy.” Algren’s poem, “Ballet for Opening Day” begins with a long quotation from Eight Men Out.

In my book I discuss at length how Algren’s sympathetic Black Sox writings may have helped rehabilitate Joe Jackson from criminal to a Field of Dreams hero. But White Sox (and Black Sox) historian Richard Lindberg will have nothing to do with this rehabilitation. He believes that both Algren and Asinof failed to see through the greed and avarice of the eight Black Sox players who compromised the integrity of baseball.

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Lindberg is especially upset that Algren and Asinof disparaged White Sox owner Charles Comiskey in their respective works. In Eight Men Out Asinof writes that Comiskey was a “cheap stingy tyrant.” Algren quotes Black Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte in his 1981 article, “So Long, Swede Risberg,” as saying, “Comiskey throws money around like manhole covers.”

Say it ain’t so, Eddie! According to Richard Lindberg, who has spent years researching the Black Sox Scandal, Comiskey maintained the third highest baseball payroll in 1919. These eight banned players were among the highest paid players at that time.