The Black Prince of Baseball: Hal Chase and the Mythology of the Game

As America lurched into the twentieth century, its national pastimewas afflicted with the same moral malaise that was enveloping the restof the nation. Players regularly bet on games, games were routinelyfixed, and league politics were as dirty as the base paths. Against thisbackdrop, Hal Chase emerged as one of the game s greatest players,though also as one of its most scandalous characters.With charisma and bravado that earned him the nickname ThePrince, Chase charmed his way across America, spinning lies in theafternoon, dealing high-stakes poker at night, and gambling with beautifulwomen until dawn. Most notoriously of all, he undermined hisstature as the era s greatest first baseman by conniving with gamblersto fix games and draw teammates into his diamond conspiracies.But as Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella reveal in their groundbreakingbiography The Black Prince of Baseball, Chase was also ascapegoat for baseball notables with hands even dirtier than his. Theseincluded league officials who ignored facts in an attempt to pin the1919 Black Sox scandal on him and a previously unknown twist thefabled John McGraw, who perjured himself on a witness stand againstthe first baseman. Although Chase, contrary to popular belief, wasnever banned from the major leagues, meticulous research by theauthors implicates him in other shady enterprises as well, not leastan attempt to blackmail revivalist Aimee Semple McPherson.As The Black Prince of Baseball makes clear, in his protean talentsand larcenies, Hal Chase personified all the excesses of Ragtime.

Donald Dewey has published more than thirty books of fiction,nonfiction, and drama, including the history of baseball fans, TheTenth Man, and the novels The Fantasy League Murders and The Bolivian Sailor.

Nicholas Acocella is the author or coauthor of several books on baseball, including (with Donald Dewey) The New Biographical History of Baseball: The Classic and Total Ballclubs.