House Gives Traitorous Mayorkas a Free Pass

House Gives Traitorous Mayorkas a Free Pass

By Joe Guzzardi

Even the lowest hanging fruit is beyond the hapless Grand Old Party’s reach. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment, a ripe peach waiting to be picked, never happened.

Since prior to the 2022 mid-term elections in which the GOP dramatically underperformed, Republican legislators have promised to restore border security which, under Mayorkas’ criminal, anti-constitutional, impeachable refusal to enforce immigration law, has devolved into chaos. At the time that then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy released the Commitment to America, Mayorkas had allowed 3.8 million illegal aliens to cross, and 900,000 gotaways to escape into the interior. In all, foreign nationals from more than 160 nations had been processed and released. There are 195 countries in the world.

The invasion continues unabated. Over the past 12 months, Customs and Border Protection has encountered 3.2 million illegal aliens, and the gotaway total has likely doubled. A closer look at the 2023 statistics reveal more criminal disregard for Americans’ safety and security. In FY 2023, CBP caught 52,000 Chinese nationals. China is America’s greatest threat, according to the FBI directorand others. CBP also encountered a record-high number of aliens who appear on the FBI’s suspected terrorist watch list: 172. Of this number, 169 were attempting to evade capture at the southern border, and three were apprehended trying to sneak in through the increasingly porous northern border.

The DHS guideline for a secretary’s competency is whether his agency has “operational control” of the border. Operational Control, as defined in the 2006 Secure Fence Act, Section 2 (b), mandates that the secretary “achieves and maintains” operational control which means “the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband.” The statistics cited above, and thousands of online and nationally broadcast videos, prove that unlawful entries have flourished since President Biden’s inauguration, January 20, 2021. Because aliens keep arriving, and continuously accessing costly affirmative benefits like medical care, education, housing and transportation, pinpointing the precise cost to citizen taxpayers is impossible. The House Committee on Homeland Security provided a dollar-cost range. But what a staggering range it is – from $150 billion to $451 billion annually.

Before Congress left on its Thanksgiving recess, the GOP had a golden opportunity to impeach Mayorkas, but it punted. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) brought Articles of Impeachmentagainst Mayorkas to the House floor as a privileged resolution which means that members would vote on it within 48 hours. But eight Republicans joined with Democrats to vote 209-201 to send Greene’s resolution to the House graveyard for possible consideration at some undefined future time.

Mayorkas gets off, free to keep the status quo of wide-open borders alive and well. The eight who joined with Democrats are Colorado’s Ken Buck, North Carolina’s Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry, Oregon’s Cliff Bentz, Ohio’s Mike Turner, and California’s Darrell Issa, John Duarte and Tom McClintock. Colorado, North Carolina, Oregon, Ohio and certainly California have felt the fiscal burden of Mayorkas’ criminal neglect. All except Duarte have strong pro-enforcement voting records, but on the Mayorkas matter, they chose to join the other side.

The most curious nay vote was from McClintock, the influential Chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration Subcommittee. If the GOP can’t count on high-ranking officials like McClintock to support the overdue Mayorkas impeachment effort, then border security is a fantasy. McClintock’s defense of his vote overlooked the national crisis that Mayorkas has encouraged and enabled.

While McClintock acknowledged that Mayorkas had opened the border to drugs, terrorists and criminals, he concluded that those crimes represent policy disputes and didn’t rise to impeachment level. Then, traveling far afield from Mayorkas’ malfeasance, McClintock said the Republicans must not “allow the left to become our teachers,” a reference to the Democrats’ two unsuccessful impeachment attempts made on President Donald Trump. In McClintock’s view, drugs, terrorists and criminals are okay, but the sanctity of the House impeachment process is more important than protecting the homeland.

Even though the Senate would never have upheld a House vote to impeach, the opportunity missed was huge. Impeaching Mayorkas would show that the Republicans are serious about protecting Americans from the danger that unvetted migrants represent. A related takeaway from a successful Mayorkas impeachment would be that the GOP also has its eye on the soaring costs of funding illegal immigration, a concern that taxpaying Americans share.

The most devastating outcome: shelving Mayorkas’ impeachment means that, over the coming months, hundreds of thousands of aliens will be processed and released into the interior – not an exaggeration. In South Texas, to select one example among many, border officials reported encountering 1,200 migrants daily, exposing the treasonous handiwork of Mayorkas. By the time Inauguration Day 2025 arrives, likely more than 8 million people from locations across the globe will have been released into the general population in cities and towns across the U.S.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

House Gives Traitorous Mayorkas a Free Pass

House Gives Traitorous Mayorkas a Free Pass

Cy Young Pitched until Age 68

Cy Young Pitched until Age 68

By Joe Guzzardi

The 2023 Cy Young Award winners for baseball’s best American and National League pitchers are the New York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole and the San Diego Padres’ Blake Snell. Cole and Snell are dandy pitchers, but will never match Cy Young’s credentials. Neither will anyone else.

Only a handful of dinosaur baseball bugs know how the Cy Young Award evolved. Fewer still know anything more about Young than, over his 21-year career, he won 511 games, more than anyone ever will. In 1963, Sandy Koufax told a reporter that Young’s record could be broken. Koufax, 27, had 93 victories, not that far behind Young’s 131 at the same age. Three seasons later, Koufax was out of baseball, 346 wins behind Young.

The award’s back story: since his 1951 election, then-MLB commissioner Ford Frick, a big Bob Feller fan, thought that the existing MVP voting system minimized pitchers’ contributions when weighed against everyday players. Young’s 1955 death at age 88 motivated Frick to move ahead, despite resistance from every baseball corner.

Ford insisted that pitchers be given their own. He persisted until 1956 when the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Don Newcombe won the first Cy Young Award. Originally, the award was given to only one pitcher from both leagues, but by 1967, National and American League hurlers were selected.

Contrary to what fans’ limited knowledge about the baseball icon would indicate, Young wasn’t born on August 6, 1890, the first day he toed the rubber for the Cleveland Spiders. And Young didn’t vanish on October 6, 1911, age 44, the day after he threw his final professional pitch for the Boston Rustlers. Before, during and after Young’s Hall of Fame, record-setting career, he lived a life marked by peaks and valleys common to the human condition.

Denton True Young, called “Dent” by friends, didn’t reach the major leagues until he was 23. Until then, he farmed in Gilmore, Ohio, near Canton. During an exhibition game for the Canton team, Young struck out 13, and the Canton Repository, the local newspaper, noticed his blazing fastball, comparing it to a fast-arriving cyclone. From that moment on, the press and the public called Young “Cy.”

His next game was a no-hitter in which Young struck out 18. Then the Cleveland Spiders came a-calling, and bought his rights with a $300 offer. In Young’s rookie year, he won 36 games and led the National League with a 1.93 ERA. Young was on the way to Cooperstown. By the time he finally hung up his cleats, Young had racked up several all-time records. He pitched 7,356 innings, faced 29,565 batters, won 20 games 16 times, threw 25-1/3 consecutive hitless innings, 76 straight batters, and led the league in fewest walks allowed per nine innings 14 times. Young: “I aimed to make the batter hit the ball, and I threw as few pitches as possible.”

As years wore on and the Depression took hold, Young entered his senior years; he struggled to make ends meet. Young had returned to farm life, but raising sheep and vegetables left him cash-short. Farming was the only life Young knew; he dropped out of school in the sixth grade. Tragedy struck Young when, in 1933, his wife and childhood sweetheart, Roberta, died. Young, 65, childless, moved in with friends, held odd jobs and dabbled in local politics. Suddenly, however, baseball re-entered Young’s life. In September 1933, Young took the hill for the local County All-Stars against the Cleveland Indians at a state fair. Appearing in a cameo role, he struck out the side, and the Associated Press headline blared, “Cy Young Hurls as Indians Win.”

More Young appearances, to fans’ raucous roars, followed. Young, now 67, took to the mound again, if only for a third of an inning. During a 1934 old-timers’ game at Cleveland’s League Park, Young’s team, the “Has-Beens” played the “Antiques.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that in cold and miserable weather, Young was “the old man in brilliant red socks…who warmed up by giving the ball an underhand toss.”

Young left the “Has-Beens” to join the “Hope-to-Be’s,” a team of 12-15-year-olds who, Young recalled, “took a hefty cut at everything I tossed to ’em, but the old arm had plenty of stuff left in it and I won a couple of games.” Before long, however, the youngsters found Young’s vulnerability – the bunt: “I tried to bend over to field it,” Young said, “but couldn’t reach it.”

Astonishingly, Young wasn’t done yet. At 68, he announced that he would head to Augusta, Georgia, for Spring Training in anticipation of joining a barnstorming tour, advertised as a “Traveling Baseball School.” Young was to earn $250 a month in exchange for one inning pitched per game. Prior to going South, Young said, “I’m all alone, and this may be sort of fun.” But fun was hard to come by. The team traveled in broken-down buses, drew poorly, earned almost nothing and eventually folded.

Young spent his final days working at a five-and-dime store, reading his fan mail and promoting the national pastime. When “Dent” died in 1955 at age 88, Commissioner Frick’s long-awaited plan to introduce the Cy Young Award was born.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Cy Young Pitched until Age 68

Cy Young Pitched until Age 68 Cy Young Pitched until Age 68

NYC Mayor Adams’ Woes Mount

NYC Mayor Adams’ Woes Mount

By Joe Guzzardi

The FBI is ramping up its criminal investigation into New York Mayor Eric Adams’ winning 2021 campaign. The New York Times reported last week that federal investigators seized at least two of the mayor’s mobile phones and an iPad just days before the newspaper published its story.

The federal probe centers on whether Adams’ campaign colluded with the Turkish government to solicit donations laundered through a Brooklyn construction company. Earlier, the feds raided the home of a former Adams intern and the mayor’s chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs. A search warrant that The Times obtained showed that the agents grabbed two laptops, three iPhones, a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams,” seven files titled “contribution card binders” and other potentially incriminating hard copy materials. To obtain a search warrant, prosecutors must convince a judge that the electronic devices contain probable cause evidence of criminal offenses. In his statement, Adams said he would be “shocked” if any campaign team member had done anything wrong, adding that, for his part, he “had done nothing wrong.”

At issue is whether Adams, who had just won the city’s Democratic mayoral primary, pressured Fire Department officials to allow the new Turkish consulate across from the United Nations to open despite safety concerns. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the $300 million, 35-story-tall building a “masterpiece” and presided over its September 2021 grand opening.

Despite his staunch denials, and citing long-standing ties to Turkey, Adams must be uneasy. Although Adams is not charged with personal wrongdoing, the FBI is playing hardball, a tactic that’s ended poorly for the agency’s previous targets – Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, the 1,200 citizens charged in the January 6 protest and, most notably, President Donald Trump.

Insider speculation is rampant that the feds don’t care much if at all about Adams’ potential involvement in an illegal campaign financing scheme. Around Washington, election financing irregularity accusations are barely newsworthy. At the root of Adams’ problems are that he’s spoken publicly, loudly, critically and repeatedly about President Biden’s open border policy and how the arriving illegal aliens are bankrupting his once proud city. Even prominent Democratic supporters like Adams can’t get away with such candor. Adams may have sealed his fate when, in frustration, he said that without federal assistance the illegal alien debacle “will destroy New York City.” He warned that he saw no end to the unmanageable, unending wave of needy human arrivals.

Adams made his truthful but ill-advised warning about New York City’s potential destruction more than two months ago. Since then, conditions have grown significantly worse. The latest in New York’s constantly eroding fiscal situation, which pits spending on migrants against funding for legal resident programs, is Adams’ announcement that parents might have to volunteer to keep Big Apple schools nonviolent. Hundreds of trained safety agents were fired because migrant-related overhead, an estimated $12 billion and counting over the next three years, has crippled the city. Working 9-t0-5 parents howled about the task’s impossibility, and nonworking parents decried the injustice.

Boiled down to its bare bones, nothing will stop Biden from his lawless, unconstitutional, treasonous open border commitment. Tens of thousands of words have been written about how, to citizens’ detriment, cartels have trafficked humans and deadly drugs through the border.  Add to the sad list that, because Adams has to fund illegal aliens’ housing and food, the city can’t pay school security guards. Without experienced personnel, children will be at greater risk. Only months into the 2023-2024 academic year, three students have been slain so far, and at least 18 others have been stabbed or shot, victims of gang rivalries and ever-younger gun-toting kids who take advantage of the state’s forgiving judicial system.

Ironically, in April, Biden tweeted that “our children are our nation’s future” and that the “White House will always have their backs,” the president’s sad, dishonest cliché that he passes off as compassion.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

NYC Mayor Adams’ Woes Mount

NYC Mayor Adams’ Woes Mount

Europeans Experiencing Migration ‘Compassion Fatigue’

Europeans Experiencing Migration ‘Compassion Fatigue’

By Joe Guzzardi

An article published in The Spectator, a British weekly and the world’s oldest magazine, should raise eyebrows in the U.S., especially among voters who consider the Southwest border disaster a national security threat. The story, “In Europe, opposing mass migration can be a crime,” summarizes a bleak demographic future for the EU. “Europeans will vote for politicians who want to stop the migration, and they may even come into office, but the situation will not change,” adds the subhead.

All across Europe, citizens are ringing alarm bells to convey their apprehension about mass immigration. This summer, long-serving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned after the government coalition he led disagreed on how to stem the refugee flow into the Netherlands. Rutte’s departure is the latest example of migration politics as an increasingly challenging predicament for European officials, with conservative parties using their rising influence to promote reduced immigration in campaign platforms.

For Europeans, the stakes are high. Over centuries, national identities have been formed with commonality in heritage, language, religion, custom and history. Immigration threatens to destabilize or destroy those commonalities. With one coalition already toppled in the Netherlands, experts say similar issues face leaders in GermanyItaly and perhaps France and Spain. A Pew Research report found that majorities or pluralities in most EU nations want less immigration into their countries. Many that Pew polled believe that immigrants remain distinct from the broader culture, and they further worry that immigration increases terrorism risks.

Much like the immigration crisis that began when President Biden assumed office in 2021, five years ago more than 1 million people crossed into Europe, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The migrants took huge risks, embarking on dangerous journeys in search of better lives. All said that they had no future in their native countries. But some died along the way; others once they arrived at their destination could not find meaningful employment.

Receiving countries, however, adopted then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “Wir schaffen das” or “We can manage” philosophy. With significant grassroots volunteer assistance, the countries did indeed get by, at least in the beginning. But as the numbers of incoming migrants grew, so did compassion fatigue. Merkel eventually dropped her slogan. In the end, asylum requests far outnumbered approvals at about a 4-1 ratio, meaning that only a small percentage of migrants had valid claims to remain in countries they hoped would embrace them.

As with opposition that grew in the EU, resistance to Biden’s open borders has grown in the U.S. In areas where migrant overflow has most severely affected communities, the backlash is significant, although not yet a crime as The Spectator story inferred it might one day be. New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston and Denver have pled for federal assistance, a plea consistently ignored by the administration.

Time will tell whether President Biden’s open border agenda will topple his 2024 re-election bid. The three recent debates with GOP candidates skirted immigration, and the expansionist faction stifles meaningful discussion. Any suggestion that poorly managed and too much immigration contributes to unsustainable population growth and overcrowding, placing an estimated $20 billion financial burden on taxpayers, is shouted down with allegations of racism and xenophobia. This sophomoric, but too-often successful tactic, often sways crucial, independent voters.

The question that The Spectator raised – “Will the situation [immigration] change?” – is the crux of the matter. Whatever the eventual presidential nominees may have said on the stump, the elected president is only part of the immigration equation. Although Biden has ignored virtually every enforcement-related immigration law, marching down his own unconstitutional path, Congress has the sole responsibility to lead the way.

A year from now, voters will need to focus on electing congressional candidates who genuinely want an immigration policy that’s designed to help America, a huge challenge. Today, Congress is mostly split on immigration along party lines, although the House GOP has several representatives who bow to the donor class that wants more cheap labor delivered via immigration.

Overcoming five decades of lax enforcement is a steep mountain to climb, as is voiding legislation designed to attract more immigration, such as the spate of employment-based visas that President George H.W. Bush signed into law with the Immigration Act of 1990.

At the risk of sounding alarmist, the 2024 election could be America’s last chance to retain its sovereignty. Maintaining the status quo means that, assuming the current migrant entry rate, by the 2028 election between 15 and 20 million unvetted illegal immigrants would be residing in the U.S., a treasonous act.

Europeans Experiencing Migration ‘Compassion Fatigue’ An article published in The Spectator, a British weekly and the world’s oldest magazine, should raise

Europeans Experiencing Migration ‘Compassion Fatigue’

Speaker Johnson’s Moment Of Truth

Speaker Johnson’s Moment Of Truth

By Joe Guzzardi

With a Nov. 17 deadline looming to pass a new budget, and with lingering GOP divisions over former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ousting, House Speaker Mike Johnson faces a tall challenge. But, in the short time that he’s has been Speaker, Johnson has built significant good will among his peers and generated excitement among the GOP voting base.

One thing Johnson can’t afford to do in the budget discussions is come away empty-handed. With the border wide-open, and terrorism suspects easily infiltrating the interior, the budget squabble is the ideal time to insist that the strong border enforcement HR-2 bill be included in any legislation that provides funding for the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

House Republicans have slowed their Ukraine enthusiasm, understandably so. Reports from the U.S. State Department Office of Inspector General and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget showed that, to date, the U.S. has approved about $113 billion in aid to Ukraine. Biden vowed in his September speech to the UN that the U.S. will “continue to stand with Ukraine” indefinitely. Many House Republicans reasonably question where, with a $33 trillion deficit, the money will come from.

The open-borders’ negative effect on Americans is ongoing and continuous with a dramatic, adverse impact on schools, hospitals, communities and crime. Countless millions of illegal aliens, literally, have been processed at the border, with some flown during the middle of the night into major airports, compliments of an unlawful Biden program, the CBP-One app. Others have snuck in. These gotaways have alluded the otherwise occupied Customs and Border Patrol officers. CPB agents are processing, not arresting, removable aliens.

HR-2 would 1) prevent the Biden administration from continuing its policy of catch-and-release, thereby discouraging future illegal immigrant waves, 2) stop the surges of family units and unaccompanied alien children which would protect them from cartel and traffickers’ criminal exploitation, 3) enforce expiration dates on visas and ensure that nonimmigrants depart on a timely basis, actions that would deter overstays and 4) end parole abuse in which the administration has illegally rewarded aliens with work permission and other affirmative benefits. Crimes related to parole have all been committed in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Speaker Johnson's Moment Of Truth
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La4)

Biden and his aide-de-camp, Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, have been, since Inauguration Day 2021, negligent, incompetent and criminal in their disregard for national security, with tragic consequences inevitable. The spotlight now falls on Johnson whose impressive voting record promotes a pro-America agenda. Johnson has consistently voted for stronger border and interior security, tighter asylum laws and eliminating amnesty enticements.

Within the GOP conference, stopping Biden’s border invasion has near-unanimous support, great news for Johnson. Even immigration apologists want immediate action to end the invasion. Johnson’s moment of truth will arrive soon. If Johnson doesn’t make good on his agenda, to quote verbatim an Arizona CBP border officer when Biden ended Title 42, America is “screwed.”

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

Speaker Johnson’s Moment Of Truth

DHS Gives Low-Wage Workers Short Shrift

DHS Gives Low-Wage Workers Short Shrift

By Joe Guzzardi

Today’s headlines are about the Israel-Gaza War, pro-Palestine rallies, Democrats’ success in the Nov. 7 elections and President Donald Trump’s legal travails. But away from the bold print, permanent Washington continues its nonstop assault on American workers.

As is the Department of Homeland Security’s cowardly practice when the agency anticipates voters will wince from its announcement, it chose a late Friday afternoon to make public its decision to increase by 65,000 yearly the H-2B nonagricultural, low-skilled workers’ visa. The hike is staggering because the existing annual total is 66,000. With a stroke of the pen, DHS doubled the number of foreign nationals who will arriving to do a wide number of jobs that Americans would otherwise perform.

Every year, congressional immigration expansionists and the Chamber of Commerce along with its corporate allies repeat the same tedious stories: No workers! Bankruptcy alert! Neither side of the aisle mounts much of a challenge to the false narrative. Over the decades, the mainstream media has done little if any investigative journalism to uncover and then reveal the H-2B program’s widespread fraud and abuse.

From time-to-time, however, insightful reports, surprisingly from left-leaning sources, have dug deeply enough to disclose the distasteful truth lurking within:

  • NPR: “It’s not just about labor scarcity, it’s about employer control.”
  • New York Times: The shortage claim “does not stand up”… H-2B [is] “not an acceptable solution.”
  • The Economic Policy Institute: Their blockbuster report uncovered that over the past two decades major H-2B employers have stolen $1.8 billion from workers.

EPI’s researcher and the damning report’s author, Daniel Costa, turned out to be prescient. Costa wrote that, despite its shameless exploitation of workers, and its consistent failure to add worker protections to the program, the H-2B program is “growing.” Lo and behold, at 4:08pm, Friday, Nov. 3, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ DHS doubled the H-2B program. David North, a long-time H-2B observer and critic, broke down the new 65,000 as follows: a 20,000 set-aside for aliens from Haiti, Colombia and Central America’s Northern Triangle – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. DHS bureaucrats slipped this outrage through even though previous work permission expansions to Haiti, for example, yielded almost no applicants. The remaining 45,000 in DHS’ harmful giveaway are retreads from recent H-2B workers who have, over the last three years, toiled for a pittance.

DHS’ unwarranted labor market expansion action is a direct slap in the face to American workers. President Joe Biden’s open borders has led to more than 5 million mostly unskilled, undereducated individuals who are perfect fits for H-2B labor in construction, landscaping, hospitality and the seafood industry. For employers, the border surge represents Christmas everyday – thousands of workers to choose from and without having to fill out the tedious paperwork that the government requires to secure an H-2B visa.

Moreover, in yet continued good news for employers, through the first eight months of 2023, nearly a quarter million migrants received parole at the Southwest border. Customs and Border Protection paroled another 221,456 foreign-born nationals who flew, compliments of U.S. taxpayers, into their preferred port of entry using Biden’s illegally concocted CBP One App. In all, nearly 475,000 parolees received work permission, further diminishing down to zero the need for more H-2B visas.

As subversive as DHS’ disregard for U.S. workers and American sovereignty is, the story just begins when illegal aliens get their employment authorization. Overwhelmingly unvetted, most quasi-legalized migrants will never return home, will add to already-unsustainable population growth and collapsing social services, and will contribute mightily to school and hospital overcrowding. Doubters who view this interpretation as overstatement should ask themselves if they think Haitian, Salvadorans, Guatemalans or Hondurans, once settled in the U.S., will return home. Such a possibility is unlikely, at best. Barring a new 2025 administration’s heroic intervention, complete with a vigorous removal plan of those who arrived through Biden’s unconstitutional and illegal scheming, the migrants are here to stay.

Here is a final thought on the long-standing, unproven claim that the nation has a worker shortage. The traditional solution to labor scarcities, when and if they exist, is offering workers higher wages.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

DHS Gives Low-Wage Workers Short Shrift

DHS Gives Low-Wage Workers Short Shrift

Judge Landis Winked At 1926 Baseball Gambling Scandal

Judge Landis Winked at 1926 Baseball Gambling Scandal

By Joe Guzzardi

World Series 2023 had the lowest television ratings in history. No need to belabor the whys and wherefores. Instead of listening to the ceaseless chatter of announcer John Smoltz, fans would be better off acquainting themselves with the game’s rich history. A good start: read Dan Taylor’s “Baseball at the Abyss,” which takes a deep dive into the forgotten 1926 scandal that involved Hall of Fame greats Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker, as the principal scoundrels.

Baseball has a long, unhappy gambling history with wagering playing a prominent role that dates back before the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal. In baseball’s early days, bookmakers plied their trade in the open, working the ballpark areas inside and outside, taking wagers. The 1919 World Series may have, in the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, destroyed the faith of 50 million people, about half the U.S. population then, but throwing baseball games was commonplace. As Emil “Happy” Felsch, a White Sox fixer, said, “Playing rotten ain’t that hard to do.”

Author Taylor explains that the dirty deeds had their inception in 1919, when the Cleveland Indians were in Detroit to face the Tigers. Neither the Indians nor the Tigers were going to win the pennant, but the Tigers were in a tight scrum with the Yankees for third place. In the dead ball era, a third-place finish meant a small share of the post-season loot for every Tigers’ member. The Indians had second place locked up. Cobb and Speaker, the respective managers of the Tigers and Indians, huddled prior to the September 25 game to iron out the details.

Speaker assured Cobb that he “wouldn’t have to worry” about the game’s outcome. The Cleveland team preferred, Speaker insisted, that Detroit finish in third. By virtue of that finish, the Tigers were likely to make about $500 for each player. Cobb, Speaker, Tigers pitcher Dutch Leonard and Indians pitcher Smoky Joe Wood all agreed to conspire in the fix.

Years later, Leonard confessed the four had agreed that since their post-season share would be small, they might as well wager on the game. Cobb was to put up $2,000; Leonard, $1,500, and Speaker and Wood $1,000 each. Cobb suggested park attendant Fred West would be a good man to place the bets. But because Detroit was a 10–7 favorite and because the local bookmakers were unwilling to handle such large sums, West only managed to get down $600 against the bookmakers’ $420.

The Tigers won the September 25 game 9–5, plating four runs in the first two innings. The Indians committed three costly errors, and Cleveland starter Elmer Myers — perhaps tipped off to the fix or maybe acting on his own whimsy — floated pitches to the plate for the Detroit batters. Speaker banged out three hits, all of them well after the Tigers had control of the game and the outcome was clear. No one is certain whether Cobb, Speaker or anyone else actually received money from their bets. The scant remaining evidence indicates that the wrongdoers may not have been able to place all the bets they hoped to.

That winter, Cobb, Speaker, Wood and Leonard went home, but the four men exchanged letters about the incident, sharing their regret that they were unable to get their bets down in time and that their shared proposition fizzled. The letters came back to haunt the four.

Several years later, the stench from the fixing incident wafted out. A vengeful Leonard wanted to settle a score with his former teammate, Cobb, now the Tigers manager. Once, Cobb kept Leonard in a 1925 game in which the southpaw surrendered 20 runs, and the manager mocked the idea that he yank his humiliated starter. Leonard never forgot, and the memory ate at him.

Cobb released Leonard, and insiders said Ty discouraged other American League teams from signing the lefty. Dutch stewed, and in May 1926 he presented the letters he received from Cobb, Speaker and Wood — the evidence — to Tigers owner Frank Navin who turned them over to American League President Ban Johnson. To keep a lid on the percolating scandal, Johnson paid Leonard $20,000 to go back to Fresno where he owned a farm, and focus on his raisin growing. At the season’s end, Johnson forced Cobb and speaker to resign. Eventually, however, the superstars appealed their cases to Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis who, sensing that the public and the baseball writers were solidly behind the diamond, absolved Speaker and Cobb, facts be damned.

Landis read the room correctly. Baseball bugs were fed up with scandal. At least five World Series — 1905, 1912, 1914, 1918 and 1919 — were rumored to have been influenced by game-fixers. And the 1923 Teapot Dome Scandal that implicated President Warren G. Harding — considered the greatest presidential scandal until Watergate — was still reverberating among the citizenry.

Cobb and Speaker played until 1928, Speaker for one year with the Washington Senators and one year with the Philadelphia A’s, and Cobb two years with the A’s.

Better to remember Cobb as one of baseball’s all-time greats, .366 career batting average with nine consecutive titles, and Speaker, the “Gray Eagle” who holds outfielder records for assists, double plays and unassisted double plays. Balls hit to center field where Speaker patrolled were considered the place where triples go to die.

Cobb, Speaker, Wood and Leonard got off the hook, and played into their 40s. Pete Rose, however, who holds MLB career records for 4,256 career hits, 3,215 career singles, 3,562 career games played, 14,053 career at-bats and 15,890 career plate appearances, was permanently banned for his gambling infractions. In life, good timing is invaluable.

*****

Taylor’s other books include
Walking Alone: the Untold Journey of Football Pioneer Kenny Jackson and Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball.

*****

Joe Guzzardi is an Internet Baseball Writers Association and Society for American Baseball Research historian. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com
On X 
@JoeGuzzardi19.

Judge Landis Winked at 1926 Baseball Gambling Scandal

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

By Joe Guzzardi

Legendary Pittsburgh Pirates sluggers Ralph Kiner and Hank Greenberg shared more than Hall of Fame induction. They were World War II heroes whose Buccos power-hitting careers overlapped, and led to the construction of Forbes Field’s controversial Greenberg Gardens. Over the years, Kiner and Greenberg developed an enduring friendship.

The day after Pearl Harbor, Kiner enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Kiner flew Martin PBM Mariners from Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station in Hawaii on submarine search patrols, and accumulated 1,200 flying hours. Unlike most other major league players stationed in the Pacific, Kiner played little baseball during his Navy service. As Kiner recalled, he played at the most six games during his two and a half Navy years. Kiner considered his pilot training and defending America more valuable than baseball.

When the war ended, the Pirates had Kiner penciled in to begin the 1946 season for the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars. But during Spring Training, Kiner tore the cover off the ball, and made the Pirates active roster. The Pirates chose wisely. Despite Forbes Field’s imposing dimensions for a right-handed hitter, 365’ down the left field line, 406’ in left center and 457’ in dead center, Kiner’s 23 home runs led the league in his rookie 1946 season, and he topped the league every year thereafter through 1952. Kiner’s home run title streak for seven consecutive years is an unbreakable record.

Enter Greenberg. In the 1946 off season, the Pirates bought American League home run king and two-time MVP Hank Greenberg, who was embroiled in a bitter salary dispute with the Detroit Tigers. Like Kiner, Greenberg served in World War II. Greenberg was drafted in 1941, and he was honorably discharged when Congress released servicemen age 28 years and older. After Pearl Harbor, Sergeant Greenberg volunteered to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. “We are in trouble,” Greenberg told The Sporting News, “and there is only one thing for me to do – return to the service.” Assigned to the first Boeing B-29 Superfortresses’ group to go overseas, Greenberg spent 1944 flying in the India-China-Burma theater. Greenberg served 47 months, the longest of any major league player.

When he joined the Pirates, Greenberg befriended Kiner, corrected his swing, which during the following season helped raised his anemic batting average from .247 to .313, and increased his home run output to 51. Pirates’ management, in turn, acted swiftly to help Greenberg hit more homers; they installed an inner fence that shortened left field’s distance by 30’. Society for American Baseball Research historian Ron Backer analyzed the controversial Greenberg Gardens’ consequences, and found that the new construction benefited Kiner more than Greenberg.

In his one year with the Pirates, 1947, Greenberg hit only 25 home runs. Of that total, 18 were hit at Forbes Field, of which nine landed in the Gardens. Of the 369 home runs that Kiner hit throughout his major league career, 71 landed in Greenberg Gardens, or about 20 percent. Eventually, Greenberg Gardens became known as “Kiner’s Korner.” Greenberg Gardens and the home run barrage launched from Kiner’s bat that it facilitated made Pirates ownership the biggest winner. In 1947, for the first time in Pirates’ history, more than 1 million fans showed up at Forbes Field, a milestone that, even though the Pirates were perennial cellar-dwellers, continued throughout most of Kiner’s Corsair days.

In June 1953, General Manager Branch Rickey abruptly traded Kiner to the Chicago Cubs. Since Rickey’s arrival, the relationship between the two had been acrimonious. The next day, Rickey ordered the fence torn down and said: “I don’t believe in building artificial barriers to suit any individual.” The league intervened, ruled that parks could not be reconfigured in mid-season. The gardens remained in left field until February 1954.

After their playing days ended, Greenberg and Kiner had prosperous careers. In 1948, Greenberg became the Cleveland Indians farm director and in November 1949 was promoted to general manager. Greenberg assembled the 1954 Indians squad, which set the then-American League record for most wins in a season, 111. In his eight years as GM, the Indians finished in first or second place six times.

In 1956, Greenberg became the first Jewish ballplayer inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Greenberg died from liver cancer on September 4, 1986. Greenberg, along with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx and Ted Williams, is one of only five players to hit over .300, have an on-base percentage over .400, and a slugging mark above .600. In 2013, Greenberg received the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award given to 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members to recognize the courage he displayed during his World War II Army Air Force service.

Kiner, injury-plagued, was traded from the Cubs to the Indians in 1955, but was unable to produce for his old friend Greenberg. After hitting only 18 homers, Kiner retired. During the late 1940s, Kiner dated Elizabeth Taylor, Janet Leigh and Ava Gardner before marrying tennis star Nancy Chafee in 1951. Greenberg was Kiner’s best man. Then in 1962, he joined the expansion New York Mets broadcast team. Kiner joked that he was chosen “because I had a lot of experience with losing.” Kiner broadcast through 2013, and is one of the longest tenured broadcasters with a single team in MLB history. In tribute to Greenberg Gardens, Kiner’s post-game television show on WOR was called Kiner’s Korner and aired for more than 30 years. Kiner died of natural causes in February 2014. Like Greenberg, Kiner received the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award given in honor of his heroic World War II Navy service.

Kiner and Greenberg played important roles in Pittsburgh’s history and are remembered for being bright lights in an otherwise bleak chapter in the Pirates’ early 1950s Forbes Field era.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research historian. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

Hall Of Fame War Heroes Include Kiner and Greenberg

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border Says Az Rep

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border Says Az Rep

 By Joe Guzzardi

From the Oval Office, President Joe Biden made an impassioned mid-October address that laid out the stakes for Americans as to why they must support Israel and Ukraine in their wars against aggressors Hamas and Russia. He called the wars an American national security imperative, with victory critical to the future of democracies worldwide.

Biden spoke forcefully, but unconvincingly to many in his audience. Included in Biden’s message was an “urgent budget request” – his proposed $106 billion package which designated $64.1 billion for Ukraine. But Biden gave short shrift to Israel, a proposed $14.3 billion, and tagged on $10 billion for humanitarian assistance, a category that will give $850 million to process more illegal aliens at the border.

Since the start of Ukraine’s endless war with Russia in 2022, the U.S. has sent more than $135 billion on Ukraine. For its ally Israel, since its founding as an independent state in 1948, the U.S. has provided just over $150 billion. President Biden’s latest request would tie Israel’s $14.3 billion to Ukraine’s $61.4 billion. But Louisiana U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson’s election as House Speaker put Biden’s bid for continued Ukraine funding in doubt; Johnson is a long-time opponent to indefinite Ukraine funding. Johnson did, however, agree to $14.6 billion for Israel, slightly more than Biden requested, with the caveat that each dollar given must be offset by an equal amount in federal government spending cuts, a process called “pay for’s.”

Biden urged Americans to get behind Israel and Ukraine’s defenses because, in the president’s words, support “is vital for national security.” The president’s plea to send Ukraine more billions while the Southern border remains wide open, and exploitable to terrorists, is incomprehensible, and it is unacceptable to Johnson and millions of concerned Americans. Ukraine is a profoundly corrupt country. Transparency International, a worldwide movement that works to expose corruption and the injustice it inflicts, ranks Ukraine No. 116 out of the 180 nations it evaluated, a red flag to lenders since monies sent aren’t specifically accounted for in detail.

Biden and his administration’s like-minded, pro-war Secretaries of Defense and State, Tony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, are staunchly behind Ukraine. In September, Blinken made his fourth trip to Kyiv to give President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a message from President Biden: the U.S. wants “to reaffirm strongly our support” for Ukraine. Austin, in a recent telephone call to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, reassured his Ukrainian counterpart of the U.S.’s continued support in the war against Russia.

Yet, none of the federal government’s three most powerful and influential – Biden, Blinken and Austin – have even hinted at what dangerous and possibly fatal consequences could evolve from the border invasion. In October alone, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 100 Syrians and 50 Iranians. During the one-week period from October 8 to October 14, CBP arrested six Iranians, three Lebanese, one Egyptian and one Saudi Arabian trying to cross the Rio Grande River in the Del Rio Sector, which includes besieged Eagle Pass. Because of ongoing terrorism, instability and anti-American sentiments in the region, Syria and Iran are currently listed under State Department Level Four Travel Advisories: DO NOT TRAVEL. Adding to the homeland’s risk from Middle Eastern nationals who may harbor terrorist intentions is the growing number of what CBP refers to as “known gotaways,” 23,000 during October’s first three weeks, or about 1,000 per day.

Eli Crane, an Arizona U.S. representative whose 2nd congressional district includes portions of Maricopa and Pinal counties which have experienced a steady inflow of illegal aliens, is on the invasion’s front line. Noting that about 280 people on the FBI terrorist watch list have been apprehended at the border, Crane wrote in a “Newsweek” op-ed, “If you don’t think there are any lone wolves or terrorist cells that have come in through that wide open border, you’re a fool.”

To ignore the obvious risks that open borders present, and at the same time vigorously promote and magnanimously underwrite Ukraine’s defense of its border against Russia, insults all Americans, proving Biden’s contempt for Americans.

This entry was posted in PostsProject for Immigration Reform and tagged CBLloyd AustinMike JohnsonTony BlinkenUkraine.

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border

Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

Only ‘A Fool’ Wouldn’t Expect Terrorism At Open Border

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents

By Joe Guzzardi

Recently, San Diego’s Customs and Border Protection officials issued an intelligence notice alerting its agents that “Hamas and Hezbollah militants may potentially be encountered at the Southwest border.”

The memorandum added, in part: “Individuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border.” The intel document showed various insignias associated with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups. The document also informed CBP personnel to be vigilant of young men wearing military gear and traveling alone. CBP’s alert coincides with San Diego’s latest border encounters data that show a dramatic increase; September 2023’s 26,000 encounters reflect a 67 percent increase from last year’s 15,000.

From the view of the cartels and coyotes, nothing has been better for their multibillion-dollar businesses than the Israel-Gaza war. As little attention as Biden has paid to border enforcement during his presidency’s three years, the Middle East warfare has pushed Southwest security completely out of the White House’s line of vision. Potential terrorists are well-aware that the border is open. They know that now is the ideal time to take further advantage and ratchet up crossings.

Through the 12 months ending October 21, 169 people on the FBI terror watch lists were encountered between southern border ports of entry, a number that exceeds not only fiscal year 2022’s record-setting total, 98, but the last six fiscal years combined. With encounters between ports at the northern border included, the total for fiscal year 2023 was 172.

Ample evidence exists that terrorists are already present, and plotting. U.S. Customs and Border Protection warned agents that someone who is planning to torture, if not murder, them is looking for their addresses. One text that CBP intercepted read: “We will pay for any addresses of border patrol agents!!”

The sender offered to pay $200 for an agent’s address and $1,000 for “they mommas [sic] address.” Another message read, “I’ll post us torturing any bp agent u send.” Perhaps the texts, a federal felony, are a hoax; no one knows. The FBI, as is its practice, will neither confirm nor deny that an investigation to locate the sender is in progress. But if and when a probe gets underway, the FBI should have little trouble pinpointing the source. When motivated, the FBI operates with peak efficiency. The Department of Justice has, for example, identified and charged nearly 1,200 people who participated in the January 6 protest, the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history.

With the loss of life mounting in Israel and Gaza, and hostages’ fates unknown, the Biden administration is focused exclusively on the Middle East. And on the domestic front, the administration is focused on appeasing Israeli and Palestinian supporters. But the invasion of the U.S. continues, and more migrants are on the way. In September alone, more than 75,000 migrants crossed the roadless Darién Gap jungle on foot, the second-highest monthly tally recorded by Panamanian officials, only a few thousand less than the 82,000 reported August crossings.

In total, more than 400,000 U.S.-bound migrants, many of them Venezuelans, have crossed the treacherous jungle route this year to enter Central America, a record and once-unimaginable number. Luis Gilberto Murillo, Colombia’s ambassador to the U.S., called illegal immigration through the Darién Gap “an unsustainable crisis” that poses serious safety risks to all who attempt the trip.

Murillo added, disingenuously, that Colombia and the U.S. are working together to dissuade those who contemplate the dangerous journey from taking their first step. Truth be told, Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s left-wing president, has said his government will not physically stop illegal aliens from entering the jungle. He argued instead that migration must be dealt with in a humanitarian way – translation, no impediments to the journey further north. The U.S., for its part, has imposed no deterrents to stop the invasion.

Biden’s criminal disregard for breaking immigration laws ensures either bad or tragic results. The bad – crime, bankrupt communities, a lost America – is terrible. The worst, an attack on the homeland, is unthinkable.

Joe Guzzardi is a Project for Immigration Reform analysts who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org.

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents

Bounty Put on Customs and Border Patrol Agents