Buck Weaver

Lore & Background

Weaver was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, to Daniel Weaver and Susan Snell and began his major league career on April 11, 1912, as a shortstop for the White Sox. He switched to third base in 1917 after Swede Risberg joined the team. An excellent fielder, he was known as the only third baseman in the league against whom Ty Cobb would not bunt. He led the majors in sacrifice hits in 1915 and 1916. In the 1919 World Series, he batted .324 with 11 hits. After the Series, sportswriter Ross Tenney of the Cincinnati Post praised Weaver's spirit. Despite this, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned Weaver for having knowledge of the fix and failing to tell team officials. Weaver successfully sued White Sox owner Charles Comiskey for his 1921 salary. He applied for reinstatement at least six times, including in 1922 and 1927, but was rejected. In 1953, he applied to Commissioner Ford Frick, which was ignored. Weaver died from a heart attack on January 31, 1956, at age 65. On May 13, 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred reinstated Weaver and other deceased players from the ineligible list.

In Their Own Story

The October night in 1919 was unseasonably warm for Chicago, the kind of evening where the air off the lake still held the day's heat and the stands at Comiskey Park smelled of stale beer and tobacco. Buck Weaver was in the dugout, his glove resting on his knee, watching the Reds take the field. He had been a shortstop for nine years in this building. He knew every crack in the infield dirt, every spot where the light from the poles fell short. He knew the rhythm of the game the way a man knows the rhythm of a heartbeat — steady, unremarkable, essential. That night the rhythm broke. And for the rest of his life, no one could get it back. He would spend the next decades on small fields in small towns, turning double plays for crowds of two hundred, and every time he fielded a grounder and spun to first, some kid in the stands would ask his father, "Who's that?" and the father would say, "Nobody," and mean it, and not mean it, and the kid would never know that the man in the dirt was the one the whole country had decided was guilty before the jury ever sat down. The dirt at those small ballfields was the only place in the world where his name meant nothing, and he found, in the end, that he preferred it that way.

Reader's Guide

Buck Weaver played shortstop from 1912 to 1916, then third base from 1917 onward. He was banned in 1921 for knowledge of the 1919 World Series fix. He sought reinstatement multiple times but was denied until 2025.

Did You Know?

• Weaver led the majors in sacrifice hits in 1915 and 1916.
• Ty Cobb would not bunt against Weaver, the only third baseman in the league to earn that respect.
• Weaver's 1953 letter to Commissioner Ford Frick is displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
• The 1988 movie Eight Men Out portrays the Black Sox story from Weaver's point of view, with John Cusack playing him.