Eddie Cicotte

Lore & Background

Cicotte was a starting pitcher and a knuckleball specialist who won 208 games and lost 149 over the course of a 14-year career pitching for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago White Sox. At the time of his lifetime ban, he was considered one of the premier pitchers in the American League. He celebrated a breakout year in 1913, going 18–11 with an ERA of 1.58. His best year was 1917, when he won 28 games and led the league in wins, ERA, and innings pitched. On April 14 he threw a no hitter against the St. Louis Browns. That year, the White Sox went to the World Series, defeating the New York Giants 4 games to 2. In 1919, he rebounded to win 29 games and once again led the league in wins, winning percentage, and innings pitched, as well as in complete games. Cicotte was the first of the eight players to come forward, signing a confession and a waiver of immunity. He later recanted this confession and was acquitted of all charges at trial by jury. Despite this, Cicotte and his alleged co-conspirators were subsequently made permanently ineligible for baseball by Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Cicotte was reinstated by Commissioner Rob Manfred on May 13, 2025 along with other deceased players who were on the ineligible list.

In Their Own Story

The August night in 1917. Comiskey Park is packed, the air thick with the smell of cut grass and cheap tobacco. Cicotte steps to the rubber, adjusts his glasses with one finger, and stares down a Tigers slugger. The crowd is a low roar. He winds up—left leg lifts, right arm loads—and the ball leaves his hand with that late, vicious break. The batter swings, misses, and the bat cracks against the dirt of home plate. Cicotte doesn't celebrate. He just pulls his glasses back up, stares at the next hitter, and waits. Behind him, the White Sox dugout is a wall of pinstripes, and for one breathless moment, the whole park feels like it belongs to that one bespectacled lefty who bends the world with a single pitch.

Reader's Guide

Cicotte was a right-handed pitcher and a knuckleball specialist. He was a Detroit native and made his big-league debut on September 3, 1905. He did not return to the major leagues again until 1908, when he resurfaced with the Red Sox. After he compiled a 41–48 record in a Boston uniform, the Red Sox sold him to the White Sox on July 22, 1912. After being banned from playing baseball, Cicotte returned to Livonia, Michigan. He managed a service station, served as a game warden in the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, then went to work for Ford Motor Company, where he retired in 1944. He was a strawberry farmer on a 5.5-acre farm near Farmington until his death at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on May 5, 1969.

Did You Know?

• Cicotte's nickname was "Knuckles" because he was a knuckleball specialist.
• From September 15, 1916, to July 25, 1917, Cicotte pitched 25 straight starts in which he allowed three earned runs or less with at least six innings pitched, which retroactively became known as the quality start.
• Cicotte's grandnephew Al Cicotte later pitched in the major leagues, compiling a lifetime 10–13 record with six teams between 1957 and 1962.
• In the 1988 film Eight Men Out, Cicotte is portrayed by actor David Strathairn.