Harry Grabiner

Harry Grabiner
Harry Grabiner in 1924
Born	(1890-12-26)December 26, 1890 Chicago,Illinois, U.S.
Died	October 24, 1948(1948-10-24)(aged 57) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Burial place	Rosehill Cemetery
Occupation	Baseball executive
Years active	1915–1948

Harry Mitchell Grabiner(December 26, 1890 – October 24, 1948) was an Americanprofessional baseballexecutive. A 40-year employee of theChicago White Sox,he served the team's owners—founding presidentCharles Comiskey,son and successorJ. Louis Comiskey,and Lou's widow,Grace—in a number of capacities, rising from peanut vendor to club secretary, business manager and vice president. He is often listed as the White Sox' firstgeneral manager,with a term lasting from as early as1915through1945.After leaving the White Sox at the close of the 1945 season, he joinedBill Veeck's ownership syndicate and became a vice president and minority stockholder with theCleveland Indiansfrom1946until his death in1948.

Witness to Black Sox Scandal

As team secretary and top aide to Charles Comiskey, Grabiner was a management eyewitness to the1919Black Sox Scandal,in which eight White Sox players were accused of conspiring with gamblers to lose the1919 World Series.

Eighteen years after Grabiner's death, Veeck revealed inThe Hustler's Handbook(1966) that during his first stint (1959–61) as owner of the White Sox, he had discovered hidden in a Comiskey Park storeroom a diary Grabiner kept during the 1919 season and during subsequent investigations and legal actions in 1920–21. In the chapter "Harry's Diary," Veeck quotes from Grabiner's document and writes, "Beyond any doubt, the White Sox front office had more than some inkling of what was going on from the very first game of the 1919 World Series."Some accounts state that Grabiner warned Comiskey,American LeaguepresidentBan JohnsonandNational LeaguepresidentJohn Heydlerof a possible game-fi xing scandal after Game 2 of the Series, but he was ignored.

After the Black Sox affair, Grabiner, who wasJewish,was attacked in print byThe Dearborn Independent,owned by industrialistHenry Ford,inanti-Semiticarticles that blamed the Jews for both the scandal and the cover-up.

Four decades with White Sox

Born inChicagoon December 26, 1890, Grabiner began his career with the White Sox at age 14; some accounts list his first job as a peanut vendor atSouth Side Park,others as a ticket seller and usher.He became a protégé of club secretary Charles Fredericks and was promoted to his mentor's position on Fredericks' death in 1915. As such, Grabiner also witnessed the White Sox' triumphs in the1906and1917 World Series,and the building ofComiskey Parkin 1910, as well as the 1919 debacle.

Although the eight players accused of the Black Sox conspiracy were acquitted in a 1920 trial, all were banned from baseball for life. The scandal destroyed the White Sox for a generation; during Grabiner's final quarter century with the team, Chicago finished in the American League'sfirst divisiononly five times. The White Sox did not win another pennant until1959,or another World Series until2005.After Charles Comiskey's death in 1931, Grabiner assumed greater responsibility for the team's on-field operations during the J. Lou and Grace Comiskey regimes, and became a target for fan frustration.

"Grabiner was blasphemed by the fans and players, criticized by the press, and generally blamed for inefficacies which were not of his own doing. Yet he struggled doggedly against the great odds until he fled the scene," wrote John C. Hoffman inBaseball Digestin October 1950, two years after Grabiner's death.

Final years with Veeck, Indians

Grabiner's grave at Rosehill Mausoleum

Grabiner's last two years in baseball were successful ones, however, as he worked with Veeck to purchase the Cleveland Indians in 1946 and served as Veeck's vice president and top assistant, as well as holding a small stake in the team. But in the closing weeks of Cleveland's1948 world championshipseason, Grabiner collapsed in Veeck's office during a meeting. Suffering from a condition that has been variously described as astroke,cerebral hemorrhageorbrain tumor,he lapsed into a coma and never witnessed the Tribe's AL playoff win over theBoston Red Soxor its six-game victory in the1948 World Series.He died in Chicago, age 57, thirteen days after the final Series game. He was interred at Rosehill Mausoleum inRosehill Cemetery.

In popular culture

In the 1987John SaylesfilmEight Men Out,based on the 1963 book,Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World SeriesbyEliot Asinof,Grabiner was portrayed byJack Merrill.