Mad Dog: "a little history lesson". Very little.

Eddie Cicotte started two games after his 29th win in 1919:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=cicoted01&t=p&year=1919

September				Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA	BF	Pit	Str	StL	StS	GB	FB	LD	PU	Unk	GSc	IR	IS	SB	CS	PO	AB	2B	3B	IBB	GDP	SF	ROE	aLI	WPA	RE24	Entered	Exited
36	461	119	Sep 1(2)	CHW	@	DET	W,5-1	CG	W(27-7)	2	9.0	4	1	0	1	6	0	0	1.77	35										82						30	2	0			0
37	462	121	Sep 5	CHW		CLE	W,9-1	CG	W(28-7)	3	9.0	6	1	0	6	4	0	0	1.71	38										71						32	3	0			0
38	463	133	Sep 19	CHW	@	BOS	W,3-2	CG	W(29-7)	13	9.0	7	2	1	0	3	0	0	1.69	33										70						32	1	0			0
39	464	136	Sep 24	CHW		SLB	W,6-5	GS-		4	7.0	11	5	5	1	4	0	0	1.80	31										38						30					0
40	465	140	Sep 28	CHW		DET	L,9-10	GS-		3	2.0	3	1	1	0	1	0	0	1.82	8										47						8					0

Today on his "High Heat" MLB Network TV program Chris "Mad Dog" Russo droned on about the 1919 Chicago White Sox who took money from gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.  Russo repeated something that had been debunked and which can easily be checked in a minute or two: a contributing factor in Eddie Cicotte joining the conspirators who threw the games was that Cicotte had an agreement with White Sox management to receive a bonus if he won 30 games in the 1919 regular season and that the White Sox management prevented Cicotte from reaching that goal by not pitching him.

Why would Russo make such a mistake?  Doesn't he have a school kid working as an intern who could take the minute or two and check the basic facts?  Why just blindly and blandly repeat what Russo had seen in watching the 1988 movie Eight Men Out?  The rest of Russo's self described history lesson sounded as if he had merely watched the movie again and tried to regurgitate as much as he happened to recall.

Eddie Cicotte