Lefty Williams
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Claude Preston "Lefty" Williams (March 9, 1893 - November 4, 1959) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. He is probably best known for his involvement in the 1919 World Series fix, better known as the Black Sox scandal.
Williams was born in Aurora, Missouri to William and Mary Williams. He began his major league career on September 17, 1913 with the Detroit Tigers.
After he joined the Chicago White Sox, first baseman Chick Gandil approached Williams in the fall of 1919 and offered him $10,000 to help throw the World Series. Williams at first said he wasn't interested, but changed his mind after Gandil told him that the fix was going to go forward with or without him.
Although Williams only received $5,000, half of what he was promised, that was still almost double his 1919 salary of $2,600.
In the series, Williams had an aggregate earned run average of 6.63. He was also charged with three of the Sox' losses, a feat not repeated until the 1981 Series.
For his part in the fix, Lefty Williams was banned for life from Major League Baseball, along with seven other players, by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.