Lefty Williams - Definition

Claude Preston Williams, better known as Lefty Williams (9 March 1893 - 4 November 1959) was an American baseball player. He is probably best known for his involvement in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

Williams was born in 1893 in Aurora, Missouri to William and Mary Williams. He began his Major League Baseball career on 17 September 1913 as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers.

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.

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.