Buck Weaver - Reinstatement Attempts

Reinstatement Attempts

Weaver successfully sued White Sox owner Charles Comiskey for his 1921 salary. When Shoeless Joe Jackson did the same, the jury voted 11–1 in favor of Jackson. However, the judge set aside the jury verdict after Comiskey produced Jackson's grand jury testimony about the fix. Despite this success, however, Comiskey made no attempt to offer the confessions as evidence to obtain a similar ruling against Weaver.

Weaver applied six times for reinstatement to baseball before his death from a heart attack on January 31, 1956 at age 65. One notable attempt to get reinstated came in 1927 in the wake of Tris Speaker/Ty Cobb betting scandal. After this attempt failed, Weaver returned to Chicago and decided to play in the minor leagues again. Later in life, Weaver contacted a New York City attorney who vowed to get him reinstated. Weaver sent his legal papers and correspondence to New York, however, they were never returned; to this day, baseball historians have been unable to find Buck's legal files. Weaver was the third of the eight suspended "Black Sox" (after Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1951 and Fred McMullin in 1952) to die.