Bad Bet

Too late, but Joe Gedeon finally beats the odds

By R.E. Graswich
September 2025

Joe Gedeon was a bartender with a sense of humor. He would love the gambling ads that bombard Sacramento sports fans today.

You can’t watch an A’s or Kings game without getting hustled to make a bet. The irony would make Gedeon laugh.

Joe Gedeon poured drinks at Riverside Clubhouse two iterations ago. He predates the Clubhouse’s predecessor, Hereford House. He oversaw the bar when it was a Depression era speakeasy called the White House.

For Gedeon, bartending was a refuge. He said, “I got the best job in the city at $15 a day—$5 in wages, $5 what I drink and $5 that I steal.”

He spoke those words around 1940, long after his Riverside Boulevard days, when he mixed drinks on Geary Street in San Francisco. The place was high class. Cocktails cost 35 cents.

But the fun didn’t last. Joe Gedeon died in 1941 from liver cirrhosis. He was 47.

I bring up Gedeon because he’s an ancient Sacramento sports star who still makes news. Along with Pete Rose and members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, Gideon was recently forgiven for his gambling sins.

For Joe, the pardon by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred came 104 years too late.

Gedeon was a big-league ballplayer before he was a bartender. Tall and quick, he emerged from the neighborhood around 23rd and F streets to play second base for the Washington Senators, New York Yankees and St. Louis Browns. Lifetime batting average was .244.

As a kid, Gedeon played on a sandlot in McKinley Park and a diamond at Sacramento High School. At some point he learned to like booze and gambling. Booze killed him. Gambling wrecked his baseball career.

Friends were another problem. Among Gedeon’s pals were two members of the 1919 White Sox, Chick Gandil and Swede Risberg.

In September 1919, Risberg sent Gedeon a telegram saying Chicago players planned to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

The telegram—today’s enticing text from a trusted colleague—advised Gedeon to bet the Reds.

When the telegram arrived, Gedeon’s season was already over. He made no impact on the 1919 World Series. But he couldn’t resist. He found a bookie and bet the Reds.

Gedeon attended every World Series game in 1919. He traveled on the White Sox train with Risberg and Gandil. Joe bet $600. He won $700 when the Sox tanked. Easy money.

Rumors soon spread about the fix. Baseball authorities investigated. Eight White Sox players were indicted. A jury found them not guilty, but they were banned from baseball by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1921.

Gedeon might have avoided punishment. But he talked too much.

Enticed by a reward supposedly promised by White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, Gedeon told Comiskey everything.
There was no reward, but Gedeon was asked to testify before a grand jury. He didn’t hold back.

Joe’s admissions infuriated Landis. The commissioner declared Gedeon “withheld guilty knowledge” by not alerting authorities before the series. Joe drew a lifetime ban. He was 27.

Back home in Sacramento with no career, Gedeon bartended at the White House. He opened his own saloon, Joseph Gedeon Liquors, on California Street, now Merchant Street next to Golden 1 Center.

Joe coached at Christian Brothers High School. Kids loved him. He’s a member of the campus baseball hall of fame.

But life was cursed. Joseph Gedeon Liquors failed. The fallen star moved to San Francisco. When Sacramento sportswriter Bill Conlin tracked him down, Gedeon explained, “I was framed, and yet I wasn’t.”

In today’s sports world, where teams build schizophrenic relationships with gambling, what happens to Joe Gedeon?

The modern Joe gets in trouble but avoids banishment. These days, a player who bets on a game where he’s not involved earns a one-year suspension.

Circa 2025, Joe Gedeon resumes his major league career by age 29. Bartending’s loss, but a win for second chances.

R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.