We are a bit spoiled nowadays.  If we want to watch our favorite sporting event we can watch television, the internet, internet phones, listen on radio, or buy a ticket to the game.  What did sports fans do before television and radio?  They watched the game with the help of telegraph.  How can they “watch” a game with telegraph?  I’ll tell you.  People would set up rooms with a big board representing the baseball diamond.  While the game came through the telegraph, people would recreate it on the board.  They even had sound effects!

This is how Arnold Rothstein knew the “fix” was going ahead.  He went to the Ansonia Hotel in New York where they had a room set up to watch the game through telegraph.  It is there that he watched, and listened, as Eddie Cicotte hit Maurice Rath right in the back with a fastball.  That was the signal.  If Cicotte hit the first batter in the first game with a pitch, the “fix” was a go.