White Sox

The Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 World Series

In 1919 the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds made their way to the World Series. The 1919 World Series is said to be the most famous scandal in baseball history. Eight players from the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the series against the Reds. These players included Eddie Cicotte, Claude Williams, Joe Jackson, Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, and Fred McMullin. All eight players were banned from baseball forever and became known as baseball’s Black Sox.

During this time in baseball, a players salary was nothing compared to what players make today. The great players made only a little more than the worst did, and a bribe of money could have an affect on the game easily. For an example, the promised prize for winning the 1917 pennant was a case of cheap Champagne (Reber 45).

With the fix being led by Chick Gandil, he rounded up seven more players to go along with it. The bookmakers and gamblers that the team was dealing with were Joseph Sullivan and Arnold Rothstein. Sullivan did most of the business with the players and Rothstein provided most of the money (Reber 27). Gandil had 100,000 dollars to deal with. He took 10,00

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Hitting the batter was the sign for all of the bookies that the fix was on (Reber 33). Sullivan still did not come up the other 20,000 that he promised the players(Ortiz 23).

The day after they were acquitted from baseball, the new commissioner Kennesaw Landis, said the players would be barred for life, and stated:

“…any player that throws a game, no player that entertains propositions or promises to throw a game, no player who sits in on a conference with a bunch of gamblers in which ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball”(Ortiz 57). Cicotte went along with the deal for 10,000 dollars up front.

The night before game 1 in a best of 9 series, Cicotte found 10,000 dollars under a pillow in his hotel room. Since the White Sox lost, Sullivan was upset and gave them 20,000 dollars and agreed to give them another 20,000 dollars after they lose game four. Risberg took 10,000 dollars and gave 5,000 to McMullen for Fred’s cut of the deal. They also had record profits at the box office. Jackson denied that he ever took the money and said he played his best in the series (Reber 46).

The last part of the statement was directed at Buck Weaver, who was at the meetings but received no money. Joe Jackson did admit that he knew what was going on but never said that he didn’t play his best at all times. A pitcher on the Giants told what he saw in someone’s room, and it was decided that the grand jury should call Cicotte in. The World Series was a tragic loss for the game of baseball and the players.

In September 1920, a Cook County grand jury looked into allegations of the Cubs throwing a three game series to the Philadelphia Phillies. 0 for himself to start and needed to get the other players to go along.

Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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