The Chicago White Sox were the best team in baseball in 1919. They were the clear favorites to win the World Series. But they didn’t. Because some of the players cheated. It all started when infielder Chick Gandil contacted some gamblers and offered to fix the games. Gamblers slipping underpaid ballplayers cash for inside tips had been common, but this took it to a new level. The gamblers agreed to pay any participating players $100,000 total. Gandil recruited 29 game winner Eddie Cicotte. Others included pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams, shortstop Charles “Swede” Risberg, outfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch, and utility infielder Fred McMullin. The White Sox’ superstar “Shoeless Joe” Jackson was paid $5,000. Jackson was one of the best hitters in baseball and a future Hall of Famer. The riggers’ motivation was the fact that the White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey, was a notorious skin-flint and underpaid his players unfairly. Rumors were abundant about the scheme and the odds that heavily favored the White Sox went down by the time the Series started. Cicotte started the first game and immediately hit the first batter. He made several more “mistakes”. The Reds won 9-1. They won the second game 4-2. Williams walked three in a row. The team went down 4 games to 1 (in a best of nine series) when failure to receive payments caused the players to revolt and win the next two. Supposedly, threats to their families got them back on track and the Reds won the last game 10-5. Although they did not receive the full $100,000 (Gandil got $35,000 and Cicotte $10,000), the White Sox lost enough games suspiciously to cause concern. Rumors of corruption led to the arrest of the eight players on charges of conspiracy to defraud the public and injure the American League. Although some of the players testified that they did accept money from gamblers, none were found guilty due to lack of evidence. All the paper records of the crime had disappeared mysteriously. The trial ended on August 2, 1921. However, before the eight could return to the field, Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all of them for life. He did not care about the not guilty verdict. He probably got most of it right, but Buck Weaver almost surely only knew about the plot and did not participate in throwing any games. Shoeless Joe Jackson had not played badly. He batted .375 in the series with six RBIs and no errors. But he had pocketed the $5,000. Just like the much lesser players, his career was over. And no Hall of Fame for him. “Say it ain’t so, Joe” a little boy supposedly said to him.
- Amazing 183-184
- https://www.history.com/news/black-sox-baseball-scandal-1919-world-series-chicago
0 Comments