1919 World Series: Darkest Chapter In Major League Baseball

About three weeks ago, the Packer Varsity baseball team beat Berkeley Carroll school for the first time in twelve years and in glorious fashion. Tears streamed down my face as our winning run crossed the plate in extra innings, dust flying up as my teammates and I mobbed each other at the plate. Yet a few short days later, our team was blindsided by the news that St. Ann’s had pulled off back to back upsets to squeak their way into the playoffs ahead of us - just as our season seemed to be looking up, it was over.

This is a story of baseball and how it is a team sport. The book relates with the title by showing how this boy named Sandy Comstock that plays on the Grantville Raiders and has a big game coming up. It was against the Newtown Raptors. He wanted to beat them and become one of the best teams. By the time he knew it he ended up on the Newtown Raptors team and he was going to play is old team. It was kind of like a baseball turnaround.

In 1919, eight of the Chicago White Sox allegedly threw the World Series. Charles Comiskey was the ruthless owner of the White Sox and was the main motive of the sox to throw the series. Chick Gandil was the first player to get involved and then he spread it to the other players on the team. The act by these players would be called the Black Sox Scandal. The Scandal nearly ruined America’s pastime. The baseball commissioner, Judge Landis, banned all eight of the players for life. Based on how Joe Jackson played in the world series and how he was proven innocent in a court of law, he should be reinstated into baseball and be put in the hall of fame.

Although gambling was intertwined with baseball long before the eight White Sox were accused of fixing the Series, the number of gamblers at ballparks had dramatically increased by 1919. Ironically, Comiskey posted signs throughout the park declaring, "No Betting Allowed In This Park."

In my book there are two main characters. The first is Stevie. He is 14 years old and a writer for The Washington post. When He was 12 he won a writing contest with Susan Carol Anderson (the other main character in my book) to go to the final four and write sports articles. From then they were sent to other major sporting events. This one being the world series. Stevie is very outgoing but he is is jealous of his girl friend susan carol. “well,” stevie said “I may be good enough, but not as good as you.” This is saying that Stevie is good at some sports writing and smart. But Susan Carol is amazing at sports writing and she is very smart. Susan Carol is a very sweet girl. She is a southern belle from north carolina. She can

The MLB didn’t start until 1876 with the National league and then they brought in the American league in 1901. The first World Series was held in 1903 with the Boston Americans beating the Pittsburg pirates 5-3. Baseball hasn’t always been glorified as it was though. It experienced rough times in the 1940’s when African Americans weren’t allowed to play in the major league but thanks to Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, they eliminated the racial discrimination in baseball and outside the baseball world. Baseball has also experienced rough times during the WWII and Vietnam era. During the time of war, players would go and serve in the military and baseball would have to replace them with less talented players. But Upon return, baseball returned to its once prestige self.

Every father loves getting to share his child’s first experience with baseball and playing catch with him for their first time. The history behind the game has such a humbling expression towards the game of baseball, which was first known as “rounder” earlier in the 1840’s in England until it was brought over in the US. In 1871 the Major League was born and by the 20th century most large cities in the US had professional baseball teams. The teams where divided into two leagues, American and National. During the season those teams would only play the teams in their leagues. Teams that succeeded the best during their season win what are called the “pennant” and those teams would meet in what is still to this day called the “World Series”. Baseball became of age in the early 1920’s; When Babe Ruth became a phenomenon at the game of baseball. Many wanted to fallow his footstep and become a great hero; such as the great Jackie Robinson did who was the first African American to play major league baseball. Prior to

"Baseball as America." Academic Search Premier. Spec. issue of USA Today Magazine 1 Apr. 2002: n. pag. EBSCO. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. The Baseball Hall of Fame is an iconic American landmark, which houses thousands of artifacts from baseball's crude beginnings to its current day glory. This piece is simple, yet it demonstrates what an important aspect of American culture baseball has become. The artifacts demonstrate how far baseball has come, among its highlights are Jackie Robinson's uniform, articles from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and even "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's cleats. Pictures accompany the article which adds the needed bit of glamour to illustrate how greatly baseball has influenced American

Toolson v. New York Yankees 1953, was a U.S. Supreme Court Case in which in Court upheld, 7-2. The plaintiff was “George Earl Toolson was a pitcher with the Newark Bears in 1949, a farm team for the New York Yankees in the AAA-class International League.” (Wikipedia). Toolson was good enough to make a professional team but due to the reserve clause, there was a restraint of trade and the stop him from making it anywhere so he instead of reporting to practice he filed suit. This caused Toolson’s career to be over but he impacted baseball forever. Two years later, baseball held the first amateur draft, ending the system where wealthier teams like the Yankees can and able to teams stacked. This case also caused another impact of the MLB

Black American men were banned from being able to play professional baseball from the early 1900’s till the late 1940’s. This sparked the creation of what was known as the Negro Leagues. The first successful Negro League was formed in 1920 by Andrew "Rube" Foster (https:// negroleaguebaseball.com), but suspended operations in 1931 due to the financial hardships associated with the Great Depression (Baseball: An Illustrated History, G. Ward, Page 87). As the Great Depression ended and America got closer to WWII, the popularity of the Negro leagues grew. The creation of the Negro National League and the Negro American League represented the two premier Negro leagues in the 1930’s and 1940’s. They were just as organized as their white counterparts. They played a 140 game schedule, had their own all-star games, as well as their own World Series (Baseball: An Illustrated History, G. Ward, Page 247). The Negro leagues flourished during WWII. The white players of the professional teams were being drafted and their

In 1919 two teams came together to fight for the title of being the 1919 World Series winner, these two teams where Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox. The world series is the championship for baseball. Chicago was the team in favor to win the series, but other people wanted the Cincinnati reds to win. This is what started the whole scandal for eight White Sox players to rig the series so that the Reds would win. All eight players were banned from baseball forever and became known as baseball's Black Sox. All players that were a part of the scandal are no longer allowed to play an organized baseball game.

For anyone who knows anything about baseball, the 1919 World Series brings to mind many things. "The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 started out as a few gamblers trying to get rich, and turned into one of the biggest, and easily the darkest, event in baseball history" (Everstine 4). This great sports scandal involved many, but the most memorable and most known for it was Joe Jackson. The aftermath of the great World Series Scandal left many people questioning the character of Joe Jackson and whether or not he should have relations thereafter with baseball. There is still question today whether or not to let Joe into the Hall of Fame.

1. Briefly, what are the major developments in the history of the labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball?

Throughout the time leading up to the 1919 World Series, reporters in both Chicago and Cincinnati spoke about how good the World Series would be, and the odds-makers listed the White Sox as heavy favorites.

The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age written by Robert Weintraub is focused on the 1946 Major League Baseball season after World War II when “America was ready to heal.” During the war, parks were empty, the balls were made with fake rubber, and all of America’s favorite players were serving in the war. When players returned, they exchanged their military uniforms for baseball uniforms and the sport of baseball quickly became a key tool which helped many American’s return to their normal, everyday lives. Parks began to fill up again and a new era of baseball was born. Although so many soldiers returning at once did cause some issues, the National League was very competitive and many thrived on it. Weintraub discusses many events considered to be baseball’s best times including: the difficult, yet rewarding transition of baseball players from military service to the major leagues, The Brooklyn Dodgers breaking the racial segregation in the league by signing a black man, Jackie Robinson, the introduction of the Mexican League, in which American players signed with to receive higher salaries, and the 1946 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, where the Cardinals defeated the Sox in the seven game series. Weintraub strongly focuses