Did the White Socks Fix the World Series Against the Cincinnati Reds in 1919?

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.

The 1919 World Series resulted in the most famous scandal in baseball history. Eight players from the Chicago White Sox (later nicknamed the Black Sox) were accused of throwing the series against the Cincinnati Reds. Details of the scandal and the extent to which each man was involved have always been unclear. It was, however, front-page news across the country and, despite being acquitted of criminal charges, the players were banned from professional baseball for life. The eight men included the great “shoeless Joe Jackson,” pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams; infielders Buck Weaver, Arnold "Chick" Gandil, Fred McMullin, and Charles "Swede" Risberg; and outfielder Oscar "Happy" Felsch.

The Black Sox Scandal was the fixing of the 1919 World Series played between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. The White Sox team were one of the best to ever play the game. They were a heavy favorite to win the series. Arnold Gandil, the first baseman, came up with the plan to throw the series and persuaded some of his teammates to go along with him. The players involved in the fix were: Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar Felsch, Claude Williams, Arnold Gandil, Fred McMullin, and Charles Risberg. It included the team’s two best pitchers, three of its four best hitters, two out of its three starting outfielders, three of its four starting infielders, and the utility infielder. Collectively, the eight players accounted for 59% of the team’s wins, 66% of the RBIs,

The “New York Yankees” is the baseball team that has won 18 division titles, 40 AL pennants, and 27 World Series championships, all of which are Major League Baseball records. It makes great records and great success each year. And the impact it has on the global economy is huge. Major League Baseball is an oligopoly dominated by a few firms.

Soon word got out to another gambler, Bill Burns. He approached Cicotte and offered him $100,000. Gandil and Cicotte met with Burns and agreed that they would do the fix as long as they got paid before the series began. Burns took off for New York with his boxer friend Billy Maharg to meet with Arnold Rothstein, a big time gambler, to come up with the money for the fix. At first, Rothstein did not go for it but then Sullivan went to Rothstein with his plans for the fix totally laid out. Rothstein decided to get in on the fix. He sent one of his men to Chicago with $ 40,000 to give to Sullivan to give to the players and the rest would be distributed if the series went as planned. However, when Sullivan got the money he quickly gambled $30,000 and then gave $10,000 to Gandil. The players not happy with the amount that they got they decided that they would throw the first two games and then ask for more money. Gandil told Sullivan he needed more money before the fourth game or the fix was off, Sullivan complied and after the game Gandil gave $5,000 to each of the players except Weaver who apparently was not participating in the plan. “The series continued as planned and the White Sox lost the series to the Cincinnati Reds, ”five games to three” (findingdulcinea.com).

The new approach helped the Oakland A’s succeed because it was ethical. Billy Beane used numbers to evaluate the players. Numbers matter but can be misleading. By looking closely and understanding what he was doing Billy made good decisions based on numbers. The old approach was unethical because it misjudged the players. In the “old fashion statistics of the players some key important factors were left out. For instance the old statistics did not mention the number of walks a batter earned. This left out information misleads coach’s judgments and resulted in scouts undervaluing players.

The 1919 World Series players took part in a scandal mainly through the influence of manager Charles Comiskey. Charles Comiskey is the primary reason that fueled the team to throw the series away by his cheapness and overall dislike. The 1988 film Eight Men Out directed by John Sayles depicts an accurate depiction of how Charles Comiskey influenced the White Sox to throw away the series. Charles Comiskey is illustrated as an unfair manager: who paid his players the minimum, a manager who didn’t keep his promise for winning the pennant, and overall the players greatly disliked Comiskey.

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.

He states, "This is not about stupidity, it is about what is fair in baseball, and what is not. It is about the overall appeal of the national pastime. It is about caring, interest, and most of all, competition. Right now, there is very little of any of these components outside of the 212 area code." Most importantly, he explains why baseball needs a salary cap by saying "it is the only way to put constraints on what the Yankees are doing and to return the sport to the interesting and suspenseful form of sporting entertainment it once used to be." The Yankees are at an unfair advantage all across the league, and nobody, not Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, or perhaps even Los Angeles, can acquire talent the way they can. The only way to prevent them from doing so is to put a cap on how much they can pay their entire team.

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.

     The Black Sox scandal was a baseball betting scheme involving a group of baseball players and gamblers which led to the Chicago White Sox intentionally losing in the 1919 World Series. As a result this scandal led to the banning of eight players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox team, Joe Jackson (better known as Shoeless Joe Jackson), Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, Oscar Felsch, Fred McMullin, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, and Claude Williams. This event also introduced a new commissioner and strict rules prohibiting gambling in baseball.

The teams that were in the 1919 world series were the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox's were the favorite for the game but in the end the Reds had won the game 10-5. This was a major upset and before the first pitch there had been talk of a fixed game. The game was actually fixed so that the Reds would win the game. Gamblers had payed some of the White Sox players to lose the game. The people that had to gain from the White Sox's loss were the people that put bets on the Reds to win the game. The White Sox's were the favorite so they would have a lot of people betting on them to win and not many people would bet on the Reds to win. The White Sox’s that threw the game were called Black Sox’s. There were eight Sox’s that

Today I want to share with you the story of the black sox scandal of 1919.

The film showed how with the black Sox scandal that there is no way to regulate the player on the teams that they needed to create a governing body that will decide if a player is eligible to play professional baseball, based on the actin that the committed. The very first commissioner of baseball was Kenesaw Mountain Landis who came into power because of the Black Sox scandal. The commissioner was given absolute power so his decision was final without any dispute. He decided that with the players that participated and new of the fixed games was not going to be eligible to play professional baseball anymore and to this day that ruling still stands. Even though the player were removed of all charges in relation to accepting money to throw games,

About a week before the World Series had even begun, the two teams were set. The Cincinnati Reds were going to take on the Chicago White Sox in the 1919 World Series. There were many bookies wanting to make big money off of the series. Some of these bookies were Abe Attel, Bill Maharg, and Bill Burns. Arnold Rothstein was also suspected, but he was found innocent on every major court. Eight Chicago White Sox players were in search of more money than their contract implied. The fans that knew about this were