History Of The 1919 Black Sox Scandal

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.

Comiskey was able to get away with paying low salaries because of the "reserve clause" in players' contracts. This clause prevented players from changing teams without the permission of the owners. Without a union, the players had no bargaining power.

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).

In 1978, the Red Sox held a 14-game lead in the American League East over the Yankees on July 18. However, the Yankees subsequently caught fire, eventually winning the division by  three games. In the 1986 World Series, Boston took a 5–3 lead in the top of the 10th inning. Red Sox reliever Calvin Schiraldi retired the first two batters, putting the team within one out of winning the World Series. However, the New York Mets scored three runs and winning it when Boston first baseman Bill Buckner allowed a ground ball to roll through his legs. In 2003, the Red Sox were playing the Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Boston held a 5–2 lead in the eighth inning, and Boston opted to stay with starting pitcher Pedro Martínez rather than go to the bullpen. New York rallied against the tired Martínez, scoring three runs on a single and three doubles to tie the game. Then in bottom of the 11th inning, Aaron Boone launched a solo home run to win the game and the pennant for the Yankees. Similar to Boston, Chicago had The Curse of the Billy Goat. The curse was supposedly placed on the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball franchise in 1945 by Billy Goat Tavern owner William Sianis that lasted from 1945-2016. Between that 1908 triumph, which was the Cubs ' second world championship (they 'd also won the Series in 1907) Before the “curse” Chicago had won national League Pennants in 1910,

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 fix was known in the first game of the series starting with the pitch. Players where not getting enough money for playing baseball due to post war. So they saw an appointment to get more money to pay for bills are do other things they want. The amount of money they were going to get 100,000 to split between each other. (1919 Word Series) cynics were tipped off before the game even started during the betting odds swap before the first game. Baseball was struggling for survival in the pre-Babe Ruth era. Players were promised bonuses but mostly were left with empty wallet. Baseball needed some new type of flair that would attract America to it, despite it's bad reputation at the time. World War I was already making all the headlines, but the last thing baseball needed was something like this.

In this essay we will take a look at the unique history of the Negro Baseball Leagues. We will discuss how they were an integral part of the African American culture and what they meant to their communities. We will also discuss some of the more famous players of the Negro Leagues as well as take a look at what the impact of Jackie Robinson being the first African American to be signed to a professional Major League team was and how it affected the future of baseball.

Yankee Stadium was said to have profited hundreds of thousands of dollars a year just by renting out the stadium to the Negro Leagues. Shadow-Ball further illustrates the substantial differences in funding between the MLB, and the Negro Leagues. Because they Negro Leagues didn't have the money to buy supplies such as baseballs in some instances, they created Shadow-Ball. In this process, the "players would actually practice hitting the ball and catching a ball that wasn't actually there. In fact, they would go full practices without even having a ball, which further enhanced their discipline and focus." (Conrads, pg. 6) but in some instances, when they couldn't play in Major League ballparks, they were simply left to play on the dilapidated fields various areas - wherever they could find a field. Other than this, the players in the Negro Leagues did not make as much money as their counterparts who played in the MLB. For example, in Jackie Robinson's case, he "signed his contract with the Dodgers…for the Major League minimum salary: $5,000…for the year." (Rampersad, pg. 167) Furthermore, in general, "Negro leaguers made about a quarter of what their counterparts in the major leagues were making," but they kept their spirits alive, obliterated the negative energy, and kept playing the sport they loved…baseball. (Conrads, pg. 2)

The story of Jackie Robinson has become one of America's most iconic and inspiring stories. Since 1947, American history has portrayed Jackie Robinson as a hero, and he has been idolized as a role model to the African American baseball community. It is an unarguable fact that he was the first to tear down the color barriers within professional baseball. The topic of Robinson’s role in integration has long been a point of discussion amongst baseball historians. Researchers have accumulated thousands of accredited documents and interviews with friends and team mates such as short stop, Pee Wee Reese, and team owner, Branch Rickey. However, few journalists have asked why Robinson was selected and what was Branch

In Buck O’Neil’s book, I Was Right on Time, he mentions a phrase that was common for Negro League ball players to hear back in the day. O’Neil writes, “John McGraw said he’d give 50,000 dollars for Donaldson if he’d been white…we heard that a lot about a lot of players through the years” (O’Neil 78). But unfortunately for many of the ballplayers at that time, they weren’t white. And as a result of their skin color and the Jim Crow laws of the time, African American, including ballplayers like Buck O’Neil, had to endure troubling times and unjust hardships. On the surface, I Was Right on Time is a memoir, a story about O’Neil’s time spent navigating through black baseball and his stories of some of the greatest to play the game, but underneath the tales of a great American sport, is a great American travesty; a real look into the days of segregation and the harshness of racial problems in 20th century America.

Throughout the history of America’s pastime, baseball has continually battled scandals and controversies. From the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal to the current steroid debate, baseball has lived in a century of turmoil. While many of these scandals affected multiple players and brought shame to teams, none have affected a single player more than the 1980’s Pete Rose betting scandal. Aside from the public humiliation he brought his family and the Cincinnati Reds, nothing has done more to hurt Pete Rose than his lifetime ban from baseball making him ineligible for hall of fame. While many are for and against putting Pete Rose in the hall of fame, the four ethical theories, Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Egoism, and Ethical Realism, each have their

The heavily-favored Chicago White Sox had lost to the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. Supposedly eight players on the White Sox including Shoeless Joe Jackson accused of taking $5,000 bribes, which is approximately $70,000 in modern day US dollars. It seems obvious enough that Jackson participating in fixing the world series, especially after Jackson issued the statement, “When a Cincinnati player would bat a ball out in my territory I'd muff it if I could—that is, fail to catch it. But if it would look too much like crooked work to do that I'd be slow and make a throw to the infield that would be short. My work netted the Cincinnati team several runs that they never would have had if we had been playing on the

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

To fully understand the misfortune and mistreatment of this baseball legend, one must understand what happened during the World Series of 1919. Despite the 1919 World Series scandal, “Shoeless”

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