Sports Stars: 1919 Black Sox Scandal Essay

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.

After the White Sox won, Eddie Cicotte was promised a $10,000 bonus from manager Charles Comiskey if he won 30 games. “29 is not 30, Eddie. You will get only the money you deserve”(Eight Men Out). The significance of this detail is how the players were questioning when they would receive their bonus, in which they earned by going to the World Series. Charles Comiskey was a pretty cheap manager described by many players who were involved in the Black Sox Scandal.

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.

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.

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

In Major League Baseball’s 1919 World Series two teams that were the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds went up against each other. They played only a eight game series because the Cincinnati Reds already had won five games after the eighth game was over which didn’t require them to go to the ninth game. Many people found it hard to believe that the Reds actually one the World Series because the White Sox were favored to win. The bookies made the odds seven to five favored on the Chicago White Sox to win. Believe it or not the Chicago White Sox actually let the Cincinnati Reds win the series because they were payed a significant amount of money to throw the game. This famous Scandal was known as The Black Sox Scandal. The media reacted very suddenly to this scandal, the people were very shocked when they got word of it, and the aftermath of this Scandal cause many problems in baseball and society.

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 year was 1919, and baseball was in the air. The Chicago White Sox had the World Series locked up when scandal struck. It would come to be known as the “Black Sox Scandal” when a group of players were paid by gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series, including the great Joe Jackson. It was one of baseball’s darkest hours, and still lives in infamy inside the hearts of baseball fans all across the world, especially in the south-side of Chicago, the home of the White Sox.

The 1919 White Sox--the White Sox of Eddie Collins, Eddie Cicotte, Dickie Kerr, Ray Schalk, Buck Weaver and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson--are considered by baseball historians to be one of the greatest teams ever to take the field (Solomon). The “Black” Sox were the major favorites of the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Chicago had the better pitching, the better hitting, and the better fielding, but they somehow lost. The “Black” Sox lost in eight games, back in 1919 the only playoff series they was the World series so they played a max of nine games. A few months after the Reds won the World Series, on December fifteenth, 1919, “The New York World published an explosive article by Hugh Fullerton suggesting the the World Series was fixed” (Linder).

The Black Sox scandal is the name given to the conspiracy that fixed the 1919 World Series which was played between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. A number of players on Chicago conspired with different gamblers to throw the games on purpose. “This is the biggest scandal in major league history.” (“Black Sox Scandal.”) This betting conspiracy between a group of players and gamblers led to the permanent banning of eight players from the White Sox baseball program. “They were very strict on these players, the Major League Baseball association took away the players contracts, and they also fined the players of various amounts of money.” (“Black Sox Scandal.”)

     Slowly, signs began to show that something was not right. In a best-of-nine series, the White Sox lost the first, second, fourth, fifth, and eighth games. The World Series Championship went to the Reds and left Comiskey furious. He supposedly said the involved players would never play for him again. Nevertheless, the 1920 season went under way, and the White Sox were in hot contention for the pennant and had record profits at the box office. Finally, in September of 1920, a Cook County grand jury looked into allegations that the 1919 World Series had been thrown. Cicotte was called into court and was the first to admit to the scandal, followed by Shoeless Joe. Illinois had no law about fixing

In game one it was 4-4 in the top of the ninth inning. Giant Casey Stengel hit a line drive to the center field. He got home and he won by putting the score up to 5-4 Giants. The Yankees went against the Pittsburgh Pirates In the 1960 World Series. When Mazerok hit the first strike he missed. On the second hit he hit the ball so hard it soared over the field and into the bleachers. That led to a win for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1927 the Yankees swept the World Series again. The lineup was so deadly people started calling it Murderers row. In 1919, the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Red Stockings met face to face. Everyone thought they would win because they had Eddie who was an excellent pitcher and Joe Jackson, their star slugger. They did pretty good from the beginning but they started doing terrible. A few years later they found out that the team messed up on purpose to get payed. In 1934 a new team came in place. They were the St.Louis Cardinals. Most of the people grew up pour and didn't have any money. They liked to pretend to fight in hotel lobbies. They went to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. The Detroit Tigers thought the Cardinals would be easy to beat. But the Cardinals destroyed the Tigers with 4-3 Cardinals in the number of game. The Red Sox were an extraordinary team. They had Babe Ruth on their side. They won the World Series in 1912, 1915, 1916, and

Baseball has always been known as America's pastime. But America's pastime, along with America's past, have both been saturated with the brutal force of racism. For hundreds of years, from the time of slavery until the middle of the 20th century, African-American children rounded up their friends and headed to the baseball diamond. There, for thousands of young black players, the smell of the grass, the cloud of dust that formed when running the ninety feet between bases, and the feeling of safely sliding into homeplate for a run marked the glimmer of fun and excitement in an otherwise dreary day. However, due to the color of their skin, black children were not awarded these

The eight White Sox players attended meetings about the bribery and accepted and agreed to the bribe. When the White Sox first basemen, C. Arnold “Chick” Gandil, met with a gambler, the idea of throwing the 1919 World Series

The 1919 World Series was very interesting to say the least. Some of the White Sox players wanted some extra money. I believe that this series is one of, if not the darkest chapter in Major League Baseball’s history.