World Series: The Chicago Cubs

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."

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).

I believe that you Chicago Cubs are doing very well. I hope after your loss in the National League Playoffs, you guys rebound, and make it to the World Series next year.

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,

This superstitious act only scratches the surface of what is the Curse of the Billy Goat. This is just one tale about unfortunate incidents that occurred during Cubs games, potentially making them lose the game and continue their terrible losing streak. Regardless of whether or not people believed in superstition, Bartman’s deflection has contributed to volumes of texts about the mythological element of the Cubs’ losing “curse” (Crepeau,

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 just their second season in Los Angeles, the dodgers won their second world series pennant beating the white soxin six games in 1959. Lead by the domination of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, the dodgers captured three national leauge  pennants in the 60's, and captured two more world series championships, sweeping the Yankees and barley beating the Twins in seven games. The dodgers won four more national leauge pennants in  1966,1974, 1977, and 1978. but losing every world series appearence. They went on to win a world series in 1981 thanks to pitching sensation fernando valenzuela. The early 1980's were affectionatly dubbed as "fernandomania." In 1988, another pitching star, Oral Hershiser, again lead them to another world series pennant, helped by one of the most historical home runs of all time, by their INJURED star Kirk Gibson who had hurt Both of his legs. That would be his only playing time in the series.

The Chicago White Sox of 1919 were a clear favorite to win the World Series. They had all of the odds on their

Some superstitious fans attribute the Cubs collapse to an incident at Shea Stadium on September 9: a black cat (an omen of bad luck) walked behind the Cubs on-deck circle. Some fans blame key errors by center fielder Don Young and captain Ron Santo's immediate. Still others blame the number of day

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.

There was not one single person behind the scandal, but there was many people involved. Two men were known to be more involved in the scandal than anybody else, William Thomas "Sleepy Bill" Burns and Billy Maharg. William Burns was an ex-major league pitcher and was the connection to the players. Billy Maharg was the gambler with the connections. Those two men approached two of the White Sox players, Pitcher Ed Cicotte and First Baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil, about fixing the Series. After thinking about the decisions they were making Cicotte and Gandil decided it would not work with just two players, so they got others involved. The other players were Lefty Williams, Happy Felsch, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, Fred McMullin, and one of the best and most

conceived a plot to throw the World Series for a sum of $80,000. A novel

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 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.