The eight that changed it all
The World Series is the biggest game in baseball. Has been since 1903, yet the game in 1919 was one of the biggest games in sports history. It was the Chicago White Sox against the Cincinnati Reds.
It seemed as though it was just another World Series, the Reds winning in 8 games, 5-3. But it was anything but another World Series. But this World Series would be known for the team that lost, rather than the winning Reds. It was known as “The Black Sox”.
The scandal started with meetings before the World Series between many players on the White Sox and the bookies in Vegas. Eight players were involved in the scandal, including one of the greats “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.
The rules were plain and simple for those eight players of the White Sox, lose the World Series, but make it look close. If this happened, the players, along with the bookies, would cash in big time. The first pitch of the series was a strike down the middle of the plate. It was the pitch that followed that would change the game of baseball forever. It was a sign to the bookies that the players were in on the fix, it was a hard fastball to the back of the leadoff hitter.
One player in particular made the Major League Baseball’s general manager look further into the World Series was pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams who went 0-3 in his starts and had a 6.63 ERA. Before that World Series he was 23-11 with an ERA of 2.64, astronomically better than his World Series performance. Jackson, on the other hand, did all he could to win so it seemed. He had a .375 batting average, and had the only home run of the series. He was also a machine in the field throwing out five guys while not committing a single error. But all of this could not out weight the ruler of everything, money.
Later in 1920, the owner of the White Sox gave all of the other players, as well as the manager, who were on the World Series team the difference between the winning and losing bonus checks, which was about $1500 while some of the players who were in on the fix got payouts as large as $5000, which is about $69,000 now, while others received little to nothing for their services.
This scandal ended up in court in the summer of 1921, where the story was presented to the jury in Chicago, and surprise surprise, the players were found not guilty on all charges (fun fact, it only took the jury about three hours to come up with their verdict). This verdict came as no surprise due to the fact that these players we viewed as superhero’s when they were on the field. Baseball players were looked up to, so seeing them get convicted was never going to happen. And think about all of the other high profile players that got in trouble with the law, like O.J. Simpson for example. Not until recently has the justice system become less bias to athletes.
All of this put a “curse” on the White Sox who did not win nor make it to another World Series until 2005. A streak that rivals both the Red Sox infamous curse after trading Babe Ruth, and the curse of the Cubs that is still going strong over 100 years later.
The eight players involved in “The Black Sox” scandal, and another player who was tipped off about the fix, were banned from the game of baseball, along with a lifetime ban from the Hall of Fame. Which seemed fine to everyone except “Shoeless” Joe, who would have been a shoe in, no pun intended.
Not only did this fix taint the organization of the White Sox, but it also tainted baseball as a whole. At the time it was the most popular sport in America, and possibly the world. When people found out that something as big as the World Series could be fixed, they weren’t quite sure what to think. Nothing really happened like this again until the quiz show scandals in the 50’s.
These actions by the players of the White Sox has changed the way sports are today, not allowing players, coaches, refs, or anyone that has any impact on the game, to place wagers on said game. This rule came into effect when the greatest hitter of all time, Pete Rose, was caught gambling on game. He is still fighting to try and get his name into the Hall of Fame, but it will probably not happen in his lifetime.
If only America knew the fix was in.