1919 World Series
The 1919 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the 1919 season. The 16th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion Chicago White Sox against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. Although most World Series have been of the best-of-seven format, the 1919 World Series was a best-of-nine series (along with 1903, 1920, and 1921). MLB decided to try the best-of-nine format partly to increase popularity of the sport and partly to generate more revenue.[1]
1919 World Series
October 1–9
Redland Field (Cincinnati)
Comiskey Park (Chicago)
Cy Rigler (NL), Billy Evans (AL)
Ernie Quigley (NL), Dick Nallin (AL)
Umpire:
Billy Evans
Reds:
Edd Roush
White Sox:
Eddie Collins
Red Faber (DNP)
Ray Schalk
The events of the 1919 World Series are often associated with the Black Sox Scandal, in which several members of the Chicago franchise conspired with gamblers, allegedly led by organized crime figure Arnold Rothstein, to throw the series. It was the last World Series to take place without a Commissioner of Baseball in place. In 1920, the various franchise owners installed Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first "Commissioner of Baseball".
In August 1921, despite being acquitted from criminal charges, eight players from the White Sox were banned from organized baseball for either fixing the series or having knowledge about the fix without alerting the league.[2]
Teams[edit]
Chicago White Sox[edit]
In 1919, the Chicago White Sox, who had won the World Series two years earlier, had the best record in the American League (AL).[2] Most of the same players had defeated the New York Giants in the 1917 series, four games to two. They had fallen to sixth place in the American League in 1918, largely as a result of losing their best player, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and a few other teammates to World War I service. The team's owner, Charles Comiskey, fired manager Pants Rowland after the season and replaced him with William "Kid" Gleason, who had played over twenty years in the majors but had never managed before. The 88–52 White Sox won the American League pennant again in 1919, by 3+1⁄2 games over the Cleveland Indians (world champions the following year).