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Black Sox Scandal

The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of losing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds on purpose in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate led by organized crime figure Arnold Rothstein. In response, the National Baseball Commission was dissolved and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed to be the first Commissioner of Baseball, given absolute control over the sport to restore its integrity.

"Black Sox" redirects here. For other uses, see Black Sox (disambiguation).

Despite acquittals in a public trial in 1921, Commissioner Landis permanently banned all eight players from professional baseball. The Baseball Hall of Fame eventually defined the punishment as banishment from consideration for the Hall. Despite requests for reinstatement in the decades that followed (particularly in the case of Shoeless Joe Jackson), the ban remains in force.[1]

Fallout[edit]

Grand jury (1920)[edit]

Rumors of the fix dogged the White Sox throughout the 1920 season as they battled the Cleveland Indians for the American League pennant, and stories of corruption touched players on other clubs as well. At last, in September 1920, a grand jury was convened to investigate; Cicotte confessed to his participation in the scheme to the grand jury on September 28.[13]


On the eve of their final season series, the White Sox were in a virtual tie for first place with the Indians. The Sox would need to win all three of their remaining games and then hope for Cleveland to stumble, as the Indians had more games left to play than the Sox. Despite the season being on the line, Comiskey suspended the seven White Sox still in the majors (Gandil had not returned to the team in 1920 and was playing semi-pro ball). He later said he had no choice but to suspend them, even though this action likely cost the Sox any chance of winning a second pennant. The Sox lost two of the three games in the final series against the St. Louis Browns and finished in second place, two games behind the Indians, who went on to win the 1920 World Series.


The grand jury issued its decision on October 22, 1920, and eight players and five gamblers were implicated. The indictments included nine counts of conspiracy to defraud.[14] The ten players not implicated in the gambling scandal, as well as manager Kid Gleason, were each given $1,500 bonus checks (equivalent to $22,800 in 2023) by Comiskey in the fall of 1920, the amount equaling the difference between the winners' and losers' share for participation in the 1919 Series.[15]

's book Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series is the best-known description of the scandal.

Eliot Asinof

Brendan Boyd's novel Blue Ruin: A Novel of the 1919 World Series offers a first-person narrative of the event from the perspective of , a Boston gambler involved in fixing the series.

Sport Sullivan

In 's novel The Great Gatsby, a minor character named Meyer Wolfsheim was said to have helped in the Black Sox scandal, though this is purely fictional. In explanatory notes accompanying the novel's 75th-anniversary edition, editor Matthew Bruccoli describes the character as being based on Arnold Rothstein.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

In 's novel Shoeless Joe & Me (2002), the protagonist, Joe, goes back in time to try to prevent Shoeless Joe from being banned for life.

Dan Gutman

's novel Shoeless Joe is the story of an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield after hearing a mysterious voice. Later, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other members of the Black Sox come to play on his field. The novel was adapted into the 1989 hit film Field of Dreams. Jackson plays a central role in inspiring protagonist Ray Kinsella to reconcile with his past.

W. P. Kinsella

's 1952 novel The Natural and its 1984 filmed dramatization of the same name were inspired significantly by the events of the scandal.

Bernard Malamud

's novel Hoopla, alternately co-narrated by Buck Weaver and Luther Pond, a fictitious New York Daily News columnist, attempts to view the Black Sox Scandal from Weaver's perspective.

Harry Stein

Dan Elish's book The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 gives a general overview.

The Black Sox Scandal: The History And Legacy Of America's Most Notorious Sports Controversy by Charles River Editors talks about the events surrounding the scandal and describes the people involved.

"Go! Go! Go! Forty Years Ago" Nelson Algren, Chicago Sun-Times, 1959

"Ballet for Opening Day: The Swede Was a Hard Guy" Algren, Nelson. The Southern Review, Baton Rouge. Spring 1942: p. 873.

"The Last Carousel" © Nelson Algren, 1973, Seven Stories Press, New York 1997 (both Algren stories are included in this collection)

which led to the banishment of all-time hits leader Pete Rose as a result of gambling.

Dowd Report

Major League Baseball scandals

List of people banned from Major League Baseball

Cottrell, Robert C. (2001). . McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786411641.

Blackball, the Black Sox, and the Babe: Baseball's Crucial 1920 Season

Pellowski, Michael J. (2003). . Enslow Publishers. ISBN 978-0766020443.

The Chicago "Black Sox" Baseball Scandal: A Headline Court Case

Fountain, Charles (2015). The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball. Oxford University Press.  978-0199795130.

ISBN

Hornbaker, Tim (2018). Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson. Sports Publishing.  978-1-6835-8201-4.

ISBN

Hornbaker, Tim (2014). . Sports Publishing. ISBN 978-1-6132-1638-5.

Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey

at the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

1919 Chicago White Sox essays

- The History Files

The Black Sox Scandal

at the Chicago Historical Society

A Century of Scandal