1919 Black Sox Scandal: Throwing Games

1919 Black Sox Scandal: Throwing Games

1919 Black Sox Scandal: Throwing Games

The first well documented scandal in Major League Baseball history was the Black Sox scandal of 1919 which involved 8 players on the Chicago White Sox throwing games in order to receive money from gamblers. The background of this scandal involved the owner of the White Sox organization, Charles Comiskey, being viewed by his players in a negative light. Comiskey was well known for being cheap, underpaying his players and preventing some of them from achieving their required milestones to receive salary bonuses.

The White Sox went on to win the 1917 World Series, but during the regular season pitcher Eddie Cicotte was closing in on a 30-win season which would have given him a $10,000 bonus, but Comiskey had other ideas. Comiskey requested that Cicotte be benched to prevent him from winning his 30th game, and the White Sox coaching staff granted Comiskey his request.

The origins of the fixing of the 1919 World Series was said to begin in Boston, just before the conclusion of the 1919 regular season. White Sox first baseman Chick Gandil reportedly asked for a professional gambler to visit him in his hotel room. Gandil had a conversation with “Sport” Sullivan and demanded $80,000 for himself and for any other players he could convince to join him.

Discussions of a World Series fix began to gain steam between Eddie Cicotte, outfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch and third baseman Buck Weaver. Cicotte was experiencing pressing economic issues as he purchased a Michigan farm that came with high mortgage payments. Gandil recruited Cicotte knowing this fact. Shortstop “Swede” Risberg and infielder Fred McMullin soon joined in on the act, and pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams closely followed. Last but not least, Gandil attempted to recruit “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, the best hitter on the White Sox.

A meeting between these players to organize the fix took place in Gandil’s room at New York’s Ansonia Hotel on September 21. The next day on September 22, Gandil confirmed to Sport Sullivan that the fix was on as long as the $80,000 would be given to the players before the start of the World Series. Not to be outdone by Sullivan, another gambler named “Sleepy” Bill Burns offered to give 5 players, Gandil, Felsch, Williams, Risberg and Cicotte, a $100,000 deal with an even $20,000 split.

In the 1919 World Series, Joe Jackson batted .375, scored 5 runs, batted in 6 runs and hit the only home run of the Fall Classic. It is debated whether or not Jackson ever tried to throw the World Series, but because of his confession in 1921, it is a concrete fact that he received at least $5,000 from gamblers. Buck Weaver is also a questionable figure in this fix as he batted .324 in the World Series.

Suspicions of the White Sox throwing the World Series grew throughout the 1920 regular season, and it wasn’t until an impromptu conversation between Sox manager Kid Gleason and professional gambler Abe Attell in a New York bar in July that those suspicions would be confirmed. In this conversation, it had been revealed that Arnold Rothstein had been the mastermind behind the fix. Gleason immediately contacted the local Chicago media about this story, but was unable to get the story printed right away in the newspapers.

Another fix of a baseball game, this time involving the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies, was reported on August 31, 1920, and this led to the Grand Jury of Cook County getting involved. New York Giants pitcher Rube Benton was one of many to testify before this jury and he revealed that in late September 1919 he saw a telegram that was sent to a Giants teammate of his, and this telegram was from Bill Burns. In this telegram, Burns confirmed that the White Sox would lose the 1919 World Series.

Towards the end of the 1920 regular season, Charles Comiskey sent a telegram to the 8 implicated White Sox players that would be made available to the public, which stated that they would be suspended indefinitely. This effectively dashed all hopes of the White Sox going after the American League pennant and the World Series title in 1920.

Eddie Cicotte was the first to confess of his participation in the fix during the 1920 regular season, and it would only go downhill from there. The 8 implicated White Sox players were indicted along with 5 gamblers on October 22, 1920. The suspected players stood trial for the fix and for the proceeding cover-up, which began on June 27, 1921. There were 5 official charges held against them, including conspiring to defraud the public, conspiring to defraud White Sox teammate Ray Schalk, conspiring to commit a confidence game, and conspiring to injure the businesses of the American League and Charles Comiskey.

On July 29, 1921 the jury deliberated for only a few hours and they unanimously reached a verdict of not guilty for all 8 players. However, the players wouldn’t be able to celebrate for long because on the very next day the new Commissioner of Major League Baseball Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis issued a statement to the press that regardless of the jury’s decision, he would give the 8 players lifetime bans from the game of baseball. Despite their attempts to convince the commissioner to reinstate them, and Buck Weaver had tried harder than anyone else, Landis upheld the lifetime bans.