FSD History Flashback: October 9

On October 9, 1919, one of the most controversial stories in the history of sports had surfaced in the finale of the World Series. It was on this day that the Chicago White Sox hosted the Cincinnati Reds in Game 8 as they looked to avoid being eliminated from winning a championship. Because of baseball wanting to increase attendance and revenue, the format was switched to a best-of-nine series instead of the standard seven games.

On the hill for the White Sox was Lefty Williams who faced Reds pitcher Hod Eller. Williams was one of the eight men involved in "fixing" games in the Black Sox Scandal. In the first inning of Game 8, Williams threw mediocre fastballs that allowed the Reds to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Williams didn't get out of the first inning. Williams had lost his previous two starts in convincing and controversial fashion in Game 2 and in Game 5.

With the score 5-0 in the bottom of the 3rd inning, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson hit the only home run of the series which brought the score to 5-1. Big Bill James had taken over for Williams, but couldn't hold the Reds offense down. The White Sox would get four runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, but the Reds still won 10-5 because of both pitchers being ineffective for Chicago. The Reds won the series 5 games to 3.

Rumors were flying all across the country that the games were "fixed" by players during and after the World Series. Many bets were placed on the Reds winning the series which was one of the signs that something wasn't right because the White Sox were viewed by many to be the superior team. Just before the series began, the plan was put in place to throw the series after disgruntlement from players towards Chicago owner Charlie Comiskey. Joseph Sullivan, a pro gambler, had approached White Sox first baseman Arnold Gandil. New York gangster Arnold Rothstein as well as boxing champion Abe Atell were also involved in putting the plan in the place.

Gandil then enlisted seven teammates: starting pitchers Lefty Williams and Eddie Cicotte, outfielders Jackson and Oscar "Happy" Felsch, infielder Charles "Swede" Rinsberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, and utility infielder Fred McMullin. Weaver had refused to take part in this, and McMullin was only involved after threatening to go public with the scandal unless he was to get paid. Both Jackson and Weaver protested their innocence in the scandal until their deaths. All eight players were banned from the game for life the following year, including Weaver because of his knowledge of the scandal that had taken place.

This wasn't the first time baseball had seen problems with gambling or "fixing". In 1865, three players from the New York Mutual team were banned for gambling, but later were allowed to come back to their league. Because of those issues amongst other things, the National League came into existance in 1876 with stiffer penalties.

In the National League's inaugural year, Louisville Grays player George Betchel was banned for life after conspiring with teammates to throw a game for $500. Four other Grays players were banned in 1877 for throwing two games. The only umpire to ever be banned from the game was Richard Higham in 1882, who conspired to help the Detroit Wolverines team win the pennant after the owner of the team hired a private investigator to find out he was associated with well-known gamblers. Giants team physician Joseph Creamer was banned for bribing an umpire with $2,500 to conspire against the Chicago Cubs during a playoff game in 1908.

In 1910, St. Louis Browns manager Jack O'Connor and coach Harry Howell were banned after attempting to "fix" the outcome of the American League batting title race in their game against Cleveland for Nap Lajoie. They attempted to "fix" the outcome of the race so that Lajoie could win the batting title instead of Detroit player Ty Cobb. Philadelphia Phillies owner Horace Fogel was also banned from the game in 1912 for publicly thrashing umpires for the calls they made in which he said they favored the Giants over his team. Of the 14 people that received bans before the Black Sox Scandal, 13 of them were related to gambling or throwing games. The only other one was in 1877 when Oscar Walker was banned for "contract jumping" in which he signed with one team after already being under contract to the team he left. Of course the most famous gambling incident took place in 1989 that led to Pete Rose getting a lifetime ban from the sport.

Jackson's part is controversial on many counts. He did lead all players with a .375 batting average for the entire series. But the majority of his production came in the three wins, and when the games were seemingly out of reach in the five losses. There was an unusually high amount of triples hit to left field in the series where Jackson played, and not many were hit there in the regular season because of his strong defensive play. It should be important to note that Jackson was illiterate, and that this could have been a factor with his involvement, or lack thereof, with this. He did admit to complaining about not getting paid $20,000 for his involvement, but rescinded his story later. Evidence has since surfaced that brings doubt to his involvement in the scandal.

Jackson may have been coached by his attorney to not speak the truth about his involvement after being told what to say when questioned. Because of his illiteracy and lack of education in general, it's possible that this could have happened. Some of his testimony would have brought criminal charges today compared to when this happened. The other seven players later said that Jackson's name was mentioned only to give them credibility, and that he didn't attend the meetings about the scandal. It's still unclear of his exact involvement. Jackson died in 1951.

Even though the court acquitted the players of any wrong-doing, MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Landis wasn't so forgiving. Landis banned all eight players for life after the 1920 season was complete.

The scandal directly effected baseball for the next year after many failed to put trust into the game. The White Sox had been in the pennant race against Cleveland the following season only to lose out to them during the last week. The game did come back on the heels of Babe Ruth being sold to the Yankees in the off-season. In a symbolic way, this incident not only changed the future of the game off the field, but on it. The game had begun to launch the longball era with Ruth leading the way, and baseball quickly took notice as he helped to bring fans back to the game in record numbers in the 1920s.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org and shows the 1919 Chicago White Sox team.

Thanks for viewing, and I hope you enjoyed today's FSD History Flashback!

Posted in: baseball, Black Sox, Chicago, Cincinnati Reds, Major League Baseball, MLB, scandal, White Sox

Reactions: