History Of The Black Sox Scandal

Baseball in the late 1910’s and 1920’s was booming and starting to become America’s pastime. The 1920’s was the Golden age for sports all through America and became known as the “Age of the Spectator” (Syrett, par. 3). More people were willing to follow their teams and pay to see them. There was one huge controversy that started this golden era known as the Black Sox Scandal. The White Sox were actually paid to throw the World series and people argue today why they would do that. Although some historians think that the Chicago White Sox players made their decision for lack of wanting to win, it was honestly instant pleasure financially being the motive for fixing the World Series.

The 1919 World Series began on October 1 in Cincinnati and

For example the highest paid player was making $12,000 and the star player Joe Jackson along with the other seven caught in the scandal were not even making half of that (“Say it ain’t so Joe,” par. 4). The stadium was filling up with spectators all season, and the owner was keeping all profits for himself. Throughout the whole year there was tension between the players and ownership for not adjusting any contracts. This was a reason for throwing the world series to finally get back at ownership that was not paying them enough for actually earning those profits. The money that these players should have earned would be used for helping families and for luxuries that baseball players used to not be able to buy. There was one quote from Eddie Cicotte in the courtroom about his family,”They wanted me to go crooked. I don't know. I needed the money. I had the wife and the kids. The wife and the kids don't know about this. I don't know what they'll think."(Linder, par. 27). Eddie Cicotte wanted to help his family with the additional money and therefore put everything at risk. This is just one account of the players doing this for families. When a man’s wants money for their family, he will do anything to meet their wants. Since the players were being cheated by their owner, they took matters into their own hands, along with some help, to get money in a different

One gambler was noted saying,”Don't be silly. It's been pulled before and it can be again." (Linder, par. 4). If someone is told this, it makes a person feel relieved that they are safe and not risking anything. From some perspective, the gamblers were right that no one would notice and the players were not lied to. One umpire was quoted saying” We'll, I guess I'm just a big dope. That Series looked alright to me." (Linder, par. 19). Even the officials did not see anything out of the ordinary with these games. There were other rumors going around about the fix and many people started to believe that. There was an article published in December of 1919 titled “IS BIG LEAGUE BASEBALL BEING RUN FOR GAMBLERS, WITH BALLPLAYERS IN THE DEAL?”(Linder, par. 25). Once this was releases in Chicago it was all downhill from there. The investigation began and everything came out. The players were for sure guilty until some evidence was lost and never recovered. They were set free but suspicion still lurked and they were all banned from Major League Baseball (“Baseball,” par. 6, 7). Everything seemed too easy for the players and the deal was just too nice to pass up, Make some money while staying out of