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How Did The Black Sox Scandal Affect Baseball's Legacy

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The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd—baseball represents unity and competition. It used to be known as one of America’s favorite sports. However, at the 1919 World Series there was a scandal that would forever change the way people thought of the game. The 1919 World Series, also known as the Black Sox Scandal, remains a controversial topic, sparking debate about its impact on baseball’s legacy. An examination of the evidence, however, indicates that the events of the Black Sox Scandal represented athleticism that forever altered people’s view of America’s favorite sport. As shown by the infamous Black Sox Scandal, the 1919 World Series was corrupted in itself. Talented members of that White Sox club conspired with professional gamblers …show more content…

Arnold “Chick” Gandil and gambler Joseph “Sport” Sullivan met to discuss the possibility of Sox players deliberately tanking in the championship (Andrews). Gamblers have been bribing underpaid ballplayers since as early as 1865, but it was always only for inside tips. That’s why the Black Sox scandal was so surprising, it was rare and even unseen for them to try to rig something as big as the World Series. Gandil was worried that the scheme wouldn’t even work, but later agreed to work with the gamblers for a payout of around $100,000. However, he couldn’t do this alone. He soon enlisted White Sox pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude “Lefty” Williams, shortstop Charles “Swede” Risberg and outfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch into the scheme (Andrews). He had also recruited other players and while some of them had stayed, a few had pulled out of the deal. Several bookies had the White Sox winning the World Series over the …show more content…

After Game 5, the Reds led the series 4-1. The Black Sox hadn't received some of their promised money from gamblers and attempted to double cross them by winning Game 6 and 7 (Pinak). By Game 8, the Black Sox were threatened, leading them to lose. The Reds went on to win the World Series 5-3, and eight Sox players were banned from baseball permanently. The fallout of the Black Sox scandal changed the way Americans looked at baseball. They had worried about the legitimacy of the game throughout all the years it had been played. The sport's reputation was damaged and the future of the game in jeopardy (Pinak). Nobody trusted the players or the management of any sports team due to excessive gambling. Yet, not only did it affect the way Americans viewed baseball, it affected several other aspects of their lives. Occurring as it did in a moment of dizzying social change in America, it jolted the nation’s idea of itself (Stein). Everyone viewed this event as the ultimate “betrayal”. They didn’t want to believe it, but fans were so upset. Thus, attendance at games decreased as their confidence in the sport decreased. Baseball is now viewed as nothing more than corruption and

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Maharg's third connection with major league baseball came in 1919 as he conspired to fix the 1919 World Series—the infamous Black Sox Scandal. Several White Sox players, including Eddie Cicotte, Chick Gandil, and Swede Risberg, conspired with Sleepy Bill Burns, a former big-league pitcher, to throw the World Series in exchange for $100,000. Billy Maharg worked with Burns to find financing. Maharg and Burns approached New York gambler Arnold Rothstein to raise the money for the players. Other gamblers soon entered the picture, whereupon the players, Maharg and Burns suffered multiple double-crosses.

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Work Cited: Goetsch, Douglas. "Baseball 's Loss Of Innocence: When The 1919 Black Sox Scandal Shattered Ring Lardner 's Reverence For The Game, The Great Sportswriter Took A Permanent Walk." American Scholar 80.2 (2011): 82-95. Literary Reference Center. Web.

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The year is 1919. The White Sox are playing against the Cincinnati Reds in the world series. The Cincinnati Reds beat the White Sox, however, eight of the White Sox players were accused of throwing the game, which is just intentionally losing the game. There are many reasons why their team could have done this, but it was obviously because of money. There are also many problems with what they did and why they would decide to do it.

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In 1963, Eliot Asinof published Eight Men Out. This book told of the 1919 Chicago White Sox baseball team and their throwing of the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. When one first hears of this throwing, one of the first things that may come to mind is greed. It is shocking to think that eight players would be willing to throw away the most coveted title of their sport for money. But as Asinof takes the reader through the Black Sox’s story, it becomes more prevalent that greed may not have been the driving factor.

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Even the owner of the Black Sox, Charles Comiskey was so worried about the influence gambling might have on game results that he posted sign in his stadium reading “No Betting Allowed In This Park” (Pellowski 34). “After opening-day loss in the 1919 World Series, Chicago manager Kid Gleason, as well as catcher Ray Schalk knew something was up” (Pellowski 55). As the incidents before stopped the fix. After they abandoned the deal they won two games and being back in the race (Andrews). “Rumors went around that the Reds had beat the best team in the league” (u-s-history.com).

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However, with many key players such as Eddie Cicotte and Joe Jackson throwing the game with many questionable plays, winning the series was out of the question. Many viewers had believed that there was no way in which the Chicago White Sox would lose as with the prediction of Hugh Fullerton (a knowledgeable sports prognosticator) they were to win 5-3, however, Fullerton “and his fellow scribes heard rumors that the series was fixed” (Nathan 16). This then caused Fullerton to look over every questionable play and from then he had gathered that the series was rigged and that the game had been set since game 1, however when he tried to publish the article no publisher was willing to publish it as it was seen as too risky and would tarnish the publisher. This was until December 15th when the article had finally been published and the title read “Is Big League Baseball Being Run for Gamblers, with the Players in the Deal?” (Nathan 18).

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It didn’t do much though as the Reds would go on to win the World Series with a game 8 score of 10-5. The Scandal would be confirmed a year after the win, with the confessions from Cicotte, Williams, Jackson, and Felsch. The four admitted to intentionally throwing the games due to bribes. Charles Comiskey, the owner of the White Sox, suspended seven players since Gandil was already suspended due to a salary dispute.

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‘They not only sold [the series]’ Abe Attell later claimed, ‘but they sold it wherever they could get a buck.’ Bookies had previously had the Sox winning the World Series over the underdog Cincinnati Reds by as much as three-to-one, but the odds shifted after those in the know Silva 2 began betting heaps of cash on the Reds. As the championship drew near, the streets buzzed with rumors that several White Sox players were in the pocket of high stakes gamblers” (The Black Sox Baseball Scandal, 95 Years Ago). These White Sox players that ended up accepting the bribes ended up being known as the “Black Sox”.

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Following this Ruth revitalized the sport of baseball. During this time baseball was a ‘dying sport’, this didn’t mean that it was going away it just meant that it was losing popularity. The regular viewer believed it to be boring and long, as well as the negative image brought by the Black Sox cheating scandal in 1919. When the dual threat Babe Ruth

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The Black Sox’s scandal is one of the biggest scandals in baseball history. The “White Stockings”, formed in 1900 as a franchise of the American league under the ownership of Charles Comiskey, later shortened their name in 1902 to the White Sox’s. In the White sox’s first year they had one the league championship, by 1903 the American and National Leagues had agreed to meet in and end of the year playoff. Later to be called the World Series, the White Sox won this by crushing Chicago Cubs four games to two.

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Many know the name, Arnold Rothstein. He is a famous gambler is plays a huge role of the black sox scandal. In fact people believed he is the one who set the whole thing up. Rothstein’s agents paid eight of the players from the Chicago whites to throw the game. He made a huge profit from the game.

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In “Baseball in the West” from Historynet.com, by Gregory Lalire, proposes the idea that baseball affected American History and it’s people in many ways. Some ways that influenced America was baseball becoming a relief for people, and it increased business opportunities, likewise it united many people, in addition it increased travel to other places. Baseball has become popular and is still widely played by many people in the U.S. It is the United States’ oldest sport and is still called “ America’s national past time. Baseball is moreover important in American culture and our values.

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“Fixed the World’s Series?” I repeated. The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the World’s Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I had thought of it at all I would have thought of it as a thing that merely HAPPENED, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people—with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe” (Fitzgerald).

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The 1920’s was the decade between the end of the Great Depression, following the Stock Market Crash. But at that time no one knows what is going to happen at that moment. The introduction of baseball

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“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday 's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That 's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that 's the way baseball is”(Bob Feller). People in America besides the food, the jobs, and the freedom love and enjoy Americas sports. While a great many of people see football as “America 's game”, baseball has been “America 's game” for over a generation.

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