Why Did So Many Baseball Players Win The 1919

The 1919 World Series had America talking, but for all the wrong reasons. Eight White Sox players were accused of letting the Cincinnati Reds win the 1919 World Series, through many errors, timely strikeouts, and overall suspicion. Many began to question, was the 1919 world series fixed, or simply just a bad few games on behalf of the White Sox? Baseball was at the peak of his popularity during this time period, and baseball players were very widely known and respected. After World War I, American needed a new national pastime and baseball is what most americans turned to. In 1919, the most paid baseball player was Ty Cobb, who was paid twenty thousand dollars annually. Twenty thousand dollar back then was considered to be around two hundred

Gandil was the man who was in charge of persuading all of the other players to be on board with the losing of the World Series. The first players to be accused in this possible scandal was outfielder Oscar “Happy” Felsch, pitcher Eddie Cicotte, and Buck Weaver, Chicago’s third baseman. Felsch was one of the few that were easily convicted on being apart of this group of players who planned to lose their games. During the World Series, Felsch’s batting average was terrible, and he also made errors in game changing situations. Felsch’s annual salary was only two thousand and seven hundred dollars and Gandil offered him five thousand dollars to intentionally lose. The money easily convinced Oscar “Happy” Felsch. Cicotte was the next to go. Gandil knew that Cicotte recently bought a farm and had a wife and kids. Gandil knew who he was targeting to get this done. Cicotte accepted to throwing the games for a fee of ten thousand dollars before the games. Buck Weaver was one of the best fielders in the game of baseball at this time. During the World Series Weaver played the best of his ability without any errors. However, Buck Weaver was still involved in this scandal as he knew about the intentional losing from his teammates, but never told the team officials. Buck Weaver was one that was always trying to get cleared of his involvement in this scandal, but he was never cleared as his files were