The Black Sox Scandal: The History and Legacy of America's Most Notorious Sports Controversy

ISBN: 9781514869598
$9.99
$9.99
*Includes pictures
*Includes accounts of the scandal written by Sox players, newspapers, and more
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
*Includes a table of contents

“As Jackson departed from the Grand Jury room, a small boy clutched at his sleeve and tagged along after him. ‘Say it ain't so, Joe,’ he pleaded. ‘Say it ain't so.’ ‘Yes kid, I'm afraid it is,’ Jackson replied. ‘Well, I never would've thought it,’ the boy said.” - The Chicago Herald and Examiner, September 30, 1920

The 1919 World Series was one that baseball fans would never forget, but the memories are hardly fond. The Chicago White Sox were favored 5:1 to beat the Cincinnati Reds, and for the first time since 1903, the Series would be a best-of-nine format. However, at a time when players were treated as second class, some sought a payday beyond what they made in the leagues, and the White Sox players were some of the most poorly paid in the league. The owner of the team, Charles A. Comiskey, was one of the cheapest owners in the game, too cheap to pay to have the team’s uniforms laundered after games.

Around two weeks before the World Series was set to begin, Chicago first baseman Chick Gandil met with a gambler in his Boston hotel room. During that meeting, Gandil told Joseph Sullivan that for $100,000, he and other members of the White Sox were willing to take a dive and make sure that the Reds won the World Series. Gandil was able to convince the team’s top two pitchers to go along with the plan, as well as five other players, and gamblers came up with the money, including the famous New York City mobster Arnold Rothstein.
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