Saying Its So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal (Sport and Society)

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The 1919 Black Sox Baseball Scandal Was Just One of Many

However, the rumors continued to dog the White Sox throughout the season, as the team battled the Cleveland Indians for the AL pennant that year, and stories of corruption touched players on other clubs as well. At last, in September , a grand jury was convened to investigate.

During the investigation, three players — Cicotte, Jackson, and Williams — confessed to the grand jury, and the eight players were tried for their role in the fix. A few of the underworld figures were also called to testify, including Arnold Rothstein himself, but their accounts only served to muddy the waters. Prior to the trial, some of the grand jury transcripts, including the players' confessions, were stolen from the prosecutors' office.

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But when the theft was revealed, the players' testimony was quickly re-created using notes from the court recorder and re-read into the record. This incident had little effect on the trial or its outcome. The players were acquitted following a jury deliberation of nearly three hours on August 2, The Leagues were not so forgiving. After Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed to investigate the fix, all eight players were banned from organized baseball for life, and Landis was appointed the inaugural Commissioner of Baseball.

Another player, Joe Gedeon of the St. Louis Browns , was also banned for having played a role in one of the attempts to double cross the original fixers. Landis went on a crusade against gambling as Commissioner, banning or suspending several players, and establishing rules against association with gambling that stand to this day.

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It was very harsh, but it succeeded in restoring the public's confidence. Some of the banned players later applied to Landis for reinstatement, but the Commissioner never budged. He also threatened any other player caught participating in a game with any of the banned players with being banned in turn, although he rarely if ever followed through on that threat and several players who took the field with the banned Black Sox in independent semipro or "outlaw" games later played in the major leagues, including Ernie Wingard , Syd Cohen , and Emmett Nelson , among others.

Felsch, Risberg, and Weaver eventually settled out of court, but Jackson's case went to trial in in Milwaukee, WI , where the White Sox were incorporated. The jury found in his favor, but the presiding judge set aside the verdict as some of his testimony contradicted what he had told the grand jury in , thereby constituting a prima facie case of perjury.

Although many believe the Black Sox name to be related to the dark and corrupt nature of the conspiracy, the term Black Sox may have already existed before the fix was investigated.

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There is a probably apocryphal story that the name "Black Sox" was given because parsimonious owner Charles Comiskey refused to pay for the players' uniforms to be laundered, instead insisting that the players themselves pay for the cleaning. The players refused, and the subsequent series of games saw the White Sox play in progressively dirtier uniforms, as dust, sweat, and grime collected on the white, woolen uniforms until they took on a much darker shade.

On the other hand, Eliot Asinof in his book Eight Men Out makes no such connection, referring early on to filthy uniforms but only referring to the term "Black Sox" in connection with the scandal. What is certain is that the scandal left a black mark on the Chicago franchise. The great team which Comiskey had assembled was in ruins, and it would take years before the White Sox were competitive again.

As for a return to the World Series, they had to wait until , when they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team would not be World Champions again until , a gap between titles long enough for many fans to think that the team had been cursed for tampering with one of the basic tenets of the game.

Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal

The Black Sox Scandal had a large impact on Americans' imaginations. Baseball had become enormously popular across the country in the first two decades of the 20th Century. It had become a much more reputable endeavor during that time, with prominent personages such as Connie Mack , owner-manager of the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson giving the sport respectability.

Beginning with William Howard Taft , Presidents would regularly attend ball games, and all of the country's newspapers covered the World Series in great detail. Magnificent concrete and steel ballparks had risen up in all the Major League cities to replace the makeshift ball yards of the previous century, increasing attendance by leaps and bounds. Thus, the scandal was played out before an enormous audience and ingrained itself profoundly on the nation's consciousness.

The following are a number of works of literature, film and music, inspired by the events of the World Series and the ensuing scandal:. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction?

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Data Citation of the Item Saying it's so: Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces. Nathan Local Identifier http: Resource Description Namespaces http: Network Analysis Inbound Links 1 1 Total. Shared in Network This resource is rare in the Library.