"Say it Ain't So, Joe!"
The White Sox contended over the next decade, but did not bring home a pennant until 1917. Led by second baseman Eddie Collins and outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson, the White Sox now had offense to go with the pitching of Eddie Cicotte and Red Faber, and a strong defense anchored by catcher Ray Schalk. After an off-year in the war-shortened season of 1918, the club bounced back to win the pennant in 1919 and entered the World Series heavily favored to defeat the Cincinnati Reds.
However, 1919 was the year of the infamous Black Sox scandal. Eight White Sox players, including Cicotte and Jackson, were involved, to varying degrees, in a plot by gamblers to "fix" the World Series. Especially considering their lack of success since the scandal, many people feel that the White Sox have never quite overcome the stigma of being the only team to allegedly fix the World Series. During the 2005 World Series championship, much was made of this historic event, and there is an ongoing assumption that this World Series win has finally driven the Black Sox cloud away to a large extent.
In that era, gamblers often influenced baseball games. Many players on a number of teams - often frustrated by their inability to make what they felt was a fair wage for being elite athletes - were willing to participate in fixing the outcome of baseball games in exchange for cash. However, until the Black Sox scandal, rarely did such attempts to fix games blow up into scandals of this proportion. Usually such scandals were limited to individual players and games in the regular season. Never before, as far as can be demonstrated with this degree of certainty, had the gamblers been so brazen as to attempt to fix the championship series.
The official evidence relating to participation in the 'fix' by the various accused players came to light late in the 1920 season. It began with an investigation into a fixed Cubs game that had become very public knowledge, and soon the 1919 Series events were on the table. Comiskey, who himself had turned a blind eye to the rumors previously, was compelled to suspend the remaining seven players (Gandil, eventually perceived as the ringleader, the one "connected" to the gamblers, had retired after the 1919 season). The suspensions ground the team to a halt; it was well on its way to another pennant. However, the evidence of their involvement (signed confessions) disappeared from the Cook County courthouse, and lacking that tangible evidence, a criminal trial (whose scope was limited to the question of defrauding the public) ended in acquittals of all the players. Regardless, with the public's trust of the game of baseball at stake, newly-installed Commissioner of Baseball Judge Landis banned all the accused from baseball for life. As the players were leaving a hearing, legend has it that a young boy (said by some to have been a newsboy) yelled out to Shoeless Joe, "Say it ain't so, Joe!", although there is no evidence this exchange ever took place.
Though suspended from baseball, whether the eight players' efforts to fix the World Series definitively caused the team to lose remains unknowable, of course. Many players on the White Sox were not part of the fix and presumably did play their best. Evidence also suggests that at times many of the players aware of the fix did try their best, especially as the Series progressed. Shoeless Joe Jackson hit .375 for the Series. He swore under oath that he played to win the World Series and that he did not know some thought him involved until after the Series when he was handed money. Buck Weaver's crime was limited to having known of the plot and not having turned in his fellow ballplayers. Though it was readily acknowledged that he took no active role in the fix, he was disqualified for having done nothing to stop it.
The usual theory is that the players took part in this plot as an act of revenge against Comiskey, considered to be one of the meanest and tightest-fisted owners in the game. The term "Black Sox" came about earlier in the year, when Comiskey decided to make players pay for their own laundry. The players stopped doing their laundry in protest, and as their white stockings became soiled and dark, the writers tagged them with that nickname.
A pitch-by-pitch record of every at-bat of the entire World Series was kept and retained - something that had not been common practice before and would not become common practice for several more decades. Some baseball scholars who have studied this pitch-by-pitch record in tandem with other records of the game have said they cannot identify any additional specific evidence that might otherwise indicate the White Sox tried deliberately to act to fix this World Series. In contrast, there is the oft-reported story that at least one contemporary writer kept his own scorecard and marked plays that looked suspicious.
There was certainly no shortage of suspicion at the time. Just before the Series, it became known that gamblers had suddenly put lots of money on the heavy-underdog Reds. That fueled discussion that the Series had been "doped", in the slang of the day. The rumors were so public and so potent that the Official Baseball Guide for 1920 chided the accusers editorially, little knowing how the story would ultimately play out that year.
Although Jackson may have played relatively honestly, as a batter he had limited influence. The best insurance for the gamblers was to get some pitchers. Cicotte purposely lost Game 1, with the storied signal to the gamblers that the fix was on when he hit the first batter with the pitch. Lefty Williams, one of the "Eight Men Out", lost 3 games, a Series record. Dick Kerr, who was not part of the fix, won both of his starts. Cicotte bore down and won Game 7 of the best-5-of-9 Series, angry that the gamblers were now reneging on their promises, as they claimed that all the money was in the hands of bookies. Reportedly the team was told to lose Game 8 "or else", and they were trounced by the Reds to end the Series.
It is reasonable to speculate that the Sox would have won the Series had they played honestly. But in later years the Cincinnati Reds, a group of proud professionals led by Hall of Fame hitting star Edd Roush, asserted that they could have won the Series even if it had been played honestly. Ironically, it would be another two decades before the Reds returned to the Series themselves.
The White Sox had been the league's dominant team at the time, but were severely crippled by losing seven of their best players in the middle of their prime. The team dropped into seventh place in 1921 and would not contend again until 1936. During that stretch, only the 1925 and 1926 teams even managed to top .500. During this period, the Sox featured stars such as third baseman Willie Kamm, shortstop Luke Appling and pitcher Ted Lyons. However, an outstanding team was never developed around them, or a deep pitching staff. Led from 1934 to 1946 by popular manager Jimmie Dykes, the White Sox didn't completely recover from their malaise until the team was rebuilt in the 1950s under managers Paul Richards, Marty Marion, and Al Lopez.
Between the dumping of star players by the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox, and the decimation of the White Sox, a baseball "power vacuum" was created, into which the New York Yankees would soon move.
It is interesting to note that since 1920, although the White Sox have won fewer pennants than the Chicago Cubs or the Boston Red Sox - whose fans can be considered among the most angst-riddled fans in all of sports - as well as being responsible for perhaps the biggest scandal in baseball history, the White Sox' fan base has largely shrugged off their relative lack of success over the years, blaming it more on inferior teams, poor management and bad luck rather than some other-worldly "curse". Even the players who conspired to fix the 1919 World Series seem not to have been reviled or held responsible for the White Sox' lack of success as much as certain Cubs and Red Sox icons have been. Rightly or wrongly, those Sox players have often been seen as victims, and Comiskey himself has often been seen as bearing a large part of the blame for what happened.
There are also a number of people who have taken up Shoeless Joe Jackson's cause (notably in the movie Field of Dreams), campaigning for reversal of his ban from baseball, and thus clearing the way for his Hall of Fame induction, which would be a reasonable possibility if it were to be allowed to be voted upon. They point to sketchy evidence that he had acted to throw the World Series; his performance prior to his ban, and the fact that he was, most likely, driven to agreeing to fix the World Series by the lack of respect accorded to him by Comiskey. They also point to the fact that, immediately after the World Series, Jackson attempted to turn over his take from throwing the World Series to Comiskey's lawyer (a scene echoed in the movie version of The Natural); however, the lawyer would not take the money, telling Jackson to "go home to South Carolina" and that the episode would blow over before long.
In fact, until the Pete Rose scandal, players who had been permanently banned from baseball were still technically eligible for the Hall of Fame (which is run privately and independently from Major League Baseball), though there was a strong consensus among the voters that such players would not be considered. In the Rose scandal's aftermath, the ban was codified and the loophole closed before it became an issue.
However, 1919 was the year of the infamous Black Sox scandal. Eight White Sox players, including Cicotte and Jackson, were involved, to varying degrees, in a plot by gamblers to "fix" the World Series. Especially considering their lack of success since the scandal, many people feel that the White Sox have never quite overcome the stigma of being the only team to allegedly fix the World Series. During the 2005 World Series championship, much was made of this historic event, and there is an ongoing assumption that this World Series win has finally driven the Black Sox cloud away to a large extent.
In that era, gamblers often influenced baseball games. Many players on a number of teams - often frustrated by their inability to make what they felt was a fair wage for being elite athletes - were willing to participate in fixing the outcome of baseball games in exchange for cash. However, until the Black Sox scandal, rarely did such attempts to fix games blow up into scandals of this proportion. Usually such scandals were limited to individual players and games in the regular season. Never before, as far as can be demonstrated with this degree of certainty, had the gamblers been so brazen as to attempt to fix the championship series.
The official evidence relating to participation in the 'fix' by the various accused players came to light late in the 1920 season. It began with an investigation into a fixed Cubs game that had become very public knowledge, and soon the 1919 Series events were on the table. Comiskey, who himself had turned a blind eye to the rumors previously, was compelled to suspend the remaining seven players (Gandil, eventually perceived as the ringleader, the one "connected" to the gamblers, had retired after the 1919 season). The suspensions ground the team to a halt; it was well on its way to another pennant. However, the evidence of their involvement (signed confessions) disappeared from the Cook County courthouse, and lacking that tangible evidence, a criminal trial (whose scope was limited to the question of defrauding the public) ended in acquittals of all the players. Regardless, with the public's trust of the game of baseball at stake, newly-installed Commissioner of Baseball Judge Landis banned all the accused from baseball for life. As the players were leaving a hearing, legend has it that a young boy (said by some to have been a newsboy) yelled out to Shoeless Joe, "Say it ain't so, Joe!", although there is no evidence this exchange ever took place.
Though suspended from baseball, whether the eight players' efforts to fix the World Series definitively caused the team to lose remains unknowable, of course. Many players on the White Sox were not part of the fix and presumably did play their best. Evidence also suggests that at times many of the players aware of the fix did try their best, especially as the Series progressed. Shoeless Joe Jackson hit .375 for the Series. He swore under oath that he played to win the World Series and that he did not know some thought him involved until after the Series when he was handed money. Buck Weaver's crime was limited to having known of the plot and not having turned in his fellow ballplayers. Though it was readily acknowledged that he took no active role in the fix, he was disqualified for having done nothing to stop it.
The usual theory is that the players took part in this plot as an act of revenge against Comiskey, considered to be one of the meanest and tightest-fisted owners in the game. The term "Black Sox" came about earlier in the year, when Comiskey decided to make players pay for their own laundry. The players stopped doing their laundry in protest, and as their white stockings became soiled and dark, the writers tagged them with that nickname.
A pitch-by-pitch record of every at-bat of the entire World Series was kept and retained - something that had not been common practice before and would not become common practice for several more decades. Some baseball scholars who have studied this pitch-by-pitch record in tandem with other records of the game have said they cannot identify any additional specific evidence that might otherwise indicate the White Sox tried deliberately to act to fix this World Series. In contrast, there is the oft-reported story that at least one contemporary writer kept his own scorecard and marked plays that looked suspicious.
There was certainly no shortage of suspicion at the time. Just before the Series, it became known that gamblers had suddenly put lots of money on the heavy-underdog Reds. That fueled discussion that the Series had been "doped", in the slang of the day. The rumors were so public and so potent that the Official Baseball Guide for 1920 chided the accusers editorially, little knowing how the story would ultimately play out that year.
Although Jackson may have played relatively honestly, as a batter he had limited influence. The best insurance for the gamblers was to get some pitchers. Cicotte purposely lost Game 1, with the storied signal to the gamblers that the fix was on when he hit the first batter with the pitch. Lefty Williams, one of the "Eight Men Out", lost 3 games, a Series record. Dick Kerr, who was not part of the fix, won both of his starts. Cicotte bore down and won Game 7 of the best-5-of-9 Series, angry that the gamblers were now reneging on their promises, as they claimed that all the money was in the hands of bookies. Reportedly the team was told to lose Game 8 "or else", and they were trounced by the Reds to end the Series.
It is reasonable to speculate that the Sox would have won the Series had they played honestly. But in later years the Cincinnati Reds, a group of proud professionals led by Hall of Fame hitting star Edd Roush, asserted that they could have won the Series even if it had been played honestly. Ironically, it would be another two decades before the Reds returned to the Series themselves.
The White Sox had been the league's dominant team at the time, but were severely crippled by losing seven of their best players in the middle of their prime. The team dropped into seventh place in 1921 and would not contend again until 1936. During that stretch, only the 1925 and 1926 teams even managed to top .500. During this period, the Sox featured stars such as third baseman Willie Kamm, shortstop Luke Appling and pitcher Ted Lyons. However, an outstanding team was never developed around them, or a deep pitching staff. Led from 1934 to 1946 by popular manager Jimmie Dykes, the White Sox didn't completely recover from their malaise until the team was rebuilt in the 1950s under managers Paul Richards, Marty Marion, and Al Lopez.
Between the dumping of star players by the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox, and the decimation of the White Sox, a baseball "power vacuum" was created, into which the New York Yankees would soon move.
It is interesting to note that since 1920, although the White Sox have won fewer pennants than the Chicago Cubs or the Boston Red Sox - whose fans can be considered among the most angst-riddled fans in all of sports - as well as being responsible for perhaps the biggest scandal in baseball history, the White Sox' fan base has largely shrugged off their relative lack of success over the years, blaming it more on inferior teams, poor management and bad luck rather than some other-worldly "curse". Even the players who conspired to fix the 1919 World Series seem not to have been reviled or held responsible for the White Sox' lack of success as much as certain Cubs and Red Sox icons have been. Rightly or wrongly, those Sox players have often been seen as victims, and Comiskey himself has often been seen as bearing a large part of the blame for what happened.
There are also a number of people who have taken up Shoeless Joe Jackson's cause (notably in the movie Field of Dreams), campaigning for reversal of his ban from baseball, and thus clearing the way for his Hall of Fame induction, which would be a reasonable possibility if it were to be allowed to be voted upon. They point to sketchy evidence that he had acted to throw the World Series; his performance prior to his ban, and the fact that he was, most likely, driven to agreeing to fix the World Series by the lack of respect accorded to him by Comiskey. They also point to the fact that, immediately after the World Series, Jackson attempted to turn over his take from throwing the World Series to Comiskey's lawyer (a scene echoed in the movie version of The Natural); however, the lawyer would not take the money, telling Jackson to "go home to South Carolina" and that the episode would blow over before long.
In fact, until the Pete Rose scandal, players who had been permanently banned from baseball were still technically eligible for the Hall of Fame (which is run privately and independently from Major League Baseball), though there was a strong consensus among the voters that such players would not be considered. In the Rose scandal's aftermath, the ban was codified and the loophole closed before it became an issue.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home