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The Black Sox Scandal refers to a number of events that took place around and during the play of the 1919 World Series . The name "Black Sox" also refers to the Chicago White Sox team from that year. Eight members of the Chicago franchise were banned from baseball for Throwing (intentionally losing) games. THE FIX The plan was thought up by local gamblers, but rumor has it that New York gangster Arnold Rothstein supplied the major connections needed. The money was supplied by Abe Attell , former featherweight boxing champion, who accepted the offer even though he didn't have the $80,000 that the White Sox wanted. The conspiracy was the brainchild of White Sox first baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil and Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, who was a professional gambler of Gandil's acquaintance. Gandil enlisted seven of his teammates, motivated by a mixture of greed and a dislike of penurious club owner Charles Comiskey , to implement the fix. Starting pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams , outfielders "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Oscar "Happy" Felsch , and infielder Charles "Swede" Risberg were all involved. Buck Weaver was also asked to participate, but refused; he was later banned with the others for knowing of the fix but not reporting it. Utility infielder Fred McMullin was not initially approached, but got word of the fix and threatened to report the others unless he was in on the payoff. Sullivan and his two associates Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy Maharg , somewhat out of their depth, approached Rothstein to provide the money for the players, who were promised a total of $100,000. Stories of the "Black Sox" scandal have usually included Comiskey in its gallery of subsidiary villains, focusing in particular on his intentions regarding a clause in Cicotte's contract that would have paid Cicotte an additional $10,000 bonus for winning 30 games. According to Eliot Asinof's account of the events, '' Eight Men Out '', Cicotte was "rested" for the season's final two weeks after reaching his 29th win, presumably to deny him the bonus. However, the record is murkier. Cicotte won his 29th game on September 19, had an ineffective start on September 24, and was pulled after a few innings in a tuneup on the season's final day, September 28 (the World Series beginning 3 days later). Reportedly, Cicotte agreed to the fix on the same day he won his 29th game, before he could have known of any efforts to deny his chance to win his 30th.http://www.thediamondangle.com/marasco/hist/cicotte.html THE SERIES Even before the Series started on October 1 , there were rumors amongst the gambling community that things were not square, and the influx of money being bet on Cincinnati caused the odds against them to fall rapidly. These rumors also reached the press box where a number of correspondents, including Hugh Fullerton of the '' Chicago Herald And Examiner '' and the ex-player and manager Christy Mathewson , resolved to compare notes on any plays and players that they felt were questionable. Despite the rampant rumors, the gamblers continued to wager heavily against the White Sox and arranged to have the players signal their willingness to go through with the fix. On the second pitch of the Series, Eddie Cicotte struck Cincinnati leadoff hitter Morrie Rath in the back. The extent of Jackson's participation in the conspiracy remains controversial. Jackson maintained that he was innocent, especially in his last words, which were "I'm about to face the greatest umpire of all, and He knows I am innocent." He had a .375 batting average, claimed to have thrown out five baserunners, and handled thirty chances in the outfield with no errors during that series. However, he batted far worse in the five games that the White Sox lost, amassing a batting average of .268 in those games. He totaled three RBI s, from a Home Run and a double in game 8, when the Reds had a large lead and the series was all but over. But a check of the stats reveals that Jackson nearly had five RBIs in Game 8 alone, but a long foul ball was caught at the fence with runners on second and third, depriving Jackson of a chance to drive in the runners. The stats also show that in the other games the White Sox lost, only five of Jackson's at bats came with a man in scoring position, and he advanced the runners twice. Jackson — generally considered a strong defensive player — was unable to prevent a critical two-run triple to left during the series (in fact, during the series ''three'' triples were hit to left where Jackson was playing, despite the fact that most triples get hit to right or right-center). Jackson told sportswriter Westbrook Pegler that he had "only poked at the ball" during many World Series at-bats. Most damningly, Jackson took $5000 from the gamblers.Lloyd Johnson, "A Friend Wishes To Comment", ''The Baseball Book 1990'' p.255, Bill James, Villard Books After the series was over, he tried to give the money back on multiple occasions, but by that time the damage had been done. One play in particular has been subjected to much scrutiny. In the fifth inning of game 4, with a Cincinnati player on second, Jackson fielded a single hit to left field and threw home. The run scored and the White Sox lost the game 2-0. Chick Gandil , another leader of the fix, later admitted to yelling at Cicotte to intercept the throw.Arnold "Chick" Gandil (as told to Melvin Durslag), "This is My Story of the Black Sox Series," ''Sports Illustrated'', September 17, 1956 Cicotte, whose guilt is undisputed, made three errors in that fifth inning alone. Another argument, presented in the book '' Eight Men Out '', is that because Jackson was illiterate, he had little awareness of the seriousness of the plot, and thus he consented to it only when Risberg threatened him and his family. Jackson accepted money in the fix and, on the advice of his lawyers, pleaded guilty in the ensuing trial. FALLOUT The rumors dogged the club throughout the 1920 season, as the White Sox 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 1920, a Grand Jury was convened to investigate. During the investigation two players, Cicotte and Jackson, confessed. On the eve of their final season series, the White Sox were in a virtual tie for first place with the Cleveland Indians . The Sox would need to win all 3 and then hope for Cleveland to stumble, as the Indians had more games in hand. Despite the season being on the line, Comiskey suspended the seven White Sox still in the majors (Gandil had left the team and was playing semi-pro ball). The White Sox lost 2 of 3 in their final series against the St. Louis Browns , and those two losses made the difference, as they finished in second place, two games behind Cleveland. Prior to the trial, key evidence went missing from the Cook County Courthouse, including the signed confessions of Cicotte and Jackson, who subsequently recanted their confessions, as discussed on p.257 of ''Eight Men Out''. The players were acquitted. Some years later, the missing confessions reappeared in the possession of Comiskey's lawyer. However, the majors were not so forgiving. The damage to the sport's reputation led the owners to appoint Federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first Commissioner Of Baseball . The day after the players were acquitted, Landis issued his own verdict:
With this statement, all eight implicated White Sox were banned from Major League Baseball for life, as were two other players believed to be involved. The White Sox would not win another league championship until 1959 (a then-record forty-year gap) nor another World Series until 2005 , prompting some to speculate about a Curse Of The Black Sox . 2005 White Sox center fielder Aaron Rowand , in an interview for the official World Series film DVD, compared the 2004 Red Sox with the 2005 White Sox: "If they could break their 'curse', so could we." The banned players
Also banned was Joe Gedeon , second baseman for the St. Louis Browns . Gedeon knew Risberg, had heard of the fix from him, and placed bets. He informed Comiskey of the fix after the Series in an effort to gain a reward. He was banned for life by Landis along with the eight White Sox.http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=238&pid=4991 ORIGIN OF "BLACK SOX" Although many believe the Black Sox name to be related to the dark and corrupt nature of the conspiracy, the term "Black Sox" may already have existed before the fix. There is a story that the name "Black Sox" derived from parsimonious owner Charles Comiskey 's refusal to pay for the players' uniforms to be laundered, instead insisting that the players themselves pay for the cleaning. A mountain of a mistake Chuck Hirshberg Game-Fixing in the National Game Roger I. Abrams, Entertainment Law Review As the story goes, the players refused and subsequent games saw the White Sox play in progressively filthier 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 ''8 Men Out'' makes no such connection, referring early on to filthy uniforms but referring to the term "Black Sox" only in connection with the scandal. IN POPULAR CULTURE Eliot Asinof's book, ''Eight Men Out'', is the best-known history of the scandal. Director John Sayles ' film '' Eight Men Out '', based on Asinof's book, is a dramatization of the scandal, focusing largely on Buck Weaver as the one banned player who did not take any money. It stars John Cusack as Weaver, David Strathairn as Eddie Cicotte, D.B. Sweeney as Joe Jackson, and Sayles himself as then-sportswriter Ring Lardner ---to whom Sayles bears a near-exact resemblance. W.P. Kinsella 's novel '' Shoeless Joe '' is the story of an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball field in his cornfield after hearing a mysterious voice; Shoeless Joe Jackson and other members of the Black Sox come to play on his field. The novel was adapted into the hit film '' Field Of Dreams ''. Also, in F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel The Great Gatsby , a minor character named Meyer Wolfsheim was said to have helped in the Black Sox scandal, though this is purely fictional. In explanatory notes accompanying the novel's 75th anniversary edition, editor Matthew J. Bruccoli describes the character as being directly based on Rothstein. Also, in the film '' The Godfather Part II '', the fictional Jewish gangster Hyman Roth alludes to the scandal when he says, "I've loved baseball ever since Arnold Rothstein fixed the World Series in 1919." SEE ALSO CITATIONS SOURCES
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