Chicago Black Sox Scandal – Dale’s Daily Data

It gave major league baseball a black eye back in the day when it was America’s favorite sport.  And it came in the sport’s biggest event – the World Series.  Players of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 series.

So why did they do it?  The White Sox were the best team in baseball, but the players felt they were being underpaid and used by owner Charles Comiskey.  One of the players was a friend of a gambler and arrangements were made to pay off the players for intentionally losing games.

The White Sox did lose the series, but the gamblers never paid the players.  They figured they didn’t have to.  The players wouldn't complain would they?  Well, they did.

The players were charged and eventually acquitted during what turned out to be a show trial.  But the baseball commissioner decided that the players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, would be banned from ever playing again.

Even one of the players who refused to take part in the scheme was banned.  The commissioner decided he should have turned his teammates in.

The gamblers were never charged.

The Black Sox trial began on this date in 1921.

SOURCE: History Channel