The 1919 Black Sox Scandal

In October 1919, the Chicago White Sox, one of the best teams in baseball, lost the World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds. A year later, it emerged that several White Sox players had agreed to throw the Series for gamblers. The “Black Sox” scandal remains the most notorious fix in American sport.

The fix

The plot is usually traced to first baseman Chick Gandil, who approached gamblers before the Series. Pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams were central, since starting pitchers could shape games. Others implicated were Swede Risberg, Happy Felsch, Fred McMullin, outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and third baseman Buck Weaver, who attended meetings but was never shown to have taken money or played poorly.

The money is widely believed to have come from associates of New York gambler Arnold Rothstein, though he was never charged. Players later complained that much of the promised money never arrived.

The Series

The 1919 World Series was a best-of-nine. The Reds won five games to three. Cicotte hit the first batter he faced in Game 1, reportedly a signal to gamblers that the fix was on. Some players seem to have tried to win later games, especially when payments dried up.

Exposure and trial

Landis’s statement was blunt: regardless of the verdict, no player who threw a game, or sat in on a meeting about fixing one without telling his club, would play professional baseball again.

The case of Shoeless Joe

Joe Jackson admitted to the grand jury that he had accepted money, but he batted .375 in the Series, with no errors, a record that has fuelled a century of debate about whether he really tried to lose. The famous line “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” supposedly shouted by a young fan, is probably a newspaper invention.

In 2025, Major League Baseball changed its policy so that permanent bans end when a person dies, making Jackson and the other banned players eligible to be considered for the Hall of Fame.

Why it happened

Popular accounts blame owner Charles Comiskey’s stinginess, and players did resent their pay. Later historians have argued that White Sox salaries weren’t unusually low, and that baseball’s close ties with gamblers made a fix far easier than it should have been.

The legacy

The scandal created the powerful office of baseball commissioner and a lasting hard line against gambling in the sport, much as Enron’s collapse later led to tougher rules for company accounts. It inspired Eliot Asinof’s 1963 book Eight Men Out and the 1988 film of the same name. Scandal was in the air in the early 1920s: the same years brought the Teapot Dome scandal in Washington.

Frequently asked questions

Why were the players acquitted?

Key evidence, including the signed confessions, disappeared before trial, and prosecutors had to prove a conspiracy to defraud, not simply that games were lost.

Was Buck Weaver guilty?

Weaver knew about the fix but never took money and played well. He was banned for failing to report it, and he spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name.

Who won the 1919 World Series?

The Cincinnati Reds, five games to three. Many Reds players insisted they would have won anyway.