August 19, 2025 • 48 mins
The focal point of today's discussion revolves around the infamous Black Sox scandal, which emerged from the 1919 World Series, a pivotal event in the annals of American sports history. We transport our listeners to the electrifying atmosphere of October 1, 1919, at Cincinnati's Redland Field, where the Chicago White Sox, heralded as champions, faced unexpected disgrace. The narrative unfolds with the underperformance of star pitcher Eddie Sicott, leading to an outcome that not only shocked fans but also ignited suspicion regarding the integrity of the game itself. As we delve deeper, we explore the intricate dynamics within the White Sox team, the influence of gambling syndicates, and the consequential fallout that led to the lifetime ban of several players, including the iconic Shoeless Joe Jackson. Ultimately, this scandal transcended mere sports; it encapsulated a profound crisis of faith in a nation grappling with disillusionment in the aftermath of World War I.
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Takeaways:
- The 1919 World Series featured the Chicago White Sox, who were heavily favored to win, yet they suffered a shocking defeat against the Cincinnati Reds, igniting suspicions of foul play.
- The scandal surrounding the White Sox, known as the Black Sox scandal, involved several players conspiring to intentionally lose games for financial gain, reflecting deep-rooted issues within the team.
- White Sox owner Charles Comiskey was viewed as a villain for his treatment of players, including accusations of stinginess that fostered resentment among the team members.
- The aftermath of the scandal led to the life bans of eight players, including the renowned Shoeless Joe Jackson, fundamentally altering the landscape of Major League Baseball forever.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:30):
Today we're taking you back toOctober 1, 1919, at the Redland Field
in Cincinnati.
It's game one of the world Series.
The air is electric, thickwith the smell of popcorn and cigar
smoke.
There are over 30,000 peoplefilling the stands.
On the mound for the heavilyfavored Chicago White Sox is Eddie
Sicott, often referred to morecasually as Knuckles.
(01:52):
Eddie was the team's 29 gamewinner, their ace, the master of
the spitball, the knuckleball,the shine ball.
A pitcher at the absolute peakof his powers.
He throws his first pitch.
It's a perfect strike, slicingthrough the autumn air.
The crowd roars.
Everything is as it should be.
(02:13):
The pinnacle of America'spastime is underway.
Then comes the second pitch.
It doesn't find the catcher's mitt.
Instead, the ball smacksCincinnati's leadoff hitter squarely
in the back.
Was it just a wild pitch?
A simple mistake by theprofessional pitcher?
At the time, that seemed themost likely explanation.
(02:37):
The Chicago White Sox wereexpected to beat the Sox off of the
Cincinnati Reds.
Pun intended.
But during the fourth inning,White Sox pitcher Eddie Sicott began
to fall apart.
It's like he never thrown apitch before in his life.
By the time the stunnedChicago manager took Saikot out,
the White Sox were behind 6 1.
(02:57):
The final score was a lopsidedCincinnati, 9, Chicago 1.
Initially, the reaction of theChicago White Sox's loss was surprise
and disappointment.
The New York Times reportedlymarveled at the quote, disastrous
dubbing the White Sox receivedin the opening game.
(03:17):
But soon that surprise turnedto suspicion.
The very next night, duringgame two, a different White Sox pitcher,
known as Lefty Williams, wason the mound.
But in a deja vu moment, leftLefty, who was generally an excellent
pitcher, experienced a suddenbout of wildness in the fourth inning,
walking three batters,allowing three runs.
(03:38):
And again, the White Sox lostto the Cincinnati Reds, this time
4 to 2.
The 1919 World Series was abest of nine series, and in the end,
the Cincinnati Reds won fivegames to the White Sox's three.
The next morning, two ofChicago's biggest name newspapers,
the Herald and the examiner,published a column by the famous
(03:59):
American sports writer, Hugh Fullerton.
In his column, Fullertonquestioned the integrity of the White
Sox Series performance.
He also made a startlingassertion that quite a few White
Sox players would not bewearing a Chicago uniform in the
next season.
And Fullerton wasn't the onlyone who had an inkling that something
wasn't right.
(04:19):
White Sox owner CharlesComiskey had apparently privately
received reports that his teamwas planning to throw the championship
series.
And during the series itself,White Sox manager Kid Gleason reportedly
stated, quote, I don't knowwhat's the matter, but I do know
that something is wrong withmy gang.
End quote.
Welcome back to history'sgreatest crimes.
(04:40):
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
And in this episode, we'regoing to cover the story of the Black
Sox scandal.
The term Black Sox was givento the White Sox baseball players
who were accused ofintentionally losing and throwing
the 1919 World Series.
While players on the team whowere not involved were known as the
Clean Soc.
Ultimately, this crimeresulted in the banning of eight
(05:03):
implicated players from MajorLeague Baseball for life, including
the team's famous and belovedoutfielder and hitter, Shoeless Joe
Jackson.
But the exact details of theBlack Sox affair remains murky and
is subject to debate.
Did all eight players actuallyparticipate in the scandal?
And if so, to what degree?
(05:24):
But one central andindisputable truth endures.
The 1919 World Series scandalwasn't just about throwing a baseball
game.
It revealed the darkunderbelly of professional baseball,
exposing the potential forcorruption and the influence of gambling
syndicates.
And ultimately, the scandalshook the faith of many fans who
(05:45):
felt betrayed by the playersthey idolized.
(06:15):
To fully understand the BlackSox scandal, you first have to understand
the team.
The 1919 Chicago White Soxwere not just good, they were a powerhouse.
Arguably one of the greatestteams ever assembled.
They had Eddie Collins, afuture hall of Famer.
At second base, they had thebrilliant third baseman Buck Weaver.
(06:35):
And they had Joseph JeffersonJackson, better known as Shoeless
Joe, a man with a lifetimebatting average of.356.
That figure is still the thirdhighest in baseball history.
But beneath the surface ofthis dominant team, the clubhouse
was a toxic, free, fractured place.
It was a divided team into twowarring factions.
(06:58):
On the one side were theeducated college bred players.
For example, second basemanEddie Collins was a graduate of Columbia
University.
And pitcher Red Faber attendedcollege prep academies before being
signed into the minor leagues.
In contrast, the other half ofthe team was more of a hardscrabble
group who had grown up in poverty.
(07:20):
For example, Shoeless Joe Jackson.
He was functionally illiterate.
He had started off playing onthe baseball team for the mill.
He worked at 12 hour shiftswhen he was a young boy.
According to contemporaryaccounts, these two factions of the
White Sox, one affluent andeducated and the other impoverished,
(07:41):
rarely spoke to each other onor off the field.
And ultimately, many of theplayers who were condemned for their
part in the White Sox scandaland came from that hardscrabble group,
while those who belonged tothe affluent group were not involved
and came to be known as the,quote, clean socks.
In addition to this divisionwithin the team, another complaint
(08:03):
that White Sox players hadconcerns with was the team's owner,
Charles Comiskey.
Now, the popular narrative ofthe Black Sox scandal paints Comiskey
as the story's primaryvillain, a miserly and narcissistic
capitalist who treated hisstar players like property.
Stories circulated that he wasa notorious tightwad who underpaid
(08:26):
his team and promised bonuseshe never delivered.
Most famously, Comiskeycharged his players 25 cents to launder
their own uniforms, a practicewhich supposedly gave the team its
Black Sox nickname long beforethe scandal took place in 1919.
The biggest example ofComiskey's stinginess was a story
(08:46):
about Eddie Knuckles Sicott.
Sicott was an amazing pitcherwho suddenly lost all of his pitching
skills in the middle of thefirst game of the World Series in
1919, as we had mentioned.
But legend has it that monthsearlier, Comiskey had promised Scicott
a $10,000 bonus in 1919 moneyif he won 30 games that season.
(09:09):
As Sicot closed in on themilestone with 29 wins, Comiskey
supposedly had him benched forthe final weeks of the season, deliberately
delaying and denying him that bonus.
His excuse at the time wasthat he had to protect his star's
pitching arm.
And after winning the 1919pennant and entrance into the World
(09:31):
Series, Comiskey awarded theteam a bonus not of money, but of
a case of flat champagne,which one player said, quote, tasted
like piss.
But like most things in thisstory, the truth about Comiskey is
more complicated.
While his reputation at timeswas poor, salary data reveals the
(09:52):
1919 White Sox actually hadone of the highest payrolls in baseball.
For example, second basemanEddie Collins had a salary of $15,000,
making him the second highestpaid baseball player in the American
League at the time.
And a total of four Chicagoplayers ranked among the top 20 highest
paid players.
(10:13):
So Comiskey, the owner, wasn'talways cheap.
No.
And he also had a pretty goodpublic reputation.
He was known for acts ofpublic generosity, handing out thousands
of free tickets to schoolchildren, and even staying by a player's
side in the hospital during anear fatal appendicitis operation.
So if it wasn't just about themoney, what was it?
(10:36):
Well, the real issue was power.
In 1919, baseball players werebound by the infamous reserve clause,
a section in every contractthat tied a player to a team.
For life, or until the teamdecided to trade or release him.
There was no free agency atthe time, no union, and no bargaining
power.
Players were assets, not partners.
(10:59):
So in this context, grievancesover laundry fees or flat champagne
weren't just about pennies.
They were symbols of aprofound and inescapable powerlessness,
and the players felt trapped.
I see.
So the scandal then wasn'tborn simply of greed.
It was some players misguidedattempt to seize a measure of financial
(11:19):
control in a system designedto deny them any.
Exactly, Elena.
But.
But for our context goes evenbeyond baseball into the early 1900s,
we have to consider that theUnited States in 1919 was a nation
nursing a colossal hangover.
The Great war, World War I,had just ended the previous year,
(11:41):
and while Americans were onthe winning allied side of the war,
the whole experience left manyfeeling very pessimistic.
Nine million people around theworld had died, and the survivors
felt a widespread loss offaith in the traditional institutions,
in governments, in political ideologies.
Political leaders hadencouraged their citizens to expect
(12:04):
that peace after the war wouldbring improvement in the tenor and
quality of life.
But the reality was actuallyeconomic turmoil, social chaos, and
a gnawing sense that thesacrifice had been for nothing.
This disillusionment created adeep crisis of faith in societal
norms and traditional values.
(12:26):
But in the face of thisdisillusionment, Americans continue
to trust in the nationalpastime of baseball.
Since its origins in the late1700s and the early 1800s, baseball
in the United States had grownslowly in popularity.
By the Civil war.
In the 1860s, soldiers fromdifferent parts of the United States
played baseball together,leading to a more unified national
(12:49):
version of the Sport.
By the 1800s, the first majorleague was established.
And during the first decadesof the 1900s, baseball saw an unprecedented
rise nationally in popularity.
Large stadiums were builtdedicated to the game itself, including
Boston's Fenway park andWrigley Field on the other side of
(13:10):
Chicago.
And for the city of Chicago inparticular, baseball was important.
Against the backdrop ofChicago's rapid industrialization
and the influx of immigrants.
Baseball.
Many people saw baseball as asport that could overcome social
turmoil and unite everyone.
So by 1919, when the black Soxscandal took place, many Americans
(13:34):
saw baseball as more than justa game.
It was a cultural institution.
It was a secular religion thatreflected American values of teamwork,
of fair play, of perseverance.
It was supposed to be a purearena, a refuge from the corrupt
and messy realities ofeveryday life.
(13:56):
The Black Sox scandal,therefore, was not just a sports
crime.
It Was seen as a cultural symptom.
In an era where the publicalready felt betrayed by presidents
and generals who had led theminto a pointless, brutal war.
The betrayal by their baseballheroes felt like a grim, almost inevitable
confirmation of a new cynical reality.
(14:19):
The shock was not just that ithappened, but that even baseball,
the one thing that wassupposed to be clean, was just as
rotten as everything else.
This climate of cynicism andmoral ambiguity was the perfect breeding
ground for organized crime.
The passage of the 18thAmendment in 1919, ushering in Prohibition,
(14:41):
inadvertently created abillion dollar black market for illegal
alcohol.
At the same time, fragmentedstreet gangs took advantage of that
black market and developedinto highly structured criminal enterprises.
Now, in a previous episode,also about Chicago, we discussed
the rise and fall of theinfamous gangster Al Capone in the
(15:02):
late 1920s.
Capone started out in New Yorkbefore making his way to Chicago,
which isn't too surprisingsince the gangster scene began in
New York before spreadingwestward in the early 1900s.
The leader of the Jewish mobin New York City was Arnold Rothstein.
Rothstein was not yourstereotypical dumb gangster.
(15:22):
He was nicknamed the brain.
And he was a brilliantcriminal entrepreneur who, according
to one biographer, quote,transformed organized crime from
a thuggish activity byhoodlums into a big business run
like a corporation.
End quote.
The son of an affluent andrespected businessman, Rothstein
(15:43):
dropped out of school at 16and immersed himself in the world
of underground gambling.
He was a master of numbers andrisk, A man who famously quipped
that he'd bet on anything butthe weather, since that was the only
thing he couldn't control.
By 1919, Rothstein was amillionaire, a kingpin of the New
York underworld who rancasinos, and he fixed horse races
(16:06):
and financed bootlegging operations.
He was a fixer, a shadowyfigure who moved comfortably between
the worlds of crime, politicsand business.
In the lead up to the Worldseries that year, Rossin was actually
approached by not one, but twodifferent bookkeepers to help fix
the World Series.
Rossi chose to work with one,and he agreed to provide the financial
(16:30):
backing to the players.
Although Rothstein would neveractually admit to his role in the
fix, you don't have to squinttoo hard to assume some level of
participation.
During the 1919 World Series,Rothstein made large bets on the
underdog team, the CincinnatiReds, and his estimated profits were
(16:51):
around $350,000.
Quite a bit of money at that.
Time, millions of dollars intoday's money.
Now, just as an aside, theArnold Rothstein was apparently the
inspiration for the gangstercharacter Meyer.
Wolfsheim in F. ScottFitzgerald's the Great Gatsby.
In the story set in the summerof 1922, the main character, Jay
(17:12):
Gatsby, explains that Mr.Wolfsheim is famous for fixing the
World series back in 1919.
And perhaps notcoincidentally, the fictional Mr.
Wolfsheim is described verysimilarly to the known appearance
of the real life New Yorkgangster, but Arnold Rothstein.
(17:49):
The conspiracy to fix the 1919World Series began not in a smoke
filled back room in Chicago,but in Boston.
On September 18, 1919, WhiteSox first baseman Chick Gandil met
with a Boston bookmaker namedJoseph Sullivan at the Hotel Buckminster.
According to most accounts, itwas Gandil who made the pitch.
(18:11):
He specifically told Sullivanthat the World Series could be bought
for $80,000.
Now, years later, in a 1956article for Sports Illustrated, Gandal
would tell a different story.
He claimed it was Sullivan whoapproached him.
But regardless, onceintroduced, the idea spread quickly
(18:32):
through the hardscrabblefaction of the White Sox clubhouse.
Just two days later, a meetingwas held in Gandil's room at the
Osonian Hotel in New York City.
The initial group ofconspirators was small but potent.
It included Gandal theringleader, Eddie Sighcott the team's
ace pitcher, Claude LeftyWilliams the number two starter,
(18:53):
Oscar Happy Felsh, the centerfielder, and Charles Swede Risburg,
the shortstop who would act asthe group's muscle.
They would soon be joined byutility infielder Fred McMullen,
who wasn't actually involved,but overheard the others talking
and threatened to expose themunless he was cut into the deal.
The plot was solidifying.
(19:15):
Now they just needed torecruit the team's biggest stars.
Eddie Sicott was the key.
Without the team's bestpitcher on board, the fix was impossible.
Gandil knew Saikat was infinancial trouble, and like many
White Sox players, he resentedthe owner, Comiskey.
Saicon eventually agreed toparticipate for $10,000.
(19:39):
In his grand jury confession,he told the prosecutor, quote, they
wanted me to go crooked.
I needed the money.
I had the wife and the kids,end quote.
On September 30, 1919, on theeve of the World Series, Sicott found
$10,000 in cash under hispillow at the Warner Hotel in Chicago.
(20:01):
He later explained, quote,once I had the cash there in my fingers,
I went ahead and threw thegame, end quote.
The most debated, most tragicfigure in this entire saga is Shoeless
Joe Jackson.
He was a baseball immortal, anatural hitter of such grace that
Babe Ruth copied his swing in1999, he ranked 35 on the Sporting
(20:26):
News list of the 100 greatestbaseball players, and he was a finalist
for the Major League BaseballAll Century team.
As mentioned, Jackson beganplaying baseball for the mill he
worked at as a child.
In a later interview, Jacksonrecalled that he got his nickname
early on during a mill gameplayed in Greenville, South Carolina.
(20:46):
Jackson had blisters on hisfoot from a new pair of cleats, which
hurt so much that he took offhis shoes before he went to bat.
A heckling fan noticed Jacksonrunning the bases in his socks and
shouted, you shoeless son of agun, you.
And the resulting nickname,Shoeless Joe, stuck with him throughout
the remainder of his life.
(21:06):
But in 1919, Jackson was 32years old, playing on the White Sox
team and batting anamazing.351 average.
In the following season,before he was suspended for being
part of the Black Sox scandal,he was having one of his best overall
seasons, leading the AmericanLeague in triples and setting by
(21:27):
large margins, career marksfor home runs, RBI and fewest strikeouts
per plate appearance.
But Jackson was part of thathardscrabble faction of the team
that found themselves at thecenter of the Black Sox scandal,
and his association with thosewho were clearly guilty and meant
that he had pulled into it as well.
(21:48):
And in the end, however, itisn't clear how guilty Shoeless Joe
personally was.
He was not part of the initialmeetings, but was instead approached
privately by his teammates.
His story, though, is a knotof contradictions, best seen in his
own words from the sworn grandjury testimony.
On September 28th of 1920, theprosecutor asked him directly, quote,
(22:14):
did anybody pay you any moneyto help throw that series in favor
of Cincinnati, end quote.
Jackson's reply was unambiguous.
Quote, they did.
He went on to testify that herefused the bribe twice and had only
accepted $5,000.
After game four when histeammate, pitcher Lefty Williams,
(22:37):
tossed the cash on the floorof his hotel room.
Yet in the same testimony,Jackson insisted he never did anything
on the field to earn that money.
He told the grand jury that heplayed to win in the entire series
and made no intentional errors.
This is the centralirreconcilable conflict of this story.
He admitted to taking themoney for the conspiracy, but he
(23:00):
denied ever being part of theconspiracy's execution.
It's a contradiction that hasfueled a century of debate.
And then there was Buck Weaver.
The team's popular thirdbaseman attended the initial meetings.
He knew about the fix from thevery beginning, but he refused to
take any money.
And by all accounts played hisheart out in the series.
(23:23):
His crime was one of omission.
He knew his teammates werebetraying the game and he stayed
silent.
And for that silence, he wouldpay the same price as all the others.
So the cast of this tragedywas set.
Eight men, for differentreasons, made a pact to commit the
ultimate sin in sports.
(23:44):
The original deal was for$100,000 in total, to be paid in
installments of $20,000 aftereach loss.
But the players were, ofcourse, dealing with criminals, and
criminals rarely keep their word.
After losing game one, thepromised payment didn't arrive.
After losing game two, only$10,000 was delivered, a fraction
(24:07):
of the $40,000 that they were owed.
So the players were furious.
They felt that they had beendouble crossed.
So they decided to stage adouble cross of their own.
A double cross of the double cross.
Angry about the non payment,the conspirators resolved to actually
play to win the series.
And they took game six andgame seven.
(24:28):
And suddenly they had put theWhite Sox back in a place where they
could win the Series.
But backing out of a deal withgangsters proved to be a dangerous
proposition.
Before the decisive gameeight, the story takes its most sinister
turn.
Several players receivedthreats of violence against themselves
and their families if theydidn't ensure a Cincinnati victory.
(24:51):
For example, Lefty Williamsclaimed that a cigar smoking thug
in a bowling hat paid him avisit and made the violent threats
to ensure that he continued tothrow the games as they agreed.
And sure enough, Williamspitched poorly in game eight of the
series.
He threw only 15 pitches,allowing four hits and three runs
(25:13):
before being taken out of thegame with only one out.
Cincinnati went on to win thatgame in the series 10 to 5.
What began as a cynical cashgrab had now escalated into a situation
of genuine fear and coercion.
The players were no longerjust greedy, they were trapped.
(25:33):
Exactly, Michael.
In the end, chick Gandalreceived $35,000, whereas the others
only received a measly $5,000 each.
That was a great deal lessthan they had been promised.
Now, to be clear, even thoughthe plan was to throw the game and
it was supposed to be secret,it was more of an open secret in
(25:53):
the gambling world.
On the day of game one, asudden influx of money on the underdog
Cincinnati Reds caused thebetting odds to plummet.
A clear sign to insiders thatsomething was wrong.
The rumors reached the pressbox, where legendary sports writers
like Hugh Fullerton and RingLardner, along with former pitching
(26:15):
great Christy Mathewson,resolved to keep their own scorecard.
Comparing Notes on anysuspicious plays they witnessed.
Fullerton was so convincedthat he wired his syndicated newspapers
a curious and cautious butclear warning.
Quote, advise all not to beton this series.
(26:35):
Ugly rumors afloat, End quote.
The players, for their part,were brilliant athletes, but amateur
criminals.
Their attempts to throw thegames were often clumsy, a performance
of incompetence that waspainfully obvious to the trained
eyes watching them.
For example, in game one,pitcher Eddie Saicott hit the leadoff
(26:57):
batter with his second pitch.
Later on, Saikot would admitthat the specific act had been the
signal that the fix was on.
During the fourth inning, withtwo outs, sicot had an opportunity
to carry out a double play,but instead he hesitated.
He turned slowly to secondbase and made a low throw.
The runner was safe.
(27:18):
The inning continued and thereds exploded with five runs, blowing
the game wide open.
Sports writers in the pressbox knew immediately that something
was very, very wrong.
In game two, pitcher leftyWilliams, who was known for his tremendous
control, suddenly couldn'tseem to find the plate.
In the fourth inning, hewalked three batters.
(27:41):
All three came around to score.
The chicago Tribune's reportcalled his wildness, quote, almost
criminal.
And in game four, during thefifth inning, Shoeless Joe Jackson
unleashed a perfect throw tohome plate with the intention of
gunning out a runner.
But Eddie Saicott inexplicitlystepped in front of the catcher and
the ball deflected off his glove.
(28:02):
The runner scored, and in Game5, center fielder Happy Happy felsh
catches a long fly ball, onlyto have it slip out of his glove.
The play allowed a crucial runto score.
During game eight, the finalindecisive game, Lefty Williams took
the mound and completely imploded.
He faced just five batters inthe first inning, giving up four
(28:25):
straight hits in three runsbefore the manager yanked him from
the game.
And that was that.
The fix was complete.
The White Sox had lost theworld series.
(28:54):
For nearly a year after the1919 World Series ended, the rumors
swirled.
It was an open secret in thebaseball world.
Then In September of 1920, agrand jury investigating an unrelated
fixed game between the cubsand the Phillies somehow turned its
attention to the 1919 WorldSeries, and the dam was about to
(29:16):
break.
On September 28th of 1920, agambler and self admitted fix insider
named Bill Mayharg went publicabout how the black Sox scandal had
worked and his role in it.
That same day, White Sox ownerCharles Comiskey suspended the seven
implicated players who werestill on the team, effectively ending
(29:38):
the White Sox's Chance in the1920 World Series.
That was quite a shame sincethe White Sox had played well that
entire season and it lookedquite possible that would be in the
World Series again.
But without seven players,including Eddie Sicott and Shoeless
Joe Jackson, the team didn'tstand a chance.
And in case you're curious, itwas the Indians who would go on to
(30:00):
win the 1920 World Series.
After the seven suspectedplayers were suspended from the team,
the pressure mounted on themto tell the truth.
Pitcher Eddie Saicott was thefirst to crack.
He went to the office of theWhite Sox team lawyer and in a tearful
mea culpa, confessed everything.
(30:21):
He was immediately takenbefore the grand jury.
His testimony was a portraitof regret.
He allegedly stated, quote, Idon't know why I did it.
I must have been crazy.
Now I've lost everything.
Job, reputation, everything,end quote.
Psychot went on to explainexactly how he'd thrown the game,
(30:41):
admitting to how he lobbedpitches so that, quote, a baby could
have hit him, end quote.
Shortly after, Shoeless JoeJackson confessed, then Lefty Williams
and as we explained earlier inthe episode, Jackson admitted to
the grand jury that he hadreluctantly accepted the $5,000 in
bribe money, but had notactually tried to throw the game.
(31:04):
But as Jackson left thecourthouse, he was surrounded by
reporters.
And it was there that he madeone of his most damning statements,
claiming that after theplayers had been stiffed by the gamblers,
the eight of us did our bestto kick.
In short, Jackson indicatedthat once they realized the gamblers
(31:25):
involved in the fix had triedto screw them over, they started
trying to win the games again.
It was a clear admission of aconspiracy involving the eight players.
But taking part in the fixingof the World Series wasn't just an
offense against baseball andits fans.
It was also literally criminal.
The eight accused playerswould face felony charges of conspiracy
(31:48):
to defraud, which was serious stuff.
The criminal trial began inChicago in June of 1921, and it was
a spectacle.
The courtroom in Chicago wasjammed every day.
The indicted players weretreated not as criminals, but more
like fallen heroes.
Jurors, often starstruck,openly fraternized with the defendants.
(32:11):
An article in the New YorkTimes described the scene, stating,
the spectators added to thebleacher appearance of the courtroom,
for most of them sweltered,and shirt sleeves and collars were
few.
Scores of small boys jammedtheir way into the seats.
And as the prosecutor told ofthe alleged sellout, they repeatedly
(32:32):
looked at each other in awe,remarking under their breaths, quote,
what do you think of that?
And we'll all be damned.
End quote.
Adding to this chaos, rightbefore the trial began, transcripts
of the players confessionswent missing from the courthouse.
Interestingly, almost acentury later, in 2007, the Chicago
(32:52):
History Museum acquired alarge collection of documents from
the office of the owner,Comiskey's lawyer.
Among those documents weresome of these missing transcripts.
One theory is that Comiskeyhad hoped that by suspending and
investigating his own players,he might actually be able to keep
his team intact.
It would look like he wasdoing something to clean him up corruption
(33:15):
in his team.
But ultimately, he wanted hisplayers to be acquitted.
In the end, the jurydeliberated for less than three hours
before returning verdicts ofnot guilty on all charges for all
of the accused players.
The simplest explanation forthis outcome is that the legal charge
(33:36):
of conspiracy to defraud wasand is very difficult to prove in
court.
The prosecution must provebeyond a reasonable doubt that an
agreement, expressed orimplied, existed between the alleged
co conspirators to defraud.
And that can be difficult whendirect evidence of an agreement,
such as written documents oreyewitness testimony, is scarce.
(34:00):
And it's possible that thelost legal documents that ended up
in Comiskey's hands may havesomewhat contributed to that.
But in general, the charge ofconspiracy to defraud the public
is a difficult charge to make stick.
And more importantly, the jurysimply refused to convict their heroes.
This is a phenomenon known asjury nullification, where jurors
(34:23):
ignore the evidence and thelaw because it conflicts with their
own sense of justice or morality.
And indeed, on August 2, 1921,when the verdict of not guilty was
announced, the courtroomerupted in celebration.
One newspaper reported thatthe jurors hoisted the players onto
their shoulders to carry themout of the building.
(34:43):
So it looked like the playersconnected to the Black Sox scandal
might make it out alive tocontinue their baseball careers.
But in the long run, thatproved not to be the case.
A group of team owners,terrified by the scandal's threat
to their business, called fora reform to the National Baseball
Commission, the governing bodyof major league and minor League
(35:05):
Baseball from 1903 to 1920.
The owner's original plan wasto appoint a widely respected federal
judge and noted baseball fannamed Kennesaw Mountain Landis to
head a reformed three membercommission beginning in the 1921
season.
But Judge Landis was a man ofstern, unbending morality with a
(35:27):
reputation for ruling with aniron hand.
And he made it clear to theowners that he would only accept
an appointment as baseball'ssole Commissioner, and even then
only on the condition that hebe granted essentially unchecked
power over the sport.
This was a prettycontroversial change for the major
(35:49):
league baseball at the time,right, Michael?
Absolutely, elena.
Prior to 1921, there had neverbeen a single commissioner with sole
governance on behalf of the owners.
But the owners agreed thatJudge Landis terms because they were
desperate to clean up thegame's image.
On August 3, 1921, the dayafter the White Sox players were
(36:12):
acquitted of the legal chargesagainst them, them, Judge Landis
issued a statement that wouldecho through baseball history.
Standing in his Chicagooffice, he delivered.
His verdict regardless of theverdict of juries.
No player who throws a ballgame, no player who undertakes or
promises to throw a ball game,no player that sits in conference
(36:34):
with a bunch of crookedplayers and gamblers where the ways
and the means of throwing agame are discussed and does not promptly
tell his club about it or willever play professional baseball again.
With that one statement, hebanned all eight black sock scandal
players for life.
His edict was absoluteoverriding the court of law.
(36:55):
With the court of baseball.
Landis swift, decisive actionwas widely praised for saving the
game's integrity.
(37:25):
So while the eight black sockscandal players were declared legally
innocent in a court of law,they were still judged guilty and
bad, banned for life from themajor leagues in the court of baseball.
Interestingly, for the rest ofhis life, Shoeless Joe Jackson maintained
his innocence, becoming arather tragic figure in American
folklore.
(37:46):
But a civil trial a coupleyears later in 1924 adds a devastating
layer of complexity to his story.
At that time, Jackson sued theWhite Sox for back pay he felt that
he was owed on his contract.
During Jackson's civil trial,the White Sox lawyer confronted him
with the transcript of his1921 grand jury testimony.
(38:08):
The White Sox lawyer readJackson's own words back to him in
response to the question,quote, did anybody pay you any money
to help throw the series infavor of Cincinnati?
Jackson had stated they did,end quote.
But now in this 1924 civilcase, Jackson responded that he didn't
remember being asked thatquestion at all.
(38:30):
Over and over, more than ahundred times.
In the civil case, Jacksondenied making the statements that
were in the official 1921court record.
The trial judge was appalled.
Before the jury even returnedits verdict, he bound Jackson over
on a charge of perjury,stating from the bench, quote, jackson
stands self convicted, self accused.
(38:51):
His testimony as given here incourt has been impeached in and shown
to be false by the testimonyhe gave before the grand jury.
Even his stellar on fieldperformance in the 1919 series Withers
under scrutiny.
While his overall battingaverage was an impressive.375 with
a record 12 hits, a deeperstatistical analysis reveals a troubling
(39:17):
pattern.
In the first five games whenthe fix was on, Jackson came to bat
and clocked clutch situationswith runners on base seven times
and failed to get a single rbi.
His big hits and home run camein games the players were trying
to win or in the final gamewhen the Sox were already hopelessly
(39:38):
behind.
The numbers, like Jackson'stestimony, tell two different stories.
Regardless of what Jackson didor did not do during the 1919 World
Series, many baseball fans andbaseball historians still consider
him an amazing player worthyof recognition.
And despite Shoeless JoeJackson's death in 1951, many players
(40:00):
continued to push over theyears to have his lifetime ban overturned
to make him eligible for hallof fame considerations.
In 1989, the MLB commissionerdeclined to reinstate Jackson, explaining
that the case was quoteunquote, now best given to historical
analysis and debate as opposedto a present day review with an eye
(40:21):
to reinstatement.
End quote.
In 2015, Shoeless Joe JacksonMuseum formally petitioned the MLB
Commissioner for reinstatementon the grounds that Jackson had,
quote, more than served hissentence in the last 95 years since
his banishment.
Again, the request was deniedwith the explanation that, quote,
it is not possible now over 95years since those events took place
(40:44):
place to be certain enough ofthe truth to overrule Commissioner
Landis determinations, end quote.
However, in 2025, thecommissioner announced that Major
League Baseball had changedits policies such that all players
were removed from thepermanently ineligible list upon
(41:04):
death.
With this decision, ShoelessJoe Jackson and other troubled but
skilled players like Pete Rosewould be eligible for consideration
by the hall of Fame's ClassicBaseball era committee in 2027.
And I'm glad that youmentioned Pete Rose.
For those of you who are notbaseball historians or huge baseball
(41:24):
fans like myself, Pete Rosewas a former star baseball player
who transitioned into managingthe Cincinnati Reds in the late 1980s.
In 1989, he was banned fromMajor League Baseball for gambling
on baseball games, includingthose of his own team.
This lifetime ban has up untilnow prevented him from being inducted
(41:45):
into the hall of Fame.
Now you might ask yourself,Michael, why are you going off on
a tangent about Pete Rose andhis gambling?
This is an episode about theBlack Sox.
Yes it is.
But historically the two areactually very much connected.
Judge Landis, 1921 edict didmore than just ban a players from
Baseball.
It carved out a newcommandment in the stone tablets
(42:08):
of baseball.
Thou shall not gamble.
It established an ironcladzero tolerance precedent that has
defined the sport's moralityfor over a century.
This credited a directunbroken line from the events of
1919 to the lifetime ban ofPete Rose in 1989.
The comparison between the twoscandals has been a source of endless
(42:32):
debate for fans.
What is the greater crimeagainst the integrity of the game?
Is it taking money fromgamblers to intentionally lose the
World Series as the Black Soxdid, or betting on your own team
to win as Pete Rose did?
The Black Sox activelycorrupted the outcome of the sports
championship, while Rose'sactions, though a clear violation
(42:54):
of the rules, didn't involveintentionally losing.
This debate highlights thecomplex and often emotional definition
of what it means to portraythe game.
And for nearly a century, theghosts of the Black Sox scandal kept
sports betting in the shadows.
But in 2018, a Supreme Courtruling struck down the federal law
(43:15):
that barred sports betting inmost states and it's opened the floodgates.
Today, sports betting is legalin dozens of states, including the
great state of Louisiana.
And it's no longer a backalley activity.
It's a mainstream, heavilymarketed part of of the fan experience.
MLB players are still notpermitted to gamble on anything related
(43:37):
to baseball.
But even so, this new gamblinglandscape has created a new era of
temptation and pressure for athletes.
With the rise of prop bets,wagers on individual player statistics,
athletes are now subject todirect harassment from spans who
have lost money on their performance.
(43:59):
Carter Hicks, a baseballdirector at unc, noted, quote, if
we don't have an outcome thatsomeone bet on, our players are going
to hear about that.
And sometimes it's not alwaysin the nicest way, end quote.
In just the last few years,MLB has suspended multiple players
for gambling.
And in 2024, the NBA, theNational Basketball association also
(44:21):
recently issued a lifetime banto player Jontay Porter, who for
manipulating his ownperformance to influence prop bets.
Yet the ultimate legacy of theBlack Sox scandal in the present
21st century is a profound paradox.
The very system that hasnormalized gambling is also the most
effective tool for policing it.
The 1919 fix was orchestratedin the shadows with illegal bookmakers
(44:45):
who had no incentive to report corruption.
Today's scandals, like the oneinvolving Johntay Porter are often
uncovered by the legal sportsbooks themselves.
These regulated companies usesophisticated algorithms to detect
unusual betting patterns andhave a legal and financial incentive
to report suspiciousactivities to the leagues to protect
(45:08):
their own integrity.
And a strange twist of history.
The crime committed by theBlack Sox created its own antidote.
The century long obsessionwith rooting out gambling has culminated
in a transparent regulatedsystem where the various very active
betting is now the primarymechanism for ensuring the games
are clean.
(45:28):
So why does this story stillgrip us more than a century later?
Perhaps because of its mostfamous line from the 1921 legal trial,
say it ain't so, Joe.
That line has since becomepart of the American lexicon.
No doubt.
Michael According to thelegend, during the 1921 trial, as
shoeless Joe Jackson left thecourthouse after his grand grand
(45:50):
jury confession, a young boysupposedly tugged at his sleeve and
uttered those heartbreaking words.
It's a heartbreaking image oflost innocence.
It's almost certainly afiction largely created by the press.
Jackson himself denied it everhappening in an interview decades
later.
But the myth of it enduresbecause it captures the essence of
(46:12):
the crime.
It wasn't about a conspiracyto defraud the public out of their
ticket money.
It was a betrayal of public faith.
F. Scott Fitzgerald understoodthis perfectly.
In the Great Gatsby, when thenarrator learns that the gangster
Meyer Wolfshine was the manbehind the fix, he's staggered.
He reflects.
It never occurred to me thatone man could start to play with
(46:36):
the faith of 50 million peoplewith the single mindedness of a burglar
blowing a safe.
End quote.
That was the true crime of theBlack Sox scandal.
They didn't just steal a WorldSeries, they stole a piece of America's
belief in something pure.
In an age of renewed cynicismand ever present temptation, it's
(46:56):
a crime whose echoes we canstill hear today.
Thanks for tuning in with ustoday on History's Greatest Crimes.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
And as always, stay curious.
Sam.
Today we're taking you back toOctober 1, 1919, at the Redland Field
in Cincinnati.
It's game one of the world Series.
The air is electric, thickwith the smell of popcorn and cigar
smoke.
There are over 30,000 peoplefilling the stands.
On the mound for the heavilyfavored Chicago White Sox is Eddie
Sicott, often referred to morecasually as Knuckles.
(01:52):
Eddie was the team's 29 gamewinner, their ace, the master of
the spitball, the knuckleball,the shine ball.
A pitcher at the absolute peakof his powers.
He throws his first pitch.
It's a perfect strike, slicingthrough the autumn air.
The crowd roars.
Everything is as it should be.
(02:13):
The pinnacle of America'spastime is underway.
Then comes the second pitch.
It doesn't find the catcher's mitt.
Instead, the ball smacksCincinnati's leadoff hitter squarely
in the back.
Was it just a wild pitch?
A simple mistake by theprofessional pitcher?
At the time, that seemed themost likely explanation.
(02:37):
The Chicago White Sox wereexpected to beat the Sox off of the
Cincinnati Reds.
Pun intended.
But during the fourth inning,White Sox pitcher Eddie Sicott began
to fall apart.
It's like he never thrown apitch before in his life.
By the time the stunnedChicago manager took Saikot out,
the White Sox were behind 6 1.
(02:57):
The final score was a lopsidedCincinnati, 9, Chicago 1.
Initially, the reaction of theChicago White Sox's loss was surprise
and disappointment.
The New York Times reportedlymarveled at the quote, disastrous
dubbing the White Sox receivedin the opening game.
(03:17):
But soon that surprise turnedto suspicion.
The very next night, duringgame two, a different White Sox pitcher,
known as Lefty Williams, wason the mound.
But in a deja vu moment, leftLefty, who was generally an excellent
pitcher, experienced a suddenbout of wildness in the fourth inning,
walking three batters,allowing three runs.
(03:38):
And again, the White Sox lostto the Cincinnati Reds, this time
4 to 2.
The 1919 World Series was abest of nine series, and in the end,
the Cincinnati Reds won fivegames to the White Sox's three.
The next morning, two ofChicago's biggest name newspapers,
the Herald and the examiner,published a column by the famous
(03:59):
American sports writer, Hugh Fullerton.
In his column, Fullertonquestioned the integrity of the White
Sox Series performance.
He also made a startlingassertion that quite a few White
Sox players would not bewearing a Chicago uniform in the
next season.
And Fullerton wasn't the onlyone who had an inkling that something
wasn't right.
(04:19):
White Sox owner CharlesComiskey had apparently privately
received reports that his teamwas planning to throw the championship
series.
And during the series itself,White Sox manager Kid Gleason reportedly
stated, quote, I don't knowwhat's the matter, but I do know
that something is wrong withmy gang.
End quote.
Welcome back to history'sgreatest crimes.
(04:40):
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
And in this episode, we'regoing to cover the story of the Black
Sox scandal.
The term Black Sox was givento the White Sox baseball players
who were accused ofintentionally losing and throwing
the 1919 World Series.
While players on the team whowere not involved were known as the
Clean Soc.
Ultimately, this crimeresulted in the banning of eight
(05:03):
implicated players from MajorLeague Baseball for life, including
the team's famous and belovedoutfielder and hitter, Shoeless Joe
Jackson.
But the exact details of theBlack Sox affair remains murky and
is subject to debate.
Did all eight players actuallyparticipate in the scandal?
And if so, to what degree?
(05:24):
But one central andindisputable truth endures.
The 1919 World Series scandalwasn't just about throwing a baseball
game.
It revealed the darkunderbelly of professional baseball,
exposing the potential forcorruption and the influence of gambling
syndicates.
And ultimately, the scandalshook the faith of many fans who
(05:45):
felt betrayed by the playersthey idolized.
(06:15):
To fully understand the BlackSox scandal, you first have to understand
the team.
The 1919 Chicago White Soxwere not just good, they were a powerhouse.
Arguably one of the greatestteams ever assembled.
They had Eddie Collins, afuture hall of Famer.
At second base, they had thebrilliant third baseman Buck Weaver.
(06:35):
And they had Joseph JeffersonJackson, better known as Shoeless
Joe, a man with a lifetimebatting average of.356.
That figure is still the thirdhighest in baseball history.
But beneath the surface ofthis dominant team, the clubhouse
was a toxic, free, fractured place.
It was a divided team into twowarring factions.
(06:58):
On the one side were theeducated college bred players.
For example, second basemanEddie Collins was a graduate of Columbia
University.
And pitcher Red Faber attendedcollege prep academies before being
signed into the minor leagues.
In contrast, the other half ofthe team was more of a hardscrabble
group who had grown up in poverty.
(07:20):
For example, Shoeless Joe Jackson.
He was functionally illiterate.
He had started off playing onthe baseball team for the mill.
He worked at 12 hour shiftswhen he was a young boy.
According to contemporaryaccounts, these two factions of the
White Sox, one affluent andeducated and the other impoverished,
(07:41):
rarely spoke to each other onor off the field.
And ultimately, many of theplayers who were condemned for their
part in the White Sox scandaland came from that hardscrabble group,
while those who belonged tothe affluent group were not involved
and came to be known as the,quote, clean socks.
In addition to this divisionwithin the team, another complaint
(08:03):
that White Sox players hadconcerns with was the team's owner,
Charles Comiskey.
Now, the popular narrative ofthe Black Sox scandal paints Comiskey
as the story's primaryvillain, a miserly and narcissistic
capitalist who treated hisstar players like property.
Stories circulated that he wasa notorious tightwad who underpaid
(08:26):
his team and promised bonuseshe never delivered.
Most famously, Comiskeycharged his players 25 cents to launder
their own uniforms, a practicewhich supposedly gave the team its
Black Sox nickname long beforethe scandal took place in 1919.
The biggest example ofComiskey's stinginess was a story
(08:46):
about Eddie Knuckles Sicott.
Sicott was an amazing pitcherwho suddenly lost all of his pitching
skills in the middle of thefirst game of the World Series in
1919, as we had mentioned.
But legend has it that monthsearlier, Comiskey had promised Scicott
a $10,000 bonus in 1919 moneyif he won 30 games that season.
(09:09):
As Sicot closed in on themilestone with 29 wins, Comiskey
supposedly had him benched forthe final weeks of the season, deliberately
delaying and denying him that bonus.
His excuse at the time wasthat he had to protect his star's
pitching arm.
And after winning the 1919pennant and entrance into the World
(09:31):
Series, Comiskey awarded theteam a bonus not of money, but of
a case of flat champagne,which one player said, quote, tasted
like piss.
But like most things in thisstory, the truth about Comiskey is
more complicated.
While his reputation at timeswas poor, salary data reveals the
(09:52):
1919 White Sox actually hadone of the highest payrolls in baseball.
For example, second basemanEddie Collins had a salary of $15,000,
making him the second highestpaid baseball player in the American
League at the time.
And a total of four Chicagoplayers ranked among the top 20 highest
paid players.
(10:13):
So Comiskey, the owner, wasn'talways cheap.
No.
And he also had a pretty goodpublic reputation.
He was known for acts ofpublic generosity, handing out thousands
of free tickets to schoolchildren, and even staying by a player's
side in the hospital during anear fatal appendicitis operation.
So if it wasn't just about themoney, what was it?
(10:36):
Well, the real issue was power.
In 1919, baseball players werebound by the infamous reserve clause,
a section in every contractthat tied a player to a team.
For life, or until the teamdecided to trade or release him.
There was no free agency atthe time, no union, and no bargaining
power.
Players were assets, not partners.
(10:59):
So in this context, grievancesover laundry fees or flat champagne
weren't just about pennies.
They were symbols of aprofound and inescapable powerlessness,
and the players felt trapped.
I see.
So the scandal then wasn'tborn simply of greed.
It was some players misguidedattempt to seize a measure of financial
(11:19):
control in a system designedto deny them any.
Exactly, Elena.
But.
But for our context goes evenbeyond baseball into the early 1900s,
we have to consider that theUnited States in 1919 was a nation
nursing a colossal hangover.
The Great war, World War I,had just ended the previous year,
(11:41):
and while Americans were onthe winning allied side of the war,
the whole experience left manyfeeling very pessimistic.
Nine million people around theworld had died, and the survivors
felt a widespread loss offaith in the traditional institutions,
in governments, in political ideologies.
Political leaders hadencouraged their citizens to expect
(12:04):
that peace after the war wouldbring improvement in the tenor and
quality of life.
But the reality was actuallyeconomic turmoil, social chaos, and
a gnawing sense that thesacrifice had been for nothing.
This disillusionment created adeep crisis of faith in societal
norms and traditional values.
(12:26):
But in the face of thisdisillusionment, Americans continue
to trust in the nationalpastime of baseball.
Since its origins in the late1700s and the early 1800s, baseball
in the United States had grownslowly in popularity.
By the Civil war.
In the 1860s, soldiers fromdifferent parts of the United States
played baseball together,leading to a more unified national
(12:49):
version of the Sport.
By the 1800s, the first majorleague was established.
And during the first decadesof the 1900s, baseball saw an unprecedented
rise nationally in popularity.
Large stadiums were builtdedicated to the game itself, including
Boston's Fenway park andWrigley Field on the other side of
(13:10):
Chicago.
And for the city of Chicago inparticular, baseball was important.
Against the backdrop ofChicago's rapid industrialization
and the influx of immigrants.
Baseball.
Many people saw baseball as asport that could overcome social
turmoil and unite everyone.
So by 1919, when the black Soxscandal took place, many Americans
(13:34):
saw baseball as more than justa game.
It was a cultural institution.
It was a secular religion thatreflected American values of teamwork,
of fair play, of perseverance.
It was supposed to be a purearena, a refuge from the corrupt
and messy realities ofeveryday life.
(13:56):
The Black Sox scandal,therefore, was not just a sports
crime.
It Was seen as a cultural symptom.
In an era where the publicalready felt betrayed by presidents
and generals who had led theminto a pointless, brutal war.
The betrayal by their baseballheroes felt like a grim, almost inevitable
confirmation of a new cynical reality.
(14:19):
The shock was not just that ithappened, but that even baseball,
the one thing that wassupposed to be clean, was just as
rotten as everything else.
This climate of cynicism andmoral ambiguity was the perfect breeding
ground for organized crime.
The passage of the 18thAmendment in 1919, ushering in Prohibition,
(14:41):
inadvertently created abillion dollar black market for illegal
alcohol.
At the same time, fragmentedstreet gangs took advantage of that
black market and developedinto highly structured criminal enterprises.
Now, in a previous episode,also about Chicago, we discussed
the rise and fall of theinfamous gangster Al Capone in the
(15:02):
late 1920s.
Capone started out in New Yorkbefore making his way to Chicago,
which isn't too surprisingsince the gangster scene began in
New York before spreadingwestward in the early 1900s.
The leader of the Jewish mobin New York City was Arnold Rothstein.
Rothstein was not yourstereotypical dumb gangster.
(15:22):
He was nicknamed the brain.
And he was a brilliantcriminal entrepreneur who, according
to one biographer, quote,transformed organized crime from
a thuggish activity byhoodlums into a big business run
like a corporation.
End quote.
The son of an affluent andrespected businessman, Rothstein
(15:43):
dropped out of school at 16and immersed himself in the world
of underground gambling.
He was a master of numbers andrisk, A man who famously quipped
that he'd bet on anything butthe weather, since that was the only
thing he couldn't control.
By 1919, Rothstein was amillionaire, a kingpin of the New
York underworld who rancasinos, and he fixed horse races
(16:06):
and financed bootlegging operations.
He was a fixer, a shadowyfigure who moved comfortably between
the worlds of crime, politicsand business.
In the lead up to the Worldseries that year, Rossin was actually
approached by not one, but twodifferent bookkeepers to help fix
the World Series.
Rossi chose to work with one,and he agreed to provide the financial
(16:30):
backing to the players.
Although Rothstein would neveractually admit to his role in the
fix, you don't have to squinttoo hard to assume some level of
participation.
During the 1919 World Series,Rothstein made large bets on the
underdog team, the CincinnatiReds, and his estimated profits were
(16:51):
around $350,000.
Quite a bit of money at that.
Time, millions of dollars intoday's money.
Now, just as an aside, theArnold Rothstein was apparently the
inspiration for the gangstercharacter Meyer.
Wolfsheim in F. ScottFitzgerald's the Great Gatsby.
In the story set in the summerof 1922, the main character, Jay
(17:12):
Gatsby, explains that Mr.Wolfsheim is famous for fixing the
World series back in 1919.
And perhaps notcoincidentally, the fictional Mr.
Wolfsheim is described verysimilarly to the known appearance
of the real life New Yorkgangster, but Arnold Rothstein.
(17:49):
The conspiracy to fix the 1919World Series began not in a smoke
filled back room in Chicago,but in Boston.
On September 18, 1919, WhiteSox first baseman Chick Gandil met
with a Boston bookmaker namedJoseph Sullivan at the Hotel Buckminster.
According to most accounts, itwas Gandil who made the pitch.
(18:11):
He specifically told Sullivanthat the World Series could be bought
for $80,000.
Now, years later, in a 1956article for Sports Illustrated, Gandal
would tell a different story.
He claimed it was Sullivan whoapproached him.
But regardless, onceintroduced, the idea spread quickly
(18:32):
through the hardscrabblefaction of the White Sox clubhouse.
Just two days later, a meetingwas held in Gandil's room at the
Osonian Hotel in New York City.
The initial group ofconspirators was small but potent.
It included Gandal theringleader, Eddie Sighcott the team's
ace pitcher, Claude LeftyWilliams the number two starter,
(18:53):
Oscar Happy Felsh, the centerfielder, and Charles Swede Risburg,
the shortstop who would act asthe group's muscle.
They would soon be joined byutility infielder Fred McMullen,
who wasn't actually involved,but overheard the others talking
and threatened to expose themunless he was cut into the deal.
The plot was solidifying.
(19:15):
Now they just needed torecruit the team's biggest stars.
Eddie Sicott was the key.
Without the team's bestpitcher on board, the fix was impossible.
Gandil knew Saikat was infinancial trouble, and like many
White Sox players, he resentedthe owner, Comiskey.
Saicon eventually agreed toparticipate for $10,000.
(19:39):
In his grand jury confession,he told the prosecutor, quote, they
wanted me to go crooked.
I needed the money.
I had the wife and the kids,end quote.
On September 30, 1919, on theeve of the World Series, Sicott found
$10,000 in cash under hispillow at the Warner Hotel in Chicago.
(20:01):
He later explained, quote,once I had the cash there in my fingers,
I went ahead and threw thegame, end quote.
The most debated, most tragicfigure in this entire saga is Shoeless
Joe Jackson.
He was a baseball immortal, anatural hitter of such grace that
Babe Ruth copied his swing in1999, he ranked 35 on the Sporting
(20:26):
News list of the 100 greatestbaseball players, and he was a finalist
for the Major League BaseballAll Century team.
As mentioned, Jackson beganplaying baseball for the mill he
worked at as a child.
In a later interview, Jacksonrecalled that he got his nickname
early on during a mill gameplayed in Greenville, South Carolina.
(20:46):
Jackson had blisters on hisfoot from a new pair of cleats, which
hurt so much that he took offhis shoes before he went to bat.
A heckling fan noticed Jacksonrunning the bases in his socks and
shouted, you shoeless son of agun, you.
And the resulting nickname,Shoeless Joe, stuck with him throughout
the remainder of his life.
(21:06):
But in 1919, Jackson was 32years old, playing on the White Sox
team and batting anamazing.351 average.
In the following season,before he was suspended for being
part of the Black Sox scandal,he was having one of his best overall
seasons, leading the AmericanLeague in triples and setting by
(21:27):
large margins, career marksfor home runs, RBI and fewest strikeouts
per plate appearance.
But Jackson was part of thathardscrabble faction of the team
that found themselves at thecenter of the Black Sox scandal,
and his association with thosewho were clearly guilty and meant
that he had pulled into it as well.
(21:48):
And in the end, however, itisn't clear how guilty Shoeless Joe
personally was.
He was not part of the initialmeetings, but was instead approached
privately by his teammates.
His story, though, is a knotof contradictions, best seen in his
own words from the sworn grandjury testimony.
On September 28th of 1920, theprosecutor asked him directly, quote,
(22:14):
did anybody pay you any moneyto help throw that series in favor
of Cincinnati, end quote.
Jackson's reply was unambiguous.
Quote, they did.
He went on to testify that herefused the bribe twice and had only
accepted $5,000.
After game four when histeammate, pitcher Lefty Williams,
(22:37):
tossed the cash on the floorof his hotel room.
Yet in the same testimony,Jackson insisted he never did anything
on the field to earn that money.
He told the grand jury that heplayed to win in the entire series
and made no intentional errors.
This is the centralirreconcilable conflict of this story.
He admitted to taking themoney for the conspiracy, but he
(23:00):
denied ever being part of theconspiracy's execution.
It's a contradiction that hasfueled a century of debate.
And then there was Buck Weaver.
The team's popular thirdbaseman attended the initial meetings.
He knew about the fix from thevery beginning, but he refused to
take any money.
And by all accounts played hisheart out in the series.
(23:23):
His crime was one of omission.
He knew his teammates werebetraying the game and he stayed
silent.
And for that silence, he wouldpay the same price as all the others.
So the cast of this tragedywas set.
Eight men, for differentreasons, made a pact to commit the
ultimate sin in sports.
(23:44):
The original deal was for$100,000 in total, to be paid in
installments of $20,000 aftereach loss.
But the players were, ofcourse, dealing with criminals, and
criminals rarely keep their word.
After losing game one, thepromised payment didn't arrive.
After losing game two, only$10,000 was delivered, a fraction
(24:07):
of the $40,000 that they were owed.
So the players were furious.
They felt that they had beendouble crossed.
So they decided to stage adouble cross of their own.
A double cross of the double cross.
Angry about the non payment,the conspirators resolved to actually
play to win the series.
And they took game six andgame seven.
(24:28):
And suddenly they had put theWhite Sox back in a place where they
could win the Series.
But backing out of a deal withgangsters proved to be a dangerous
proposition.
Before the decisive gameeight, the story takes its most sinister
turn.
Several players receivedthreats of violence against themselves
and their families if theydidn't ensure a Cincinnati victory.
(24:51):
For example, Lefty Williamsclaimed that a cigar smoking thug
in a bowling hat paid him avisit and made the violent threats
to ensure that he continued tothrow the games as they agreed.
And sure enough, Williamspitched poorly in game eight of the
series.
He threw only 15 pitches,allowing four hits and three runs
(25:13):
before being taken out of thegame with only one out.
Cincinnati went on to win thatgame in the series 10 to 5.
What began as a cynical cashgrab had now escalated into a situation
of genuine fear and coercion.
The players were no longerjust greedy, they were trapped.
(25:33):
Exactly, Michael.
In the end, chick Gandalreceived $35,000, whereas the others
only received a measly $5,000 each.
That was a great deal lessthan they had been promised.
Now, to be clear, even thoughthe plan was to throw the game and
it was supposed to be secret,it was more of an open secret in
(25:53):
the gambling world.
On the day of game one, asudden influx of money on the underdog
Cincinnati Reds caused thebetting odds to plummet.
A clear sign to insiders thatsomething was wrong.
The rumors reached the pressbox, where legendary sports writers
like Hugh Fullerton and RingLardner, along with former pitching
(26:15):
great Christy Mathewson,resolved to keep their own scorecard.
Comparing Notes on anysuspicious plays they witnessed.
Fullerton was so convincedthat he wired his syndicated newspapers
a curious and cautious butclear warning.
Quote, advise all not to beton this series.
(26:35):
Ugly rumors afloat, End quote.
The players, for their part,were brilliant athletes, but amateur
criminals.
Their attempts to throw thegames were often clumsy, a performance
of incompetence that waspainfully obvious to the trained
eyes watching them.
For example, in game one,pitcher Eddie Saicott hit the leadoff
(26:57):
batter with his second pitch.
Later on, Saikot would admitthat the specific act had been the
signal that the fix was on.
During the fourth inning, withtwo outs, sicot had an opportunity
to carry out a double play,but instead he hesitated.
He turned slowly to secondbase and made a low throw.
The runner was safe.
(27:18):
The inning continued and thereds exploded with five runs, blowing
the game wide open.
Sports writers in the pressbox knew immediately that something
was very, very wrong.
In game two, pitcher leftyWilliams, who was known for his tremendous
control, suddenly couldn'tseem to find the plate.
In the fourth inning, hewalked three batters.
(27:41):
All three came around to score.
The chicago Tribune's reportcalled his wildness, quote, almost
criminal.
And in game four, during thefifth inning, Shoeless Joe Jackson
unleashed a perfect throw tohome plate with the intention of
gunning out a runner.
But Eddie Saicott inexplicitlystepped in front of the catcher and
the ball deflected off his glove.
(28:02):
The runner scored, and in Game5, center fielder Happy Happy felsh
catches a long fly ball, onlyto have it slip out of his glove.
The play allowed a crucial runto score.
During game eight, the finalindecisive game, Lefty Williams took
the mound and completely imploded.
He faced just five batters inthe first inning, giving up four
(28:25):
straight hits in three runsbefore the manager yanked him from
the game.
And that was that.
The fix was complete.
The White Sox had lost theworld series.
(28:54):
For nearly a year after the1919 World Series ended, the rumors
swirled.
It was an open secret in thebaseball world.
Then In September of 1920, agrand jury investigating an unrelated
fixed game between the cubsand the Phillies somehow turned its
attention to the 1919 WorldSeries, and the dam was about to
(29:16):
break.
On September 28th of 1920, agambler and self admitted fix insider
named Bill Mayharg went publicabout how the black Sox scandal had
worked and his role in it.
That same day, White Sox ownerCharles Comiskey suspended the seven
implicated players who werestill on the team, effectively ending
(29:38):
the White Sox's Chance in the1920 World Series.
That was quite a shame sincethe White Sox had played well that
entire season and it lookedquite possible that would be in the
World Series again.
But without seven players,including Eddie Sicott and Shoeless
Joe Jackson, the team didn'tstand a chance.
And in case you're curious, itwas the Indians who would go on to
(30:00):
win the 1920 World Series.
After the seven suspectedplayers were suspended from the team,
the pressure mounted on themto tell the truth.
Pitcher Eddie Saicott was thefirst to crack.
He went to the office of theWhite Sox team lawyer and in a tearful
mea culpa, confessed everything.
(30:21):
He was immediately takenbefore the grand jury.
His testimony was a portraitof regret.
He allegedly stated, quote, Idon't know why I did it.
I must have been crazy.
Now I've lost everything.
Job, reputation, everything,end quote.
Psychot went on to explainexactly how he'd thrown the game,
(30:41):
admitting to how he lobbedpitches so that, quote, a baby could
have hit him, end quote.
Shortly after, Shoeless JoeJackson confessed, then Lefty Williams
and as we explained earlier inthe episode, Jackson admitted to
the grand jury that he hadreluctantly accepted the $5,000 in
bribe money, but had notactually tried to throw the game.
(31:04):
But as Jackson left thecourthouse, he was surrounded by
reporters.
And it was there that he madeone of his most damning statements,
claiming that after theplayers had been stiffed by the gamblers,
the eight of us did our bestto kick.
In short, Jackson indicatedthat once they realized the gamblers
(31:25):
involved in the fix had triedto screw them over, they started
trying to win the games again.
It was a clear admission of aconspiracy involving the eight players.
But taking part in the fixingof the World Series wasn't just an
offense against baseball andits fans.
It was also literally criminal.
The eight accused playerswould face felony charges of conspiracy
(31:48):
to defraud, which was serious stuff.
The criminal trial began inChicago in June of 1921, and it was
a spectacle.
The courtroom in Chicago wasjammed every day.
The indicted players weretreated not as criminals, but more
like fallen heroes.
Jurors, often starstruck,openly fraternized with the defendants.
(32:11):
An article in the New YorkTimes described the scene, stating,
the spectators added to thebleacher appearance of the courtroom,
for most of them sweltered,and shirt sleeves and collars were
few.
Scores of small boys jammedtheir way into the seats.
And as the prosecutor told ofthe alleged sellout, they repeatedly
(32:32):
looked at each other in awe,remarking under their breaths, quote,
what do you think of that?
And we'll all be damned.
End quote.
Adding to this chaos, rightbefore the trial began, transcripts
of the players confessionswent missing from the courthouse.
Interestingly, almost acentury later, in 2007, the Chicago
(32:52):
History Museum acquired alarge collection of documents from
the office of the owner,Comiskey's lawyer.
Among those documents weresome of these missing transcripts.
One theory is that Comiskeyhad hoped that by suspending and
investigating his own players,he might actually be able to keep
his team intact.
It would look like he wasdoing something to clean him up corruption
(33:15):
in his team.
But ultimately, he wanted hisplayers to be acquitted.
In the end, the jurydeliberated for less than three hours
before returning verdicts ofnot guilty on all charges for all
of the accused players.
The simplest explanation forthis outcome is that the legal charge
(33:36):
of conspiracy to defraud wasand is very difficult to prove in
court.
The prosecution must provebeyond a reasonable doubt that an
agreement, expressed orimplied, existed between the alleged
co conspirators to defraud.
And that can be difficult whendirect evidence of an agreement,
such as written documents oreyewitness testimony, is scarce.
(34:00):
And it's possible that thelost legal documents that ended up
in Comiskey's hands may havesomewhat contributed to that.
But in general, the charge ofconspiracy to defraud the public
is a difficult charge to make stick.
And more importantly, the jurysimply refused to convict their heroes.
This is a phenomenon known asjury nullification, where jurors
(34:23):
ignore the evidence and thelaw because it conflicts with their
own sense of justice or morality.
And indeed, on August 2, 1921,when the verdict of not guilty was
announced, the courtroomerupted in celebration.
One newspaper reported thatthe jurors hoisted the players onto
their shoulders to carry themout of the building.
(34:43):
So it looked like the playersconnected to the Black Sox scandal
might make it out alive tocontinue their baseball careers.
But in the long run, thatproved not to be the case.
A group of team owners,terrified by the scandal's threat
to their business, called fora reform to the National Baseball
Commission, the governing bodyof major league and minor League
(35:05):
Baseball from 1903 to 1920.
The owner's original plan wasto appoint a widely respected federal
judge and noted baseball fannamed Kennesaw Mountain Landis to
head a reformed three membercommission beginning in the 1921
season.
But Judge Landis was a man ofstern, unbending morality with a
(35:27):
reputation for ruling with aniron hand.
And he made it clear to theowners that he would only accept
an appointment as baseball'ssole Commissioner, and even then
only on the condition that hebe granted essentially unchecked
power over the sport.
This was a prettycontroversial change for the major
(35:49):
league baseball at the time,right, Michael?
Absolutely, elena.
Prior to 1921, there had neverbeen a single commissioner with sole
governance on behalf of the owners.
But the owners agreed thatJudge Landis terms because they were
desperate to clean up thegame's image.
On August 3, 1921, the dayafter the White Sox players were
(36:12):
acquitted of the legal chargesagainst them, them, Judge Landis
issued a statement that wouldecho through baseball history.
Standing in his Chicagooffice, he delivered.
His verdict regardless of theverdict of juries.
No player who throws a ballgame, no player who undertakes or
promises to throw a ball game,no player that sits in conference
(36:34):
with a bunch of crookedplayers and gamblers where the ways
and the means of throwing agame are discussed and does not promptly
tell his club about it or willever play professional baseball again.
With that one statement, hebanned all eight black sock scandal
players for life.
His edict was absoluteoverriding the court of law.
(36:55):
With the court of baseball.
Landis swift, decisive actionwas widely praised for saving the
game's integrity.
(37:25):
So while the eight black sockscandal players were declared legally
innocent in a court of law,they were still judged guilty and
bad, banned for life from themajor leagues in the court of baseball.
Interestingly, for the rest ofhis life, Shoeless Joe Jackson maintained
his innocence, becoming arather tragic figure in American
folklore.
(37:46):
But a civil trial a coupleyears later in 1924 adds a devastating
layer of complexity to his story.
At that time, Jackson sued theWhite Sox for back pay he felt that
he was owed on his contract.
During Jackson's civil trial,the White Sox lawyer confronted him
with the transcript of his1921 grand jury testimony.
(38:08):
The White Sox lawyer readJackson's own words back to him in
response to the question,quote, did anybody pay you any money
to help throw the series infavor of Cincinnati?
Jackson had stated they did,end quote.
But now in this 1924 civilcase, Jackson responded that he didn't
remember being asked thatquestion at all.
(38:30):
Over and over, more than ahundred times.
In the civil case, Jacksondenied making the statements that
were in the official 1921court record.
The trial judge was appalled.
Before the jury even returnedits verdict, he bound Jackson over
on a charge of perjury,stating from the bench, quote, jackson
stands self convicted, self accused.
(38:51):
His testimony as given here incourt has been impeached in and shown
to be false by the testimonyhe gave before the grand jury.
Even his stellar on fieldperformance in the 1919 series Withers
under scrutiny.
While his overall battingaverage was an impressive.375 with
a record 12 hits, a deeperstatistical analysis reveals a troubling
(39:17):
pattern.
In the first five games whenthe fix was on, Jackson came to bat
and clocked clutch situationswith runners on base seven times
and failed to get a single rbi.
His big hits and home run camein games the players were trying
to win or in the final gamewhen the Sox were already hopelessly
(39:38):
behind.
The numbers, like Jackson'stestimony, tell two different stories.
Regardless of what Jackson didor did not do during the 1919 World
Series, many baseball fans andbaseball historians still consider
him an amazing player worthyof recognition.
And despite Shoeless JoeJackson's death in 1951, many players
(40:00):
continued to push over theyears to have his lifetime ban overturned
to make him eligible for hallof fame considerations.
In 1989, the MLB commissionerdeclined to reinstate Jackson, explaining
that the case was quoteunquote, now best given to historical
analysis and debate as opposedto a present day review with an eye
(40:21):
to reinstatement.
End quote.
In 2015, Shoeless Joe JacksonMuseum formally petitioned the MLB
Commissioner for reinstatementon the grounds that Jackson had,
quote, more than served hissentence in the last 95 years since
his banishment.
Again, the request was deniedwith the explanation that, quote,
it is not possible now over 95years since those events took place
(40:44):
place to be certain enough ofthe truth to overrule Commissioner
Landis determinations, end quote.
However, in 2025, thecommissioner announced that Major
League Baseball had changedits policies such that all players
were removed from thepermanently ineligible list upon
(41:04):
death.
With this decision, ShoelessJoe Jackson and other troubled but
skilled players like Pete Rosewould be eligible for consideration
by the hall of Fame's ClassicBaseball era committee in 2027.
And I'm glad that youmentioned Pete Rose.
For those of you who are notbaseball historians or huge baseball
(41:24):
fans like myself, Pete Rosewas a former star baseball player
who transitioned into managingthe Cincinnati Reds in the late 1980s.
In 1989, he was banned fromMajor League Baseball for gambling
on baseball games, includingthose of his own team.
This lifetime ban has up untilnow prevented him from being inducted
(41:45):
into the hall of Fame.
Now you might ask yourself,Michael, why are you going off on
a tangent about Pete Rose andhis gambling?
This is an episode about theBlack Sox.
Yes it is.
But historically the two areactually very much connected.
Judge Landis, 1921 edict didmore than just ban a players from
Baseball.
It carved out a newcommandment in the stone tablets
(42:08):
of baseball.
Thou shall not gamble.
It established an ironcladzero tolerance precedent that has
defined the sport's moralityfor over a century.
This credited a directunbroken line from the events of
1919 to the lifetime ban ofPete Rose in 1989.
The comparison between the twoscandals has been a source of endless
(42:32):
debate for fans.
What is the greater crimeagainst the integrity of the game?
Is it taking money fromgamblers to intentionally lose the
World Series as the Black Soxdid, or betting on your own team
to win as Pete Rose did?
The Black Sox activelycorrupted the outcome of the sports
championship, while Rose'sactions, though a clear violation
(42:54):
of the rules, didn't involveintentionally losing.
This debate highlights thecomplex and often emotional definition
of what it means to portraythe game.
And for nearly a century, theghosts of the Black Sox scandal kept
sports betting in the shadows.
But in 2018, a Supreme Courtruling struck down the federal law
(43:15):
that barred sports betting inmost states and it's opened the floodgates.
Today, sports betting is legalin dozens of states, including the
great state of Louisiana.
And it's no longer a backalley activity.
It's a mainstream, heavilymarketed part of of the fan experience.
MLB players are still notpermitted to gamble on anything related
(43:37):
to baseball.
But even so, this new gamblinglandscape has created a new era of
temptation and pressure for athletes.
With the rise of prop bets,wagers on individual player statistics,
athletes are now subject todirect harassment from spans who
have lost money on their performance.
(43:59):
Carter Hicks, a baseballdirector at unc, noted, quote, if
we don't have an outcome thatsomeone bet on, our players are going
to hear about that.
And sometimes it's not alwaysin the nicest way, end quote.
In just the last few years,MLB has suspended multiple players
for gambling.
And in 2024, the NBA, theNational Basketball association also
(44:21):
recently issued a lifetime banto player Jontay Porter, who for
manipulating his ownperformance to influence prop bets.
Yet the ultimate legacy of theBlack Sox scandal in the present
21st century is a profound paradox.
The very system that hasnormalized gambling is also the most
effective tool for policing it.
The 1919 fix was orchestratedin the shadows with illegal bookmakers
(44:45):
who had no incentive to report corruption.
Today's scandals, like the oneinvolving Johntay Porter are often
uncovered by the legal sportsbooks themselves.
These regulated companies usesophisticated algorithms to detect
unusual betting patterns andhave a legal and financial incentive
to report suspiciousactivities to the leagues to protect
(45:08):
their own integrity.
And a strange twist of history.
The crime committed by theBlack Sox created its own antidote.
The century long obsessionwith rooting out gambling has culminated
in a transparent regulatedsystem where the various very active
betting is now the primarymechanism for ensuring the games
are clean.
(45:28):
So why does this story stillgrip us more than a century later?
Perhaps because of its mostfamous line from the 1921 legal trial,
say it ain't so, Joe.
That line has since becomepart of the American lexicon.
No doubt.
Michael According to thelegend, during the 1921 trial, as
shoeless Joe Jackson left thecourthouse after his grand grand
(45:50):
jury confession, a young boysupposedly tugged at his sleeve and
uttered those heartbreaking words.
It's a heartbreaking image oflost innocence.
It's almost certainly afiction largely created by the press.
Jackson himself denied it everhappening in an interview decades
later.
But the myth of it enduresbecause it captures the essence of
(46:12):
the crime.
It wasn't about a conspiracyto defraud the public out of their
ticket money.
It was a betrayal of public faith.
F. Scott Fitzgerald understoodthis perfectly.
In the Great Gatsby, when thenarrator learns that the gangster
Meyer Wolfshine was the manbehind the fix, he's staggered.
He reflects.
It never occurred to me thatone man could start to play with
(46:36):
the faith of 50 million peoplewith the single mindedness of a burglar
blowing a safe.
End quote.
That was the true crime of theBlack Sox scandal.
They didn't just steal a WorldSeries, they stole a piece of America's
belief in something pure.
In an age of renewed cynicismand ever present temptation, it's
(46:56):
a crime whose echoes we canstill hear today.
Thanks for tuning in with ustoday on History's Greatest Crimes.
I'm Michael.
And I'm Elena.
And as always, stay curious.
Sam.
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