October 9, 2024 • 8 mins
Join us on Daily Sports History as we dive into the 1919 World Series, where the Cincinnati Reds claimed their first championship in a series forever linked to the infamous Black Sox Scandal. Explore the key moments of the Reds' victory, the controversy surrounding the series, and how it impacted the future of baseball. Discover the story behind one of the most talked-about World Series in history.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On October ninth, nineteen nineteen, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the
Chicago White Sox to win their very first World Series,
which later became overshadowed by the Black Sox scandal. But
the series itself was actually relatively close, and we're going
to dive into how the Reds actually won the nineteen
(00:20):
nineteen World Series. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees,
your guide as you daily learn about sports history to
increase your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is in
what year did the eight Black Socks actually get charges
(00:44):
brought up against them for throwing the World Series? Now,
I mean, before we get to the series, let's see
how these two teams actually ended up in the World Series.
Because at this time, there was not really a playoff.
It's just whoever won the National League and whoever won
the American League would face off in the World Series.
So let's first start with the Reds as they're often
(01:04):
forgot about in this series. See in nineteen nineteen, they
were kind of an upstart team, kind of the underdog
for most of their time in the major leagues, as
they had not finished higher than third since nineteen hundred
and they had only won the National League pennant two
times before winning handily in nineteen nineteen. Under new manager
Pat Moran, they were able to put together a team
(01:25):
with stars such as Eddie Rousch, Henny Gore, Jake de Barrett,
and they featured three pitchers who had won nineteen games
or more and Hode Eller, Dutch Rother and Slim Sally.
And they finished winning ninety six games, which was nine
games better than second place the New York Giants, and
(01:45):
they set a record for attendance that year, drawing more
than half a million fans to their home games, which
is better than their record of four hundred and twenty
four thousand. And they would face off against the Chicago
White Sox, who had the best record in the American League,
winning eighty eight games, beating out the Cleveland Indians by
four games. Led by Trustrow Jackson, one of the best
(02:07):
hitters at the time, and Eddie Collins. They had a
great hitting staff as well as having two pitchers who
pitched who won over twenty three games that year in
Lefty Williams and Eddie Seacott, who won twenty nine games
that year. So though we often remember it for the
scandal of eight White Sox taking money to fix the games.
Cincinnati could have been thought of as the front runner,
(02:30):
as they had won more games, had more pitchers that
were dominant, but were just thought of as lesser as
they had been the lovable losers for such a long time.
But Game one happened on October first in Cincinnati in
front of thirty thousand fans, and tickets were going high
at the time at Cincinnati hadn't won the World Series,
and they were going for as high as fifty dollars
(02:52):
a ticket, which is almost one thousand dollars today now. Famously,
in this game, Seacott came to the mound who reportedly
got ten thousand dollars the night before, to throw the
series hit the Cincinnati's leadoff hitter, so that everyone knew
the fix was on, but it wasn't. But the game
was tied one to one going into the fourth inning
(03:12):
when Cincinnati went on a little bit of a hit
streak and scored five runs in the fourth and took
the game nine to one. The Game two is played
the next day on October second, in Cincinnati, when Lefty
Williams took the mound for Chicago, and again the game
was tied and zero to zero heading into the fourth
inning when the White Sox took the lead, scored three
(03:34):
runs when Lefty walked three who eventually would go on
to score, and the game would end four to two
with a win for Cincinnati. But Game three came the
next day in Chicago, where Chicago's Dicky Kerr ended up
taking the mound who was not a part of the fix,
and the Chicago won three nothing and in Game four
(03:56):
Cincinnati was another hard fought game, but since Cincinnati didn't
score until the second until the fifth inning when they
scored two runs, which was the only time anyone scored
the entire game. The fifth game was actually postponed today
due to rain and both both teams were shut out
until the sixth inning win. Cincinnati again went on a
(04:19):
run in one inning, sin scoring four runs, finishing the
game five to zero, taking a four to one game
lead heading into Game six. Now you may think four
to one didn't Cincinnati already win. At this time, they
were playing the series best of nine, so Cincinnati needed
to win one more game, but it wouldn't happen. On
October seventh, in Game six, as again Dicky Kerr pitched
(04:42):
another dominant game like he did in Game three, and
Chicago came out on a win and just and despite
Cincinnati leading at the end of the fourth inning, Chicago
came back and scored the next five runs to win
the game in extra innings. And the following day, on
October eighth, Kago would again go on to win and
in dominant fashion, winning four to zero, taking the lead
(05:06):
in the first inning and never looking back. So now
the series was four to three in favor of the Reds,
but Chicago was on a streak. And in Chicago, Cincinnati
came out and had Hoyd Heller versus Lefty Williams, where
Cincinnati scored four runs in the first inning which set
(05:26):
the tone for the game where they dominated, scoring ten runs,
winning ten to five and winning their very first World Series.
And during this game, Joe Jackson hit the only home
run of the series, so the Cincinnati Reds during the
series scored thirty five runs to twenty runs by the
Chicago White Sox. Joe Jackson led all players hitting three
(05:49):
to seventy five for the series and Greasey Noel led
the Cincinnati Reds hitting three to fifty seven for the
series and hoyd Eller pitched two complete came including one shutout,
and had an ERA of two with fifteen strikeouts, helping
lead the Cincinnati Reds to a win, and at the time,
Cincinnati celebrated, and though the White Sox seemed to play
(06:12):
a lackluster series, everyone celebrated the Red Sox for their win.
But it wasn't until September of nineteen twenty when the
Grand Jury got together to indict eight of the White
Sox players for conspiracy to fraud and take bribes to
throw the nineteen nineteen World Series. So it was almost
(06:34):
an entire year where the Reds were just enjoying being
the champions of the major leagues, but it's often forgot
about because of the whole White Sox scandals, and who
knows the Reds were good enough that they could have
actually won the series on their own. It wasn't a
foreground conclusion. The White Sox weren't so good that they
(06:55):
couldn't have just one outright, So it leads a tarnishment
on their World Series win and now no one remembers
the nineteen nineteen Reds. But gambling got in the way
and White Sock's cheap owner made their players think that
this was the only way for them to make money.
It was a sad moment in MLB history, as those
eight players were forever banned from the Major League Baseball
(07:19):
all because of money. So sometimes when we think about
sports today, we think about the pro athletes making tons
of money, which helps this not be an issue in
today's major league sports, as the players are making so
much that they're less likely to be bought off. But
it's a sad moment that money changes a great moment
for the Reds. We'll always have a little bit of
(07:40):
an asterisk next to their World Series when they really
shouldn't have. They could have done it on their own.
And I want to thank you for listening to today's episode.
If you enjoyed it, please leave us a rating or
review wherever you're listening. It really brings joy to my space.
And if you want, you can tell us a topic
us to cover in your name and we'll get that
(08:02):
done just for you. And come back tomorrow for more
daily sports history and the answer today's trivite question, in
what year did the eight Black Socks actually get charges
brought up against them for throwing the World Series? Wasn't
until September nineteen twenty that they got indicted by the
Grand jury, meaning it was almost one year after the
(08:24):
World Series before everything came crumbling down.
On October ninth, nineteen nineteen, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the
Chicago White Sox to win their very first World Series,
which later became overshadowed by the Black Sox scandal. But
the series itself was actually relatively close, and we're going
to dive into how the Reds actually won the nineteen
(00:20):
nineteen World Series. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees,
your guide as you daily learn about sports history to
increase your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is in
what year did the eight Black Socks actually get charges
(00:44):
brought up against them for throwing the World Series? Now,
I mean, before we get to the series, let's see
how these two teams actually ended up in the World Series.
Because at this time, there was not really a playoff.
It's just whoever won the National League and whoever won
the American League would face off in the World Series.
So let's first start with the Reds as they're often
(01:04):
forgot about in this series. See in nineteen nineteen, they
were kind of an upstart team, kind of the underdog
for most of their time in the major leagues, as
they had not finished higher than third since nineteen hundred
and they had only won the National League pennant two
times before winning handily in nineteen nineteen. Under new manager
Pat Moran, they were able to put together a team
(01:25):
with stars such as Eddie Rousch, Henny Gore, Jake de Barrett,
and they featured three pitchers who had won nineteen games
or more and Hode Eller, Dutch Rother and Slim Sally.
And they finished winning ninety six games, which was nine
games better than second place the New York Giants, and
(01:45):
they set a record for attendance that year, drawing more
than half a million fans to their home games, which
is better than their record of four hundred and twenty
four thousand. And they would face off against the Chicago
White Sox, who had the best record in the American League,
winning eighty eight games, beating out the Cleveland Indians by
four games. Led by Trustrow Jackson, one of the best
(02:07):
hitters at the time, and Eddie Collins. They had a
great hitting staff as well as having two pitchers who
pitched who won over twenty three games that year in
Lefty Williams and Eddie Seacott, who won twenty nine games
that year. So though we often remember it for the
scandal of eight White Sox taking money to fix the games.
Cincinnati could have been thought of as the front runner,
(02:30):
as they had won more games, had more pitchers that
were dominant, but were just thought of as lesser as
they had been the lovable losers for such a long time.
But Game one happened on October first in Cincinnati in
front of thirty thousand fans, and tickets were going high
at the time at Cincinnati hadn't won the World Series,
and they were going for as high as fifty dollars
(02:52):
a ticket, which is almost one thousand dollars today now. Famously,
in this game, Seacott came to the mound who reportedly
got ten thousand dollars the night before, to throw the
series hit the Cincinnati's leadoff hitter, so that everyone knew
the fix was on, but it wasn't. But the game
was tied one to one going into the fourth inning
(03:12):
when Cincinnati went on a little bit of a hit
streak and scored five runs in the fourth and took
the game nine to one. The Game two is played
the next day on October second, in Cincinnati, when Lefty
Williams took the mound for Chicago, and again the game
was tied and zero to zero heading into the fourth
inning when the White Sox took the lead, scored three
(03:34):
runs when Lefty walked three who eventually would go on
to score, and the game would end four to two
with a win for Cincinnati. But Game three came the
next day in Chicago, where Chicago's Dicky Kerr ended up
taking the mound who was not a part of the fix,
and the Chicago won three nothing and in Game four
(03:56):
Cincinnati was another hard fought game, but since Cincinnati didn't
score until the second until the fifth inning when they
scored two runs, which was the only time anyone scored
the entire game. The fifth game was actually postponed today
due to rain and both both teams were shut out
until the sixth inning win. Cincinnati again went on a
(04:19):
run in one inning, sin scoring four runs, finishing the
game five to zero, taking a four to one game
lead heading into Game six. Now you may think four
to one didn't Cincinnati already win. At this time, they
were playing the series best of nine, so Cincinnati needed
to win one more game, but it wouldn't happen. On
October seventh, in Game six, as again Dicky Kerr pitched
(04:42):
another dominant game like he did in Game three, and
Chicago came out on a win and just and despite
Cincinnati leading at the end of the fourth inning, Chicago
came back and scored the next five runs to win
the game in extra innings. And the following day, on
October eighth, Kago would again go on to win and
in dominant fashion, winning four to zero, taking the lead
(05:06):
in the first inning and never looking back. So now
the series was four to three in favor of the Reds,
but Chicago was on a streak. And in Chicago, Cincinnati
came out and had Hoyd Heller versus Lefty Williams, where
Cincinnati scored four runs in the first inning which set
(05:26):
the tone for the game where they dominated, scoring ten runs,
winning ten to five and winning their very first World Series.
And during this game, Joe Jackson hit the only home
run of the series, so the Cincinnati Reds during the
series scored thirty five runs to twenty runs by the
Chicago White Sox. Joe Jackson led all players hitting three
(05:49):
to seventy five for the series and Greasey Noel led
the Cincinnati Reds hitting three to fifty seven for the
series and hoyd Eller pitched two complete came including one shutout,
and had an ERA of two with fifteen strikeouts, helping
lead the Cincinnati Reds to a win, and at the time,
Cincinnati celebrated, and though the White Sox seemed to play
(06:12):
a lackluster series, everyone celebrated the Red Sox for their win.
But it wasn't until September of nineteen twenty when the
Grand Jury got together to indict eight of the White
Sox players for conspiracy to fraud and take bribes to
throw the nineteen nineteen World Series. So it was almost
(06:34):
an entire year where the Reds were just enjoying being
the champions of the major leagues, but it's often forgot
about because of the whole White Sox scandals, and who
knows the Reds were good enough that they could have
actually won the series on their own. It wasn't a
foreground conclusion. The White Sox weren't so good that they
(06:55):
couldn't have just one outright, So it leads a tarnishment
on their World Series win and now no one remembers
the nineteen nineteen Reds. But gambling got in the way
and White Sock's cheap owner made their players think that
this was the only way for them to make money.
It was a sad moment in MLB history, as those
eight players were forever banned from the Major League Baseball
(07:19):
all because of money. So sometimes when we think about
sports today, we think about the pro athletes making tons
of money, which helps this not be an issue in
today's major league sports, as the players are making so
much that they're less likely to be bought off. But
it's a sad moment that money changes a great moment
for the Reds. We'll always have a little bit of
(07:40):
an asterisk next to their World Series when they really
shouldn't have. They could have done it on their own.
And I want to thank you for listening to today's episode.
If you enjoyed it, please leave us a rating or
review wherever you're listening. It really brings joy to my space.
And if you want, you can tell us a topic
us to cover in your name and we'll get that
(08:02):
done just for you. And come back tomorrow for more
daily sports history and the answer today's trivite question, in
what year did the eight Black Socks actually get charges
brought up against them for throwing the World Series? Wasn't
until September nineteen twenty that they got indicted by the
Grand jury, meaning it was almost one year after the
(08:24):
World Series before everything came crumbling down.
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