World Series 1919

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World Series 1919
"Black Sox" from 1919
team Victories Regular season
Cincinnati Reds 5 96-44, 68.6%, GA: 9
Chicago White Sox 3 88-52, 62.9%, GA: 3½
Period: October 1 - October 9, 1919
 <1918 World Series

The 1919 World Series was the 16th edition of the finals in the US Baseball League Major League Baseball . In the best-of-nine series, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago White Sox with 5-3 wins. The sporting events were overshadowed by a bribery scandal in which eight Chicago players were involved. In an ironic allusion to the club name White Sox (dt .: The White Sox ) is called in this connection by the Black Sox scandal (dt .: scandal of black socks ). The final series is considered one of the worst sports scandals in the United States .

prehistory

The Reds had won 96 games of the season and therefore enjoyed the advantage of a fifth home game against the White Sox (88 wins). In 1919, a series with five wins for the win (best-of-nine) was played for the first time since 1903. Though the Reds were only slightly favored, large sums of money were suddenly bet on them. Behind it was businessman / mafia boss Arnold Rothstein from Kosher Nostra . Rothstein bribed the White Sox to bet large sums of money on a Reds win.

The White Sox players suffered from the stinginess of their owner Charles Comiskey , who paid below average wages and a. refused to pay the laundry detergent for cleaning the uniforms. The white Chicago jerseys were getting dirtier and dirtier, so that the team was ironically called the Black Sox even before the final series . First baseman Chick Gandil had contacts with Chicago betting shark Joseph Sullivan, who in turn was on good terms with mafia boss Rothstein. Rothstein offered Gandil $ 80,000 if he could get the team to lose the World Series. Gandil inaugurated the two pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams as well as outfield players Charles Risberg , Oscar Felsch and Buck Weaver and White Sox superstar Shoeless Joe Jackson . Substitute player Fred McMullin was not told, found out, and was also bribed, while Weaver declined but remained silent. After Gandil traded the bribe up to $ 100,000, the manipulation was perfect.

Since the White Sox roster comprised a total of 27 players, many people remained uninitiated. The regulars included catcher Ray Schalk , right fielder Eddie Murphy and third pitcher Dickie Kerr . Coach Kid Gleason was also left out.

statistics

NL Cincinnati Reds (5) vs. AL Chicago White Sox (3)

game Final score date place Audience
1 Chicago White Sox - 1, Cincinnati Reds - 9 October 1 Crosley Field 30,511
2 Chicago White Sox - 2, Cincinnati Reds - 4 October 2nd Crosley Field 29,698
3 Cincinnati Reds - 0, Chicago White Sox - 3 October 3 Comiskey Park 29,126
4th Cincinnati Reds - 2, Chicago White Sox - 0 4th of October Comiskey Park 34,363
5 Cincinnati Reds - 5, Chicago White Sox - 0 October 6th Comiskey Park 34,379
6th Chicago White Sox - 5, Cincinnati Reds - 4 (10 innings) October 7th Crosley Field 32.006
7th Chicago White Sox - 4, Cincinnati Reds - 1 8th October Crosley Field 13,923
8th Cincinnati Reds - 10, Chicago White Sox - 5 9th October Comiskey Park 32,930

Match reports

Game 1

Reds win their first home game 9–1: Reds 1 - White Sox 0

As a signal that the eight conspirators had accepted the bribe, Cicotte deliberately threw the 2nd pitch in the back of Reds batsman Morrie Rath . The game was evenly balanced until the Reds got five runs in the 4th inning due to an unsuspecting looking "period of weakness" from Cicotte and brought home the win with a 9-1. But the conspirators were worried because they didn't get the whole hundred thousand, but only 10,000 dollars. The reason was that Rothstein's straw men didn't have $ 100,000 in cash.

Game 2

Reds win their 2nd home game 4–2: Reds 2 - White Sox 0

Lefty Williams was assigned to be the White Sox thrower that day. He delivered a perfect show by throwing the majority of the game strongly and only making "random little mistakes". Because the White Sox were "strangely" weak at hitting, the Reds won 4–2. The conspirators only got another $ 10,000 deposit and grew impatient.

Game 3

Reds lose their 3rd home game 0–3: Reds 2 - White Sox 1

Dickie Kerr, who was not privy to the bribe, threw a shutout . Kerr - who was considered hated within the team and shouldn't share in the money - unintentionally created two problems. First, the conspirators wanted to keep losing. Second, Rothstein's straw men had money problems: To scrape together the remaining $ 80,000, they had bet the money they had on a Reds victory. The almost bankrupt straw men now panicked.

Game 4

White Sox lose their 1st home game 0–2: Reds 3 - White Sox 1

Eddie Cicotte threw this game and afforded himself a "random" awkwardness when the score was 0-0, by which the Reds scored the only two points. After the game, Gandil received $ 20,000 and divided it between Risberg, Felsch, Jackson and Williams.

Game 5

White Sox lose their 2nd home game 0–4: Reds 4 - White Sox 1

This game was very even for a long time until Felsch "accidentally" made two big blunders in the 6th inning and the Reds scored the four decisive points. The conspirators were just one defeat away from their bribe. According to the previous system (best-of-seven), the series would have ended.

Game 6

White Sox win their 3rd home game 5–4: Reds 4 - White Sox 2

The still uninitiated Dickie Kerr played a rather mediocre game, which was made worse by three fielding errors by his teammates. But the White Sox equalized to 4–4 in the 6th inning. Although the Reds were only one point away from the World Series (and the conspirators in turn from the $ 60,000 outstanding), the bribed did not manage to "miserably" lose this game. Ringleader Gandil, of all people, scored the decisive point for 5–4.

Game 7

White Sox win their 4th home game 4–1: Reds 4 - White Sox 3

Rumors grew that Eddie Cicotte had been bribed. But this time the pitcher played very well, and the Reds defensive, which had been solid so far, made several mistakes. Cincinnati lost 4–1.

Game 8

Reds win their 4th home game 10–5: Reds win World Series with 5–3 wins

For this game Lefty Williams was assigned as the thrower. Before the game, Mafia boss Rothstein called the White Sox player personally and threatened to murder his family if he did not make decisive mistakes in the first inning. The frightened Williams threw slow, straight balls (that is, steep assists for home runs ), so that the Reds were leading 4-0 after the first inning. The Reds ended up winning 10-5 and the series 5-3. Immediately after the game, allegations were raised that the series had been manipulated.

Exposure

The front page of the Sporting News, October 7, 1920, with the headlines: Fix These Faces In Your Memory - eight men charged with selling out baseball ("Memorize these faces - eight men are accused of betraying baseball.") Photos: Eddie Cicotte (center); clockwise from top left: Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil, Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Swede Risberg, Fred McMullin, Claude Williams

The White Sox were suspected of match fixing throughout the 1920 season. In September the grand jury met and formally indicted the organization. Eddie Cicotte and Joe Jackson confessed immediately, and when the extent of the scandal became apparent, shocked White Sox owner Charles Comiskey suspended the culprits. The White Sox therefore missed the playoffs in 1920. Rothstein was also indicted, but was able to successfully pull himself out of the affair as an “unsuspecting businessman” who had been betrayed by “dubious betting sharks” (ie his own straw men). He let the straw men go into hiding abroad. The eight conspirators Gandil, Cicotte, Weaver, Jackson, Felsch, Williams, McMullin and Risberg were acquitted by the jury, but none of them ever played in the MLB again. The reason was the appointment of Kenesaw Mountain Landis as a commissioner for the game of baseball, for. B. to prevent such betting scandals in the future. Landis, who had previously served as a federal judge himself, ignored the ruling and banned all players from the MLB for life.

In retrospect, Weaver and Jackson's lifelong banishment was controversial. Weaver had never accepted any money and was merely a confidante: a ban of several years would have been enough for him. Jackson did not get a lawyer at his trial and confessed to being under the influence of alcohol . He also signed the pre-dictated text, although he was illiterate and could not read it.

During the trial, another player, "Honest" Eddie Murphy (born in Hancock , New York on October 2, 1891) became known. He got his nickname "Honest" (the honest Eddie) because he didn't take part in the shoving. The term "Honest Eddie" is a popular phrase today . Murphy died on February 21, 1969 in Dunmore , Pennsylvania , and made a total of 760 Major League games for the Oakland Athletics , Chicago White Sox, and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1912 to 1921 .

consequences

The White Sox practically dissolved their team, and the 1919 team went down in glorious history as the Black Sox . It wasn't until 1959 before the White Sox got back into the World Series. The decade-long dry spell that followed after 1919 was known as the Curse of the Black Sox (" Curse of the Black Sox "). It wasn't until 2005, 86 years after the scandal, that the White Sox managed to win a World Series .

The scandal had bitter consequences for “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. Although he was considered the greatest player of his generation with Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth , he was expelled from the Baseball Hall of Fame for all time . The phrase "Say it ain't so, Joe!" Went into folklore. ("Say that's not true, Joe!") That a boy allegedly called to him during the trial. Although the quote was probably made up, it is now considered a household word for the disbelief of honest fans about the behavior of criminal sports heroes.

Almost 40 years after the scandal, Chick Gandil put his point of view in Sports Illustrated magazine . He cited “constant underpaid” as the main motive and said that the whole thing had been carried out “naively and amateurishly” by both bribes and bribes: Journalists got wind of it early on that the conspirators were constantly receiving threatening phone calls and that, in his view, the defeats were "real". Gandil argued that co-conspirators Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver had a batting average of .375 and .324, the Reds only got five points more in the series (64 against 59) and both sides made 12 errors each . For him, the lifelong ban was "tough, but understandable", because "... everyone saw that we had done something bad".

Processing in books and films

The scandal was treated in literary form in the book Eight Men Out (1963) by Eliot Asinof, which is considered the standard work on this crime. The book was made into a film of the same name in 1988 ( Eight men and a scandal , 1988, with John Cusack and Charlie Sheen , among others ). The film contains - comparable to other sports films such as The Miracle of Bern or Wie ein Wilder Stier - a historical image in which the players are poorly paid servants of greedy club owners and thus ideal targets for bribery.

In the film, which reflects the opinion of the book, Chick Gandil is portrayed as the real villain who, out of greed for money, pulls the team into ruin with his cronies Charles Risberg and Fred McMullin and threatens to beat those who deviate. Eddie Cicotte is portrayed as a tragic figure who, at the end of a poorly paid career, wants to see money once in a lifetime. Lefty Williams, Buck Weaver and Joe Jackson are portrayed as conscientious followers who are too cowardly to rebel. It is noteworthy that the film portrays Jackson not only as illiterate, but as a borderline moron who is unable to see the scope of this bribery. The uninitiated Eddie Murphy, Ray Schalk and Kid Gleason are powerless extras, as is rookie Dickie Kerr, portrayed as naive.

The film "Field of Dreams" ( Field of Dreams , 1989, inter alia with Kevin Costner and Burt Lancaster ) alludes to the lifelong ban on players. In the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (since 2010) the scandal is also taken up, here from the point of view of the mastermind Arnold Rothstein, who only escapes conviction due to the help of the Boardwalk Empire main character Nucky Thompson.

In the novel The Great Gatsby , the scandal is mentioned in passing. The fictional Meyer Wolfshiem is named as the mastermind.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. 1919 World Series Game 1 - Chicago White Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  2. 1919 World Series Game 2 - Chicago White Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  3. 1919 World Series Game 3 - Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago White Sox . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  4. 1919 World Series Game 4 - Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago White Sox . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  5. 1919 World Series Game 5 - Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago White Sox . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  6. 1919 World Series Game 6 - Chicago White Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  7. 1919 World Series Game 7 - Chicago White Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  8. 1919 World Series Game 8 - Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago White Sox . Retrosheet. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
  9. ^ Derek Gentile: Chicago - Baseball in the City. San Diego 2006, pp. 52-57.
  10. ^ This Is My Story Of The Black Sox Series ( April 22, 2012 memento on the Internet Archive ), September 17, 1956, Sports Illustrated