Introduction
The 1919 Black Sox scandal filled America’s sport with shame and embarrassment. For the first time baseball’s dark side was brought to light- their sparkling reputation dashed. Swirling in controversy, major league baseball declined to recognize what was happening around them, an event that marked change in not only baseball, but the culture of a nation. “What took place in 1919 growing post war cynicism, race riots, and accelerating industrialization signaled the death knell of the small town ideals.” Joe Jackson, Earl Weaver and the Black Sox were in the heart of it all.
Transition I
This paper employs many books and articles that investigate the 1919 Chicago White Sox team- infamously referred to as the “Black Sox” scandal. These works come from different periods of time throughout the last century, with authors from many backgrounds. All of the works take a stance on whether or not eight players on the Chicago White Sox’s threw the 1919 World Series, but many differ in their view as to who should be responsible for the events.
Review of Literature
A handful of authors dive into the accounts of George “Buck” Weaver, of which all presume he is innocent. The first major publication of the scandal, which focused on Weaver was Eliot Asinof’s Eight Men Out , which was later turned into a movie. At the same time as the release of the movie, Eight Men Out was the opening of “Say It Ain’t So Joe: The 1919 Black Sox Scandal” in the Pauline Palmer Wood Gallery at the Chicago Historical Society. This was the first historical exhibit devoted to the Black Sox scandal, it was the prelude to the Black Sox Scandal. The display illustrated how gamblers infiltrated baseball, which was once seen as the “cleanest of all sports....
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...ation focuses on four events that "wrenched the national psyche”: the Senate's rejection of Woodrow Wilson's proposal for a League of Nations; the anti-Bolshevik hysteria that resulted in widespread violence; the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment and the advent of Prohibition; and the rigged World Series. Asinof, keeps tabs on "self-deceivers and opportunists,” which include Woodrow Wilson, Secretary Edward House, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, gangster Al Capone; and gambler Arnold Rothstein. He points out how the Red Scare, led to attacks against civil rights, and argues that Prohibition led to Americans becoming "inured to the finer points of lawlessness." According to Asinof, the Black Sox were the most telling incident in the country's loss of innocence, and he gives an in depth account of it in a dark but highly readable report on a traumatic year.
A sports writer investigated the scandal and later wrote a famous article called “Is Big League Baseball Being Run for Gamblers WIth Players in the Deal.” The White Sox owner quickly avoided the rumors by saying that ”I believe that my boys fought the battles of the recent World Series on the level.” He wanted to avoid people knowing that he had been tipped off about the scam for the World Series.
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, with whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together, including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period, but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man to start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
One of the major stands that were made during a black athlete’s tenure during his or her sport were their statements on racism. Racism in America was an ongoing situation in the 1900’s that seemed to have no resolve before black athletes took a stand. One prime example can be Jackie Robinson who became the first African-American athlete to play baseball in the modern era. Jackie grew up in one of the most racist towns in Pasadena, California and came from a poor family as his parents were sharecroppers and...
The past fifteen years of baseball have contained dirty play by some of the best players to ever play the sport. Kids all over America look at these athletes as role models. The money hungry players proceed to send a terrible message to fans of the game by taking drugs to succeed. After commissioner Bud Selig cracked down on steroid use in 2005, several baseball player’s legacies have been ruined due to steroid allegations. Players are even being charged with perjury by lying to Congress over steroid use to protect their reputation.
In terms of racial inequality in baseball there have been many eras of integration. Baseball originally is seen as America’s national game belonging to the white men of America. However, throughout history there have been steps taken in recognizing and integrating those groups deemed “less favorable” by the American community. These groups include German immigrants, Irish immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Asians. America used the game of baseball as a tool to indoctrinate the American ideals and values of teamwork, working hard, and collaborating for the greater good into the cultures of the “uncivilized world.” These groups used baseball as a medium to gain acceptance into the American community as racially equal counterparts.
The World Series of 1919 was found out to be thrown by the Chicago White Sox, creating many problems within the American League. This World Series was different than many others. The 1919 World Series was played in a best-of-nine series, rather than being played in best-of-seven like all other World Series games before it. The other team involved, the Cincinnati Reds, had no idea of the scandal. The Baseball Hall of Fame states in their article “Guide to the Black Sox Scandal (American League),” Gambling was not new to baseball. There is evidence that White Sox players, in 1917, paid pitchers from the Detroit club, who beat Boston during the pennant stretch run $200 each.” This shows that the White Sox not only cheated in the 1919 World Series, but also in the 1917 season. There were 8 players involved in gambling with the 1919 World Series, including many of the league’s best players. The eight players involved included Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Arnold “Chick” Gandil, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver, and Claude “Lefty” Williams. These 8 players, threw the game for a cash reward from 5 separate gamblers who were involved in the scandal. Abe Attell, Bill Burns, Arnold Rothstein, Billy Maharg, and Joseph “Sport” Sullivan, were all indicted along with the players for gambling with the 1919 World Series, and was considered as a “crime against baseball
"Over the decades, African American teams played 445-recorded games against white teams, winning sixty-one percent of them." (Conrads, pg.8) The Negro Leagues were an alternative baseball group for African American baseball player that were denied the right to play with the white baseball payers in the Major League Baseball Association. In 1920, the first African American League was formed, and that paved the way for numerous African American innovation and movements. Fences, and Jackie Robinson: The Biography, raises consciousness about the baseball players that have been overlooked, and the struggle they had to endure simply because of their color.
scandal of all time, The 1919 World series. Corruption, money, greed, power, and even organized
After World War I ,the generation of young Americans who had fought the war became intensely disillusioned, as the brutal carnage that had just faced made the Victorian social morality of early-twentieth-century America like stuffy. The dizzying rise of the social market in the aftermath of the war led to a sudden, sustained increase in the national wealth and a newfound materialism, as people began to spend and consume at unprecedented levels. A person from any social background could, Potentially, make a fortune, but the American aristocracy-families with old wealth-scorned the newly rich industrialists and speculators. Additionally, the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919,which banned the sale of alcohol, created a thriving underworld designed to satisfy the massive demand of bootleg liquor among rich and poor alike.
Dixon, Phil, and Patrick J. Hannigan. “The Negro Baseball Leagues. Maltituck, New York: American Ltd, 1992. Print.
Rhoden, William C."Why Baseball Should Keep Talking About the Past." The New York Times. The New York Times. 12 Jan. 2010. Web. 09 Feb. 2010.
Book Review of Eight Men Out The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof
Historical and sociological research has shown, through much evidence collection and analysis of primary documents that the American sporting industry can give an accurate reflection, to a certain extent, of racial struggles and discrimination into the larger context of American society. To understand this stance, a deep look into aspects of sport beyond simply playing the game must be a primary focus. Since the integration of baseball, followed shortly after by American football, why are the numbers of African American owners, coaches and managers so very low? What accounts for the absence of African American candidates from seeking front office and managerial roles? Is a conscious decision made by established members of each organization or is this matter a deeper reflection on society? Why does a certain image and persona exist amongst many African American athletes? Sports historians often take a look at sports and make a comparison to society. Beginning in the early 1980’s, historians began looking at the integration of baseball and how it preceded the civil rights movement. The common conclusion was that integration in baseball and other sports was indeed a reflection on American society. As African Americans began to play in sports, a short time later, Jim Crow laws and segregation formally came to an end in the south. Does racism and discrimination end with the elimination of Jim Crow and the onset of the civil rights movement and other instances of race awareness and equality? According to many modern sports historians and sociologists, they do not. This paper will focus on the writings of selected historians and sociologists who examine th...
This game of a stick and ball has captivated the United States during good and bad times. In either time most of us today can remember stories of players from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. These are legendary figures in the sport of baseball that have are celebrated as hero’s and in scandal, i...
Lanctot, Neil. 2004. Negro league baseball :The rise and ruin of a black institution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.