Black Sox Scandal
[5] On September 18, 1919, White Sox player Chick Gandil met with Joe "Sport" Sullivan, a Boston bookmaker, at the Hotel Buckminster near Fenway Park.
[6] Two days later, a meeting of White Sox players—including those committed to going ahead and those just ready to listen—took place in Gandil's room at the Ansonia Hotel in New York City.
According to Schalk, since Faber was the ace of the staff, he would almost certainly have gotten starts that went instead to two of the alleged conspirators, pitchers Eddie "Knuckles" Cicotte and Lefty Williams.
[10] On October 1, the day of Game One, there were rumors amongst gamblers that the World Series was fixed, and a sudden influx of money being bet on Cincinnati caused the odds against them to fall rapidly.
These rumors also reached the press box where several correspondents, including Hugh Fullerton of the Chicago Herald and Examiner and ex-player and manager Christy Mathewson, resolved to compare notes on any plays and players that they felt were questionable.
But the gamblers were now reneging on their promised progress payments (to be paid after each game lost), claiming that all the money was let out on bets and was in the hands of the bookmakers.
Rumors of the fix dogged the White Sox throughout the 1920 season as they battled the Cleveland Indians for the American League pennant, and stories of corruption touched players on other clubs as well.
Despite the season being on the line, Comiskey suspended the seven White Sox still in the majors (Gandil had not returned to the team in 1920 and was playing semi-pro ball).
[15] The ten players not implicated in the gambling scandal, as well as manager Kid Gleason, were each given $1,500 bonus checks (equivalent to $22,800 in 2023) by Comiskey in the fall of 1920, the amount equaling the difference between the winners' and losers' share for participation in the 1919 Series.
[16] The trial commenced in Chicago on June 27, 1921, but was delayed by Judge Hugo Friend because two defendants, Ben Franklin and Carl Zork, claimed to be ill.[17] Right fielder Shano Collins was named as the wronged party in the indictments, accusing his corrupt teammates of having cost him $1,784 as a result of the scandal.
[20] During jury selection on July 11, several members of the current White Sox team, including Gleason, visited the courthouse, chatting and shaking hands with the indicted ex-players; at one point they even tickled Weaver, who was known to be quite ticklish.
[22] Trial testimony began on July 18, when prosecutor Charles Gorman outlined the evidence he planned to present against the defendants: The spectators added to the bleacher appearance of the courtroom, for most of them sweltered in shirtsleeves, and collars were few.
Scores of small boys jammed their way into the seats, and as Mr. Gorman told of the alleged sell-out, they repeatedly looked at each other in awe, remarking under their breaths: 'What do you think of that?'
'[23]Comiskey was then called to the stand, and became so agitated with questions being posed by the defense that he rose from the witness chair and shook his fist at the defendants' counsel, Ben Short.
[26] The Black Sox scandal and the damage it caused to the game's reputation gave owners the resolve to make significant changes to the governance of the sport.
[26] However, Landis made it clear to the owners that he would only accept an appointment as the game's sole commissioner, and even then only on the condition that he be granted essentially unchecked power over the sport.
Desperate to clean up the game's image, the owners agreed to his terms and vested him with virtually unlimited authority over everyone in the major and minor leagues.
Upon taking office before the 1921 season, one of Landis's first acts as commissioner was to use his new powers to place the eight accused players on an "ineligible list", a decision that effectively left them suspended indefinitely from all of "organized" professional baseball (although not from semi-pro barnstorming teams).
The commissioner took the position that while the players had been acquitted in court, there was no dispute they had broken the rules of baseball, and none of them could ever be allowed back in the game if it were to regain the public's trust.
He established the precedent that the league invested the commissioner with plenary power and the responsibility to determine the fitness or suitability of anyone, anything, or any circumstance, to be associated with professional baseball, past, present and future.
[10] With seven of their best players permanently sidelined, the White Sox crashed into seventh place in 1921 and would not be a factor in a pennant race again until 1936, five years after Comiskey's death.
They would not win another American League championship until 1959 (a then-record forty-year gap) nor another World Series until 2005, prompting some to comment about a Curse of the Black Sox.
