Black Sox

The Black Sox isn’t the team name but a great scandal in baseball. It refers to the Chicago White Sox team. Its players were accused in leaving the 1919 World series against Cincinnati Red Sox for money from the Rothshtein gambling syndicate.

This situation was the result of Sox players’ conflict with the club’s owner Charles Comiskey. He gained the reputation of the underpayer. Besides, he introduced the reserve clause. This document banned all players who decided to change the club without the permission of the owner. He struggled with the union of the baseball players as he considered them as his slaves. The confronting led to division into two fractions. Their goals were different, but they united under the label of the resentment of Comiskey.

All preparations for the action started on September 21, 1919. The protest building was held under the great conspiracy. Its result was the fix idea on October 1 – the Game One day. Eddie Cicotte, one of Sox pitchers, struck the leadoff hitter Morrie Rath in the back and signaled about the fix. The event’s culmination became the unsuccessful double play which ended with the bad throw by Cicotte. Sportswriters accented their attention to that suspicious fact and initiated the investigation.

The investigation ended with the trial. All eight players who took part there – Arnold Gandil, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar Felsch, Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Charles Risberg, George Weaver and Claude Williams ceased their membership in the club and MLB commissioner Landis’s decision. These players tried to protest and organize the tour or exhibit matches. But Comiskey and his friends from the league ruined these plans. This scandal had reputation aftermath for some participants. It became the main topic of some films, theatre plays and literature. Risberg, Cicotte and some others featured themselves in movies and documentary films.