Start Date
29-4-2021 12:00 AM
End Date
29-4-2021 12:00 AM
Description
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Darra Mulderry, Center for Engaged Learning In 1919, baseball players on the Chicago White Sox were involved in one of the biggest cheating scandals in sports history. Eight members of the team intentionally lost the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in return for receiving a large payout from big shot gamblers. Rumors of the scheme – eventually dubbed the “Black Sox Scandal” – circulated around Major League Baseball through the 1920 season until a trial was finally called against the accused players.
At the completion of the trial in 1921, the jury found the accused players to be “not guilty” of all charges despite compelling evidence and confessions from the players. In spite of the legal outcome, Major League Baseball banned the eight players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox from professional baseball for life. Many scholars have written about the players, the managers, the baseball commissioner, and the legal process of the scandal, but little has been written about what baseball fans had to say. Therefore, in my historical research, I examined newspaper editorials and letters to the editor in newspapers from Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York City to discover what Chicago fans – and fans of Chicago’s opponents – had to say of the scandal. The newspaper clippings that I read revealed – not so surprisingly – that Chicago baseball fans complained that the punishment was too harsh, while baseball fans in Cincinnati and New York City generally thought the accused players got what they deserved. In spite of this difference, though, baseball enthusiasts as a whole tended to agree that the League needed to institute reforms that would better ensure that the sport of baseball would be saved from gambling and corruption.
Included in
The Black Sox Scandal of 1919: Reactions from Baseball Fans in Chicago, Cleveland, and New York
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Darra Mulderry, Center for Engaged Learning In 1919, baseball players on the Chicago White Sox were involved in one of the biggest cheating scandals in sports history. Eight members of the team intentionally lost the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in return for receiving a large payout from big shot gamblers. Rumors of the scheme – eventually dubbed the “Black Sox Scandal” – circulated around Major League Baseball through the 1920 season until a trial was finally called against the accused players.
At the completion of the trial in 1921, the jury found the accused players to be “not guilty” of all charges despite compelling evidence and confessions from the players. In spite of the legal outcome, Major League Baseball banned the eight players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox from professional baseball for life. Many scholars have written about the players, the managers, the baseball commissioner, and the legal process of the scandal, but little has been written about what baseball fans had to say. Therefore, in my historical research, I examined newspaper editorials and letters to the editor in newspapers from Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York City to discover what Chicago fans – and fans of Chicago’s opponents – had to say of the scandal. The newspaper clippings that I read revealed – not so surprisingly – that Chicago baseball fans complained that the punishment was too harsh, while baseball fans in Cincinnati and New York City generally thought the accused players got what they deserved. In spite of this difference, though, baseball enthusiasts as a whole tended to agree that the League needed to institute reforms that would better ensure that the sport of baseball would be saved from gambling and corruption.
