The Black Sox Scandal Essay, Research Paper

The Black Sox Scandal

There are many incidents in American History where the people broke laws and felt that what they did was justified. Some of these people were never punished, but some others, who had to break the law to make money to survive, were punished. A perfect example of this is the Black Sox Scandal. The Black Sox Scandal is probably one of the biggest examples that proved that baseball was not a clean game. Even to this day its effects on Major League Baseball can be seen. The Black Sox Scandal is an incident in which a group of baseball players broke the law, and felt that what they did was perfectly justified.

The Chicago White Sox was one of the dominant teams in the year nineteen-nineteen. One would wonder why these rich baseball players would participate in a scandal. However, in reality, the players of the Chicago White Sox were not rich. Their owner, Charles Comiskey, paid the players far below any other winning team. This is probably the main factor that compelled several players to take part in the scandal. The whole idea of a fix started when two gamblers, William Burns and Billy Maharg, approached two White Sox players. These two players were Ed Cicotte and Arnold Gandil. They agreed, and they also pulled in some other players. Of these players were Lefty Williams, Happy Felsch, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, Fred McMullin, and Joe Jackson. The two gamblers realized that in order to pay off eight men they would need more money. So, they went to several people for loans. After obtaining the money, which summed up to about one million dollars, the gamblers put all the money on bets. They agreed to pay the players one hundred thousand dollars to split.

So, the players lost Game One. The White Sox also lost Game Two. After Game Two, Gandil demanded that the gamblers pay them. He demanded forty thousand but was given ten thousand. After this incident the players felt that they were tricked and they started thinking about playing to win. The White Sox won Game Three. Before Game Four, Sullivan, another gambler, came up with twenty thousand and another twenty thousand if the White Sox lost Game Four. The White Sox also lost Game Five, but afterwards when their promised twenty thousand never showed up they started playing to win. The White Sox beat the Reds five to four in Game Six and four to one in Game Seven. After winning these two games, Rothstein, a gambler who worked along with Burns, Maharg, and Sullivan, decided to take matters into his own hands. He told a thug to tell Williams, the Game Eight starter, that something would happen to his wife if he lasted the first inning. The terrified Williams did not last, and the Reds ended up winning ten to five to take the World Series.

After the World Series many newspapers had articles about the game being fixed. Joe Jackson even goes to Comiskey to tell him that the game was fixed. However, Comiskey refuses to see Jackson. Later, in September of the year nineteen-twenty, a Cook County jury was looking into reports that the Cubs had lost purposely to the Phillies that year. The investigation then spread to the nineteen-nineteen World Series. While the investigation was going on, a new commissioner was hired, and his name was Kenesaw Landis. He had literally unlimited power. The first two players to admit their guilt were Joe Jackson and Cicotte. All eight of the players and several gamblers were accused of conspiracy to defraud the public. The following day Landis banned all eight of the players from professional baseball for the rest of their lives. This was how one of the best teams in major league baseball was decimated. The people involved all had basically the same reason for breaking the law.

The people who participated in the Black Sox Scandal all had the same reason to break the law. They all needed money. The players of the Chicago White Sox were underpaid and mistreated. They were the best baseball team in their time yet they were paid very little. After seeing a chance to finally make money, they agreed to fix the World Series and lose to the Reds. Their manager forced them to wash their own uniforms and paid them little. The baseball players of that time were binded to their team due to a reserve clause. When Charles Comiskey paid them so little and they were stuck with him, they had to find some way of making money. As for the gamblers, the only reason they broke the law is to get money. The gamblers were not justified in breaking the law but the players were.

The eight players involved in the scandal were definitely justified to break the law. They were the best team of that year yet they were paid so little. The players needed the money to live, and while other teams were paid reasonably, the White Sox were not. They could not move to another team because of the reserve clause. So, they were stuck with Charles Comiskey. Because they cannot move to another team, they will have no other way of making more money through their skills. They had to make money, and if their boss would not raise their pay rolls, then they would have to find some way of getting money by themselves. Even though their way was wrong, they are justified because they needed the money. The gamblers are another case. They probably had money but they wanted more, so they were not justified in breaking the law. Basically the players were probably living in poverty. Baseball back then was a modest paying job, and after the owner even pays less than required the players must have had a hard time living a comfortable life.

The Black Sox Scandal was a near fatal blow dealt to baseball. The lasting effects of the scandal can still be felt today, and baseball will always have a dark side. The players involved in the scandal were justified in defrauding the public. Had their owner paid them more, there would have never been a scandal. In conclusion, the Black Sox Scandal was an event in which some people broke the law and felt what they did was right. In this case, they probably are right, because the money they made was used to survive.