Cheating Essay, Research Paper

Eight players, a huge scandal, and the results, that is the way the 1919 World Series went. There were eight players that decided to take the payoff and blow the series. Many people are still in argument as to who the players were in the scandal, but it doesn?t matter. The players that were indicted were banished from professional baseball and even though they were some of the greatest players to ever play the game will not be able to make it into the hall of fame because those players are forever dubbed the Chicago Black Sox.

Any man who knows anything at all about baseball knows that both the game and the players are honest, but on that comment if you take a look at the 1919 World Series you would be able to say different. According to the story, the Chicago White Sox were the lowest paid franchise in professional baseball, but were also the most talented club also. The club was highly favored in the World Series that year and the team was excited about those odds. No matter where you are and no matter what you are doing a high percentage of the time you are dong something for money, and that is what the eight members of the Sox?s were looking for. Any way to pad their pocket in the easiest way possible is what they were looking for. That year the Sox did make it to the World Series and their opponent was the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were a good ball club but no one thought they had what it took to beat the Sox. The men that were paid were pitcher, Eddie Cicotte, pitcher, Claude ?Lefty? Williams, outfielder, ?Shoeless? Joe Jackson, outfielder, Happy Felsch, first-baseman, Chick Gandil, who also was the man to involve the rest of the men, short-stop, Swede Risberg, who also was close to Gandil in the scandal, third-baseman, Buck Weaver, and relief infielder, Fred McMullin. Some of these men were a shoe-in for the hall of fame all they had to do was keep playing, but greed took over their bodies, and they ruined their careers and their personal life all because they wanted to make a little extra money.

The money in those days ran tight and people were always looking a way to get an upper hand. Seven of the eight men were jumping at the idea of getting that much money to just lose a few games and they believed that they wouldn?t be caught. The last man to join the scandal was Joe Jackson, he told everybody that he had no part in the scandal and the only reason he was linked to it was because he was a great ball player and when the gamblers found out he was involved they jumped at the odds and a whole new odds sheet came out on the series. William Thomas ?Sleepy Bill? Burns and Billy Maharg weren?t the only two contributors to the payoff but they were the two biggest contributors in the payoff. They got the scandal started and the rest is history. ?All men- civilized and barbarian- in contrast to the animals, are born with a moral sense; that is to say, as man is by nature capable of making logical judgments, so is he capable be nature of making moral judgments?. Civilized man shares with the barbarian the faculty of making moral judgments, but excels over him in that he is capable of making the right moral judgments knowing why he makes them? (Morgenthau 310).

The series was highly anticipated this time because the commissioner of baseball decided to extend the series to a best of nine this year because of all the hype about the war. The first game opened up and the Reds whitewashed the Sox, everyone thought that the Sox were just getting off to a slow start and they would turn things around in the next game. The Reds jumped on the Sox again in the next game, people suspected something but no one thought it to be true because everyone has days were they just cant get things together. The next game a rookie pitcher that wasn?t involved in the scandal threw a three-hitter and shut out the Reds. The Sox managed one more win before being beat to death in game seven which was the final game of the World Series. ?The slightest infraction may have the most drastic consequences? (Brock 313).

The next year the men were indicted on the charges. ?There was only one way out which I had, of course, often considered, and that was simply to tell the truth? (Van Doren 307). The men felt that this was the best way to go. All of the men confessed but their confessions were stolen from the office and were never recovered. The commissioner of baseball said that any player that participated in, knew of, or was asked about cheating and didn?t notify their ball club would be banned form professional baseball and were to never be reinstated. That is how the careers of some of the best players to ever play the game ended.

If you ask some baseball historians, they would say that some of the greatest players to ever play the game were on the 1919 White Sox, but even with all of their talent they had black heart to match their given name, the Chicago Black Sox. Cheating is something that happens everyday in everyplace in the world. I fell that cheating is one of the worst things you can do. I wrote a paper my first semester at college, the paper was about one question; do you tell the brutal truth or do you lie and don?t hurt anyone?s feelings. It doesn?t matter whom you ask you will get a different opinion, but if you ask my opinion I believe that you should be brutally honest no matter the consequences.

Van Doren, Charles. ?I Have Deceived My Friends.? Making Choices. Eds. Michael

Cooley & Katherine Powell. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. 310-307

Morgenthau, Han J. ?Quisling Show.? Making Choices. Eds. Michael

Cooley & Katherine Powell. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. 309-311

Brock, Pope. ?The Extremes of Honor.? Making Choices. Eds. Michael

Cooley & Katherine Powell. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. 312-322