Unfortunately, Francis C. Richter was a little off the mark. The 1919 World Series was, in fact, not honorably played by every participant, as was disclosed late in the 1920 season when confessions were made.
Eight members of the 1919 White Sox — pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude (Lefty) Williams, outfielders Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver and reserve infielder Fred McMullin — were charged with conspiring to fix the outcome of the fall classic against the Cincinnati Reds. The eight became forever known as the “Black Sox.”
A sharp shift in the betting odds shortly before the start of the World Series — the highly favored White Sox suddenly became underdogs — aroused curiosity, as did swirling rumors that something might be amiss in certain players’ onfield effort. But, overall, fans and other observers accepted the “public presentation” of the 1919 Series. Perhaps, as apparently was the case with Richter, they saw only what they wanted to see.
What everyone saw in Game 1 was a scintillating performance by the Reds’ Dutch Ruether. Whatever “assists” he might have received from various members of the opposition, Ruether pitched a complete-game six-hitter and went 3-for-3 at the plate (two triples) with three runs batted in. Outfielder Greasy Neale, who went on to lead the Reds in hitting in the Series with a .351 average and later became a noted football coach, and first baseman Jake Daubert also had three hits apiece. The Reds were rolling, 9-1. The White Sox were rolling over.
Cincinnati’s Slim Sallee stopped Chicago the next day, 4-2, with Larry Kopf’s two-run triple in fourth inning the telling blow. But White Sox rookie Dickey Kerr, untouched by the scandal but sensing something was amiss, was too tough for anyone — supposed friend or foe — to mess with in Game 3. The lefthander set down the Reds on three hits in a 3-0 victory.
Manager Pat Moran’s National League champions rebounded for 2-0 and 5-0 victories in Games 4 and 5 with Jimmy Ring and Hod Eller pitching shutouts. In recording Cincinnati’s fourth victory, Eller struck out six consecutive White Sox batters.
Under normal circumstances, the World Series would have been over at this point. But these were not normal circumstances. Because of an intense postwar interest in the Series, baseball’s bigwigs decided to make the 1919 classic a best-of-nine affair. What timing. A “spectacular” was created just when baseball was about to make a spectacle of itself.
Chicago rebounded in the next two games as Kerr won a 10-inning, 5-4 struggle and Cicotte pitched a seven-hitter, winning, 4-1.
Cincinnati tore into Williams in Game 8, though, scoring four first-inning runs. The Reds expanded their lead to 10-1 on the way to a 10-5 victory that gave the team the World Series title in its first post-season appearance.
That the “Black Sox” were selective in their misdeeds was apparent. Jackson, for instance, batted a Series-leading .375 but acknowledged that he had let up in key situations. Weaver hit .324. Gandil had game-deciding hits in the third and sixth games. And Cicotte, with his team one loss from elimination, pitched a one-run game for Manager Kid Gleason’s Sox.
On the other hand, Williams, a 23-game winner, lost all three of his Series starts. Cicotte made two errors in the fifth inning of Game 4, helping Cincinnati to the only two runs of the day. Plus, he hit the first Cincinnati batter of the Series, Morrie Rath, with a pitched ball, which supposedly was the signal to bettors that the fix was on. Gandil, despite some bright moments, hit only .233. Felsch and Risberg batted .192 and .080, respectively. McMullin made only two appearances in the Series, both as a pinch-hitter.
The “Black Sox” were acquitted by the courts in 1921 despite their confessions (records of which were stolen from the prosecutor’s office) but were banned from baseball by Kenesaw Mountain Landis because of their undeniable link to gamblers. Not even a recanting of the players’ confessions could sway Landis.
“Regardless of the verdict of juries,” the commissioner said in a statement, “no player that throws a ball game, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed, and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever again play professional baseball.”
While the infamy of the “Black Sox” lives on, so does the pluck of Dickey Kerr. Trying to win with the odds stacked against him, Kerr went 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in 19 innings during the 1919 Series. Francis C. Richter would call him an absolutely honest exemplar of the national pastime.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1919 World Series Stories
The 1919 Post-Season Games
World Series: Cincinnati Reds (5) defeated Chicago White Sox (3)
World Series Game 1 Played on Wednesday, October 1, 1919 (D) at Redland Field
CHI A 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 6 1 CIN N 1 0 0 5 0 0 2 1 x - 9 14 1
BOX+PBP WP: Ruether (1-0) LP: Cicotte (0-1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Thursday, October 2, 1919 (D) at Redland Field
CHI A 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 - 2 10 1 CIN N 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 x - 4 4 2
BOX+PBP WP: Sallee (1-0) LP: Williams (0-1)
World Series Game 3 Played on Friday, October 3, 1919 (D) at Comiskey Park I
CIN N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 1 CHI A 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 x - 3 7 0
BOX+PBP WP: Kerr (1-0) LP: Fisher (0-1)
World Series Game 4 Played on Saturday, October 4, 1919 (D) at Comiskey Park I
CIN N 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 2 CHI A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 2
BOX+PBP WP: Ring (1-0) LP: Cicotte (0-2)
World Series Game 5 Played on Monday, October 6, 1919 (D) at Comiskey Park I
CIN N 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 - 5 4 0 CHI A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 3
BOX+PBP WP: Eller (1-0) LP: Williams (0-2)
World Series Game 6 Played on Tuesday, October 7, 1919 (D) at Redland Field
CHI A 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 - 5 10 3 CIN N 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 4 11 0
BOX+PBP WP: Kerr (2-0) LP: Ring (1-1)
World Series Game 7 Played on Wednesday, October 8, 1919 (D) at Redland Field
CHI A 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 4 10 1 CIN N 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 1 7 4
BOX+PBP WP: Cicotte (1-2) LP: Sallee (1-1)
World Series Game 8 Played on Thursday, October 9, 1919 (D) at Comiskey Park I
CIN N 4 1 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 - 10 16 2 CHI A 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 0 - 5 10 1
BOX+PBP WP: Eller (2-0) LP: Williams (0-3) HR: Jackson (1)
