August 3, 1921: eight “Black Sox” out

On this day in 1921, the commissioner of Major League Baseball banned eight players involved in the “Black Sox” scandal.

Owner Charles Comiskey was known as a miser; many White Sox considered themselves underpaid, and in this era before players’ unions, athletes had little bargaining power. In addition, baseball had a reserve clause, which stated that anyone who refused a contract could not play for another team.

The White Sox had won the 1917 World Series, and were heavy favorites to win in 1919 against the Cincinnati Reds. But professional gamblers took advantage of the team’s displeasure with Comiskey, and bribed several members of the team to tank the series.

On August 2, 1921, eight players were found not guilty of several criminal counts. The next day, however, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a respected judge who had been tapped as baseball’s first commissioner in large part to address the fixing issue, banned those players for life. They were:

• Eddie Cicotte – the starting pitcher in the first game, he intentionally hit his first batter, Morrie Rath, in the back to signal that the fix was on.
• Oscar “Happy” Felsch
• Arnold “Chick” Gandil
• “Shoeless” Joe Jackson – it is unclear whether he was actually involved.
• Fred McMullin
• Charles “Swede” Risberg
• George “Buck” Weaver – batted .324, but was banned because he knew about the fix and didn’t report it.
• Claude “Lefty” Williams

Eliot Asinof published the book Eight Men Out in 1963 [full text here in PDF format]; it was turned into a movie starring John Cusack in 1988.

Image: National Baseball Library via Chicago Tribune