Baseball has always played an intrinsic role in American culture and has often been dubbed America’s Favorite Pastime. The sport brings people together from all walks of life for a few hours of pleasure and acts as a good reprieve during stressful times. Unfortunately, the game of baseball is never free from scandals, as we have seen recently with the Houston Astros sign-stealing scheme or the steroid era. Today, fans expect punishment for those seeking to undermine the integrity of the game, which is why fans are typically disgruntled when athletes, who were using performance enhancing drugs, or those involved in the Astros sign-stealing scandal, are let off easy. Fans, myself included, wonder what integrity exists if punishment isn’t dealt accordingly. Each of baseball’s commissioners over the years have all faced certain issues of integrity, and dealt with them differently, but in order to put into context why fans expect harsh punishments, we need to look at baseball’s oldest scandal involving the Chicago White Sox and the 1919 World Series.
In 1919, members of the Chicago White Sox were involved in a plot to toss the World Series for financial compensation. The eight players allegedly involved were Shoeless Joe Jackson, Arnold “Chick” Gandil, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver, and Claude “Lefty” Williams, and the pot for throwing the games was reportedly worth $100 thousand. It didn’t take long for suspicions to be raised as the White Sox lost game one of the best of 9 series against the Reds 9 to 1, and game two 4-2, and made sloppy plays that were unusual errors for a team trying to win a world series, and they continued this pattern falling to a 4-1 deficit in the series. It is reported that the players involved decided to back out because they weren’t getting paid what they had agreed upon, but it was to no avail as the White Sox eventually lost the series to the Reds 5 games to 3.
The investigation into what is known as the Chicago Black Sox Scandal lasted from 1919 to 1921 and resulted in criminal trials for the players involved, but poorly run prosecution, and the mysterious disappearance of key evidence like handwritten confessions, led to acquittals for all involved. Fans, frustrated with the process, became disgruntled, which cast doubt on the integrity of the game of baseball. Fortunately, for baseball, newly appointed Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis took swift action and banned all eight players from all organized baseball activities for life, and permanently ineligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The actions Landis took helped restore public trust in the game of baseball. Landis also set the precedent that the commissioner has the full authority to levy consequences to anyone involved in the game that violates the rules, thus establishing a clear chain of command. So, when bad things happen, we look to the commissioner to put his foot down.
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