Black Sox Scandal of 1919 From the book Baseball an Illustrated History - Essay Example

BLACK SOX SCANDAL’ The black sox scandal happened back in 1919 during the World Series when the Chicago White Sox made their way to play the Cincinnati Reds. The scandal resulted from the fact that eight of the Sox players were paid to throw the game to the Reds; the baseball association banned the eight players from ever playing again hence the name "baseballs Black Sox." The Sox players were accused of "intentionally losing" the game to the Reds so as to get money from gamblers. Court records for the case show that the eight players received around 70, 000 to 100, 000 dollars for the lost games against the Reds (five out of three) (Ward & Burns, 1994).

After the end of the World Series, the suspicions of the conspiracy began (principally by sports writers such as Hugh Fullerton) but cooled down before the beginning of the 1920 season. However even with the ‘cool down there were allegations that gamblers invaded baseball and paid for some wins, in September 1920, the court opened investigations to check on the allegations. These investigations opened the case for the black sox scandal, after the exposure seven of the players admitted to the court that they had received bribes in order to throw away the World Series, which was not common.

The owner of the white soxs, later suspended the seven play (Ward & Burns, 1994). Chick gandil, a player in the team, organized the whole fix, he rounded seven white soxs plan to go with the plan. However even though gandil planned the whole ‘fix, the gamblers, and the bookmakers dealt with Joseph Sullivan and Arnold Rothstein, Sullivan was a businessman that dealt with players while Arnold, on the other hand, provided the money. As 100,000 split among seven players back in the days was a big deal all the seven players agreed to down with the deal, however the case reveals that Joe Jackson, also a player in the team refused to take the money as he had doubts about the whole deal.

In the case, few gamblers testified to the trial, however even with these none of them was brought to the trial of the black sox scandal. The main economic conditions that led the players to throw the game were the fact that the pay they used to get was low. The fact that they threw the game away just to get 100,000 dollars proves that they needed the money even with the fact that each one of them got around 20000 dollars. Also, to show that the players were in need of money is the double crossing evident all through the case (Ward & Burns, 1994).

The whole scandal revolved around money from the gamblers, all the attempts, double crossing was for money, which in turn means that the players salary was never enough for them (most probable case was that they received lesser than they got from the bribe). However, the black soxs scandal case would not happen today, this is because currently players receive high salaries than in the past. The sports association governance ensures that the players receive payments according to their performance unlike in 1919 where the great players made just a little more (almost the same) to what the worst players made, hence the reason bribes would have easily taken effect.

Taking the bribes to sell the game was unethical and the players should have received a penalty for the actions (their actions dishonored the baseball game rules) (Ward & Burns, 1994).ReferenceWard, G., & Burns, K. (1994). Baseball: an illustrated history. New York: A.A. Knopf