1919: Chicago White Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds
The Black Sox Scandal is perhaps the most infamous in baseball history. In 1919, baseball owners paid their players very little money and most had to work off-season jobs. Chicago White Sox owner Charley Comiskey was no exception. Shoeless Joe Jackson, the team’s best player, earned $6,000 for the entire season. Star pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams were paid only $5,000 and $3,000 each.
So when notorious gambler Arnold Rothstein offered eight White Sox a combined $100,000 to intentionally lose the World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds, the offer was too good to refuse.
Aided by a string of intentional errors and poor performances (especially by Cicotte and Williams), the Reds won the best-of-nine series 5-3. Rumors of scandal persisted throughout the World Series and continued through the 1920 season. A trial convened in September, 1920, and Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned eight players from baseball for life. Those players were:
- LF Shoeless Joe Jackson
- SP Eddie Cicotte
- SP Lefty Williams
- CF Happy Felsch
- 1B Chick Gandil
- 3B Buck Weaver
- SS Swede Risberg
- UI Fred McMullin
None of the offending players ever returned to organized baseball, and Jackson was kept out of the Hall of Fame. For restoring order to baseball, Landis was named the first commissioner of Major League Baseball.