In professional baseball, most athletes would agree there is no better accomplishment than winning a World Series.  A player’s career is often made by their championship winning potential, and for those who have not tasted the ultimate victory, they would probably give anything to have the chance.  With such a great amount of pride on the line, it seems impossible for a professional baseball player to give anything besides their best, but this was not the case for the 1919 Chicago White Sox.

On this day, September 18th, in 1919, eight Chicago White Sox teammates agreed to throw the 1919 World Series.  The event is known as the Black Sox Scandal and was a scheme devised by players Arnold Gandil, Eddic Cicotte, Claude Williams, Oscar Felsch, Charles Risberg, Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin and Buck Weaver.  Professional gambler Joseph Sullivan and New York gangster Arnold Rothstein were also involved in the fix.  The players were promised $100,000 to fix the series and the Cincinnati Reds won the best of nine series 5 games to 3.

For their involvement in the fix, all eight players were banned from organized baseball for life.  Fred McMullin, Buck Weaver and Joe Jackson may not have been directly involved in the fix, but were reprimanded for having information about the event and failing to report it.