The 1919 Chicago White Sox season was their 19th season in the American League. They won 88 games to advance to the World Series but lost to the Cincinnati Reds. More significantly, some of the players were found to have taken money from gamblers in return for throwing the series. The "Black Sox Scandal" had permanent ramifications for baseball, including the establishment of the office of Commissioner of Baseball. Regular season
In 1919, Eddie Cicotte led the majors with 29 wins and 30 complete games, going 29–7 for the season with a 1.82 ERA (2nd in AL) and 110 strikeouts (7th in AL). He also led the AL in innings pitched with 240 (shared with Washington Senators pitcher Jim Shaw).
Right fielder Joe Jackson hit .351 (4th in AL) with 7 home runs, 96 RBIs (3rd in AL) and had 181 hits (3rd in AL, only 10 fewer than league leader Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers). Shoeless Joe headed an offense that scored the most runs of any team.
Season standings
Record vs. opponents
Roster 1919 Chicago White Sox Roster Pitchers Catchers
Infielders Outfielders Manager
Player stats Batting Starters by position Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI C 131 394 111 .282 0 34 1B 115 441 128 .290 1 60 2B 140 518 165 .319 4 80 3B 140 571 169 .296 3 75 SS 119 414 106 .256 2 38 LF 139 516 181 .351 7 96 CF 135 502 138 .275 7 86 RF 122 434 131 .302 0 26
Other batters Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI 63 179 50 .279 0 4 60 170 50 .294 0 19 29 66 15 .227 0 4 30 35 17 .486 0 5 11 19 3 .158 0 1 7 12 4 .333 0 1
Pitching Starting pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO 40 306.2 29 7 1.82 110 41 297.0 23 11 2.64 125 39 212.1 13 7 2.88 79 25 162.1 11 9 3.83 45 1 6.0 0 0 7.50 4 1 2.0 0 1 9.00 1
Other pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO 20 96.2 5 5 2.79 43 5 39.1 3 2 2.52 11 8 35.0 1 3 5.14 10 6 23.2 1 3 8.37 9 4 22.0 1 1 2.05 5 4 15.0 0 1 4.20 9
Relief pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G W L SV ERA SO 15 1 2 1 7.78 17 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 1 0 0 0 9.00 0 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 1 0 0 0 0.00 0
Awards and honors League top ten finishers Eddie Cicotte MLB leader in wins (29) MLB leader in complete games (30) Equal AL leader in innings pitched (240) #2 in AL in ERA (1.82) #2 in AL in shutouts (5) #7 in AL in strikeouts (110)
Happy Felsch #6 in AL in RBI (86)
Joe Jackson #3 in AL in RBI (96) #3 in AL in hits (181) #4 in AL in batting average (.351) #4 in AL in on-base percentage (.422) #4 in AL in triples (14) #5 in AL in slugging percentage (.506)
Buck Weaver #4 in AL in runs scored (89) #7 in AL in stolen bases (22) #7 in AL in hits (169)
Lefty Williams #2 in AL in shutouts (5) #2 in AL in complete games (27) #3 in AL in wins (23) #3 in AL in strikeouts (125) #9 in AL in ERA (2.64)
1919 World Series
NL Cincinnati Reds (5) vs. AL Chicago White Sox (3) GameScoreDateLocationAttendance1 Chicago White Sox – 1, Cincinnati Reds – 9 October 1Redland Field 30,5112 Chicago White Sox – 2, Cincinnati Reds – 4 October 2Redland Field 29,6903 Cincinnati Reds – 0, Chicago White Sox – 3 October 3Comiskey Park 29,1264 Cincinnati Reds – 2, Chicago White Sox – 0 October 4Comiskey Park 34,3635 Cincinnati Reds – 5, Chicago White Sox – 0 October 6Comiskey Park 34,3796 Chicago White Sox – 5, Cincinnati Reds – 4 (10 innings) October 7Redland Field 32,0067 Chicago White Sox – 4, Cincinnati Reds – 1 October 8Redland Field 13,9238 Cincinnati Reds – 10, Chicago White Sox – 5 October 9Comiskey Park 32,930
Black Sox Scandal
The Black Sox Scandal refers to a number of events that took place around and during the play of the 1919 World Series. The name "Black Sox" also refers to the Chicago White Sox team from that era. Eight members of the Chicago franchise were banned from baseball for throwing (intentionally losing) games.
The Fix The conspiracy was the brainchild of White Sox first baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil and Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, who was a professional gambler of Gandil's acquaintance. New York gangster Arnold Rothstein supplied the major connections needed. The money was supplied by Abe Attell, former featherweight boxing champion, who accepted the offer even though he didn't have the $80,000 that the White Sox wanted.
Gandil enlisted seven of his teammates, motivated by a mixture of greed and a dislike of penurious club owner Charles Comiskey, to implement the fix. Starting pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams, outfielders "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Oscar "Happy" Felsch, and infielder Charles "Swede" Risberg were all involved. Buck Weaver was also asked to participate, but refused; he was later banned with the others for knowing of the fix but not reporting it. Utility infielder Fred McMullin was not initially approached but got word of the fix and threatened to report the others unless he was in on the payoff. Sullivan and his two associates, Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy Maharg, somewhat out of their depth, approached Rothstein to provide the money for the players, who were promised a total of $100,000.
Stories of the "Black Sox" scandal have usually included Comiskey in its gallery of subsidiary villains, focusing in particular on his intentions regarding a clause in Cicotte's contract that would have paid Cicotte an additional $10,000 bonus for winning 30 games. According to Eliot Asinof's account of the events, Eight Men Out, Cicotte was "rested" for the season's final two weeks after reaching his 29th win, presumably to deny him the bonus. In reality, however, Cicotte started the White Sox's last game of the season, September 28th against the Tigers. But, with a 1-0 Chicago lead, Chicago manager Kid Gleason took Cicotte out of the game following the second inning, which assured Cicotte could not get his 30th win.
External links 1919 Chicago White Sox at Baseball Reference