DragonKing Dark: The Black Sox scandal
Our continuing series on the 100 darkest moments in pop culture history takes a look at a moment where that completely affected professional baseball.
The “Black Sox scandal” was a gambling and game-fixing scandal where members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.
Despite acquittals in a trial, judge (and eventual MLB commissioner) Kenesaw Mountain Landis permanently banned all eight men from professional baseball. The punishment was eventually defined by the Baseball Hall of Fame to include banishment from its hallowed halls. Despite requests for reinstatement in the decades that followed (particularly in the case of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson), the ban remains.
On this week’s DragonKing Dark, let’s examine the infamous Black Sox scandal of 1919.
Karl Stern is a pro wrestling historian specializing in the 1980s and pioneer era (pre-1900) of pro wrestling. He is an author who has written several books on wrestling and independently runs the When It Was Cool retro pop culture website.