The black sox scandal of 1919IntroductionDuring the First World War, gambling was rampant in the United States and fixing games was either assumed as harmless or tolerated. The worse was to come during the post-war period. With the closure of horse tracks, the bettors and all their accomplices shifted to their local baseball pitches where they practiced the dirty game. They cunningly spread rumors of fixes and/or injuries in a bid to move the odds in one way or the other (Zumsteg 182). The underworld operations between gamblers and other dubious characters with teams, players and funs facilitated the fix of a 1919 World Series Championship. Little known Cincinnati Red Stockings emerged victorious over the indomitable Chicago White Sox because the latter threw the game for the want of money. This paper looks at the background of the scandal, how stinginess the Black Sox boss led his players to party with gamblers. The figures behind the scum area also mentioned together with the role they played to make it a success.
