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Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded
Who took money? Who threw games, and which games did they throw? The story of the eight White Sox players who were either aware of or party to a conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series has been elevated into one of the most enduring legends of American sports history. It has been touched upon in classic works of sports history such as Eliot Asinof’s EIGHT MEN OUT, referred to in literary classics like W. P. Kinsella’s SHOELESS JOE, and has been central to two of the best baseball movies ever made, John Sayles’s EIGHT MEN OUTand Phil Robinson’s FIELD OF DREAMS. In BURYING THE BLACK SOX, Gene Carney reveals what else happened and answers the questions that fascinate any baseball fan wondering about baseball’s original dilemma over guilt and innocence. Who else in baseball knew that the fix was in? When did they know? And what did they do about it? Carney explores how Charles Comiskey, the owner of the White Sox, and his fellow owners tried to bury the incident and control the damage, how the conspiracy failed, and how "Shoeless" Joe Jackson attempted to clear his name. He uses primary research materials that weren’t available when Asinof wrote EIGHT MEN OUT, including the 1921 grand jury statements by Jackson and pitcher Eddie Cicotte, the diary of Comiskey’s secretary, and the transcripts of Jackson’s 1924 suit against the Sox for back pay. Where Asinof told the story of the eight "Black Sox," Carney explains the baseball industry’s uncertain response to the scandal.
363 pages, Hardcover
First published February 27, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 30, 2018
I can credit the author for his exhaustive research for this treatise on the 1919 scandal. The execution, however, left this reader "dazed and confused". He does raise some fascinating questions for debate. There is so much information that the author wants to synthesize and convey to the reader that it's almost a stream of consciousness. One thing is clear from this book about the 1919 World Series: there is "no unanimity about what happened. And what we do not know for sure seems to outweigh what we do know." The other fact we come away with is that there is "no single sin myth" in baseball/gambling history. It happened before 1919 and happened at least in 1920 and even later in the decade. Then there is Pete Rose.
The author asks the reader and the moguls and establishment of baseball itself not to be satisfied with the easy and comfortable road of complacency with what has been conveyed in Eight men Out. For Carney, there is the underlying cover up by Comiskey, Ban Johnson, reporters and others including Landis to cast blame on eight convenient targets to preserve the owners reputation and wallets from investigation and scrutiny. For Landis and the owners, moving on from the scandal was crucial for the existential future of the game. If the public lost trust and faith in the cleanliness of the game, it would doom the owners and the officials. Why Carney asks, should Charles Comiskey, clearly one who had early knowledge of the fix, be enshrined while men like Buck Weaver, knowledge but non complicity, and Joe Jackson, begged Comiskey to bench him to disassociate him from the fix, be banned and blackballed forever? Carney makes a very good argument for why Weaver should be pardoned and reinstated. Yet from Ford Frick in 1953 to Vincent Faye, commissioners have decided to leave the past buried. The case for weaver is perhaps stronger than Jackson. Weaver knew of the fix, may have attended a couple of meetings, but renounced himself from any conspiracy. His crime, as per Landis, was guilty knowledge. He should have informed on his pals-been a snitch. Certainly he was acquitted in a criminal court, but Landis created a lower standard and in hindsight it has protected the integrity of the sport. The deterrent effect of punishing guilty knowledge has been effective, but what of justice? That is what Carney asks and he makes a very valid argument. As for Jackson, there is so much ambiguity that it's a harder sell. He sued in a 1924 civil case for his salaries cut short by his banishment. The jury decided 11-1 in his favor that he had done nothing wrong on the field to justify the cancellation of his contract by Comiskey.(The judge set aside the verdict). The jury saw the witnesses, judged their demeanor and declared Jackson clean. Carney enlightened me with the assertion(somewhat corroborated) that Jackson went to Comiskey's secretary(GM) and told him about the fix, tried to give him back the $5,000 that Lefty Williams gave him, and repeatedly tried to see Comiskey but was blocked. On the other hand Jackson's 1924 testimony differed from his grand jury testimony(so much so that the judge ordered him jailed for perjury for a day). And perhaps celebrity was a cause for the jury's sympathetic verdict for Jackson.
As for the gamblers involved, the instigator the financial backer, anyone's guess is as good as Carney's. He provides hearsay and rumor but there are no conclusions. Were the players forced to throw games for fear of their lives? Lefty Williams' wife continued to answer affirmatively until her last days. Which games if any were thrown? Which players demonstrably threw them? We have no definitive answers but Carney offers the research for the reader to make their own decisions. This is a good book to generate discussions and for a resource for years to come but it's a struggle to follow.
The author asks the reader and the moguls and establishment of baseball itself not to be satisfied with the easy and comfortable road of complacency with what has been conveyed in Eight men Out. For Carney, there is the underlying cover up by Comiskey, Ban Johnson, reporters and others including Landis to cast blame on eight convenient targets to preserve the owners reputation and wallets from investigation and scrutiny. For Landis and the owners, moving on from the scandal was crucial for the existential future of the game. If the public lost trust and faith in the cleanliness of the game, it would doom the owners and the officials. Why Carney asks, should Charles Comiskey, clearly one who had early knowledge of the fix, be enshrined while men like Buck Weaver, knowledge but non complicity, and Joe Jackson, begged Comiskey to bench him to disassociate him from the fix, be banned and blackballed forever? Carney makes a very good argument for why Weaver should be pardoned and reinstated. Yet from Ford Frick in 1953 to Vincent Faye, commissioners have decided to leave the past buried. The case for weaver is perhaps stronger than Jackson. Weaver knew of the fix, may have attended a couple of meetings, but renounced himself from any conspiracy. His crime, as per Landis, was guilty knowledge. He should have informed on his pals-been a snitch. Certainly he was acquitted in a criminal court, but Landis created a lower standard and in hindsight it has protected the integrity of the sport. The deterrent effect of punishing guilty knowledge has been effective, but what of justice? That is what Carney asks and he makes a very valid argument. As for Jackson, there is so much ambiguity that it's a harder sell. He sued in a 1924 civil case for his salaries cut short by his banishment. The jury decided 11-1 in his favor that he had done nothing wrong on the field to justify the cancellation of his contract by Comiskey.(The judge set aside the verdict). The jury saw the witnesses, judged their demeanor and declared Jackson clean. Carney enlightened me with the assertion(somewhat corroborated) that Jackson went to Comiskey's secretary(GM) and told him about the fix, tried to give him back the $5,000 that Lefty Williams gave him, and repeatedly tried to see Comiskey but was blocked. On the other hand Jackson's 1924 testimony differed from his grand jury testimony(so much so that the judge ordered him jailed for perjury for a day). And perhaps celebrity was a cause for the jury's sympathetic verdict for Jackson.
As for the gamblers involved, the instigator the financial backer, anyone's guess is as good as Carney's. He provides hearsay and rumor but there are no conclusions. Were the players forced to throw games for fear of their lives? Lefty Williams' wife continued to answer affirmatively until her last days. Which games if any were thrown? Which players demonstrably threw them? We have no definitive answers but Carney offers the research for the reader to make their own decisions. This is a good book to generate discussions and for a resource for years to come but it's a struggle to follow.
October 13, 2014
One of the best researched books I've ever read. It certainly challenges your thought process on what is commonly accepted as the Black Sox scandal. Very intricate with many different characters. I was never aware of Joe Jackson's 1924 trial as well as several of the other mini-"scandals" that came both before and after the 1919 World Series. Certainly worth reading if you are a baseball fan.
March 17, 2015
Gene Carney asks more questions than he answers in Burying the Black Sox and he likes it that way. He feels the story is too complex and incomplete to form a decisive opinion. He tells you why Shoeless Joe might have been almost entirely innocent or why he might have been more nefarious than suspected, although he concludes that Joe was not guilty by the criteria laid out by Judge Landis. He goes into the influence of gamblers in 1917 series and other games before and after this 1919 scandal. He explains how Landis viewed baseball before and after becoming commissioner.
The overall conclusion of the book is that Landis was unfair with this group of 8 men because they were not the first nor the last to do these things. Yet, Landis may have very well saved baseball by this unfair act because it gave the public a reason to believe in baseball again and it gave other players a reason to behave.
Carney takes the view that the owners were just trying to protect themselves and their investment which seems to have been the motivation. But he doesn't give enough credit to the owners for creating a league that still exists. He gives this credit to the players, although where would they be financially without a league that someone else organized?
I agree with him that players should be judged for the Hall of Fame by what they did on the field. By that argument Shoeless Joe and Charlie Hustle should be enshrined.
The overall conclusion of the book is that Landis was unfair with this group of 8 men because they were not the first nor the last to do these things. Yet, Landis may have very well saved baseball by this unfair act because it gave the public a reason to believe in baseball again and it gave other players a reason to behave.
Carney takes the view that the owners were just trying to protect themselves and their investment which seems to have been the motivation. But he doesn't give enough credit to the owners for creating a league that still exists. He gives this credit to the players, although where would they be financially without a league that someone else organized?
I agree with him that players should be judged for the Hall of Fame by what they did on the field. By that argument Shoeless Joe and Charlie Hustle should be enshrined.
January 17, 2016
While I applaud the author for tackling the topic and showing that the events surrounding the 1919 World Series were more complicated than many of us believe, he perhaps does the job too well. This fractured compilation of research, with its scattered timeline consisting of multiple trials, its assortment of both period and contemporary writers (rarely and inconsistently identified) and unwelcome insertion of what-ifs and hypotheticals is wrapped up in the conclusion with a metaphor from a Peanuts comic. Thanks for all your research, Mr. Carney, but next time some heavy editing would help your readability.
February 6, 2008
Great book if you want the real story. Not a great book if you're merely content with
Eight Men Out
.
July 10, 2011
From everything I've read on the Black Sox I'm inclined to agree Shoeless Joe may not have been given justice by Landis. He didn't plan anything with the others and he tried to warn Comiskey about the fix before the Series.
April 17, 2014
The information is there, but the writing is often clunky and unclear.
April 18, 2022
The Black Sox scandal is full of myths and fabrications. One of the biggest is that baseball players trying to fix games because they were relatively low paid and intimidated by violence-prone gamblers was isolated.
As Gene Carney, who has written about baseball for USA Today and many other publications, writes, there were numerous games that were suspect, especially during the early 20th century. As he writes, gambling and cheating in baseball "were not isolated, unique, and novel events one can refer to as 'scandals;' nor were these activities indulged in only by players. The Black Sox scandal was more like the tip of the iceberg. But Major League Baseball could not let that become widely known, or the sport would collapse."
This book contains a wealth of anecdotes, recaps of journalists' articles, and information. It is almost encyclopedic. The information could be better organized and sometimes is repeated. I found myself skimming over certain sections, though I slowed down when I found something interesting and seemingly important.
It's an important work to read in light of how baseball and other sports have embraced gambling these days to make more money, while still scapegoating players like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose.
As Gene Carney, who has written about baseball for USA Today and many other publications, writes, there were numerous games that were suspect, especially during the early 20th century. As he writes, gambling and cheating in baseball "were not isolated, unique, and novel events one can refer to as 'scandals;' nor were these activities indulged in only by players. The Black Sox scandal was more like the tip of the iceberg. But Major League Baseball could not let that become widely known, or the sport would collapse."
This book contains a wealth of anecdotes, recaps of journalists' articles, and information. It is almost encyclopedic. The information could be better organized and sometimes is repeated. I found myself skimming over certain sections, though I slowed down when I found something interesting and seemingly important.
It's an important work to read in light of how baseball and other sports have embraced gambling these days to make more money, while still scapegoating players like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose.
September 25, 2020
Gene Carney's treatise on the 1919 World Series is, fundamentally, a summary of his research into what he calls "The Big Fix" and most of us recognize as the Black Sox scandal. It's an academic text. It isn't a linear narrative to counteract Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series, though it definitely examines and exposes the falsehoods it promulgated (with help from John Sayles' film adaptation). And it isn't a proof of a cover-up, though the author certainly leans towards that hypothesis being true.
And that's OK. For the historian trying to figure out what really happened during and as a result of this integral episode of baseball history, this is a keystone text. There has been plenty of research on the topic in the 2 decades since this book was published, a large chunk of it stemming from the loose threads in this book.
Read Asinof to get the common narrative. Read this if you're interested in the actual truth.
And that's OK. For the historian trying to figure out what really happened during and as a result of this integral episode of baseball history, this is a keystone text. There has been plenty of research on the topic in the 2 decades since this book was published, a large chunk of it stemming from the loose threads in this book.
Read Asinof to get the common narrative. Read this if you're interested in the actual truth.
March 30, 2023
This book really shows itself to be the authoritarian text on the subject of the fixed World Series. It compiles numerous sources that weren't available when Eliot Asinof wrote his pioneering book. The only downside is that you don't come away with a definitive answer in who was at fault or what exactly happened. And that's because a definitive answer doesn't really exist which Carney acknowledges. That said, this is a great book and will make you feel like an expert once you finish it.
October 29, 2019
I enjoyed this book. Somewhat disjointed in its presentation, but an informative read that cobbles together varying accounts and really brings to light some aspects that were overlooked previously. Free Shoeless Joe!
August 7, 2023
Four stars for the content, but the writing is very clinical and, at times, tedious. There is some repetition of facts and several spelling errors. It is a very sobering read, but any baseball historian will appreciate it.
December 9, 2016
I was drawn to Gene Carney's Burying the Black Sox solely by my love of baseball history and thought that I had an opportunity to learn more about the events leading up to and following the 1919 World Series in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of fixing games.
Mr. Carney's premise is that the White Sox players were scapegoats used to cover up the fact that major league baseball had (for some time) a significant connection to gambling that, if fully exposed, would have ended its reign as the National Pastime. To support his premise, Mr. Carney provides documentation from various sources from the period, interviews given years after the event, and transcripts from a 1924 lawsuit brought by "Shoeless" Joe jackson against the White Sox claiming failure to pay him under the terms of his contract.
All of this documentation — and the premise itself — has promise to tell a compelling story. However, I found myself disappointed by Mr. Carney's writing style, which I found to lack focus. His narrative jumps all over the place and at no time did I feel that he was carefully constructing his case, perhaps because he appears to be unwilling to draw any conclusions of his own. Here's how it felt:
Did the eight Black Sox throw the games? We don't know. Maybe. Four almost probably. Or not. Did the owners know in advance that this was happening? Seems likely, but they didn't do anything concrete to stop it, so maybe not. Was Arnold Rothstein involved? Again, seems likely, but the evidence points in different directions and he says he didn't, but he might have been involved in the disappearance of the grand jury testimony.
In the end, Mr. Carney gave me some new details to consider about how major league baseball tried to sweep the scandal under the rug, but in the end I found myself wanting to scream out, "TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK REALLY HAPPENED!"
It's a shame, really. In more expert hands, with this material, this could have been one hell of a book. Unfortunately, it's not.
Mr. Carney's premise is that the White Sox players were scapegoats used to cover up the fact that major league baseball had (for some time) a significant connection to gambling that, if fully exposed, would have ended its reign as the National Pastime. To support his premise, Mr. Carney provides documentation from various sources from the period, interviews given years after the event, and transcripts from a 1924 lawsuit brought by "Shoeless" Joe jackson against the White Sox claiming failure to pay him under the terms of his contract.
All of this documentation — and the premise itself — has promise to tell a compelling story. However, I found myself disappointed by Mr. Carney's writing style, which I found to lack focus. His narrative jumps all over the place and at no time did I feel that he was carefully constructing his case, perhaps because he appears to be unwilling to draw any conclusions of his own. Here's how it felt:
Did the eight Black Sox throw the games? We don't know. Maybe. Four almost probably. Or not. Did the owners know in advance that this was happening? Seems likely, but they didn't do anything concrete to stop it, so maybe not. Was Arnold Rothstein involved? Again, seems likely, but the evidence points in different directions and he says he didn't, but he might have been involved in the disappearance of the grand jury testimony.
In the end, Mr. Carney gave me some new details to consider about how major league baseball tried to sweep the scandal under the rug, but in the end I found myself wanting to scream out, "TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK REALLY HAPPENED!"
It's a shame, really. In more expert hands, with this material, this could have been one hell of a book. Unfortunately, it's not.
April 24, 2008
Excellent coverage of the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal-- who was in on it, who wasn't, who may not have been, why nobody cared for so long -- with the added bonus of the origin of the "Say it ain't so, Joe!" story. Carney also looks at the performance of the players in each game, looking for signs of "thrown" games.
A worthwhile read, one that sometimes brings to mind comparisons with the steroids scandals of our own day.
A worthwhile read, one that sometimes brings to mind comparisons with the steroids scandals of our own day.
January 19, 2012
Read this after reading "Eight Men Out". It doesn't really change anything but it does add some extra dimensions to the event.
November 9, 2016
I liked this book. I have read several books on the 1919 White Sox and still find the story fascinating. Very informative.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews