[Charles Henrickson]

I grew up in Chicago at a time (the '50s and '60s) when lots of folks remembered and talked about the 1919 Series. This is a very interesting analysis. If indeed the Clean Sox (Collins, Schalk, e.g.), the Reds, and the umps--all guys who would know better than anyone else if something looked fishy--all said the Eight were playing on the up-and-up, then the theory presented here seems plausible: The Eight did conspire with gamblers, but in the end they decided not to throw the games. The mental pressure, though, may have caused them to play not at their peak, and they just got beat by a Reds team playing better ball.

[BluesDuke]

I personally think that if you had taken away all the gambling elements from the 1919 World Series, and sent the White Sox out to meet the Reds completely and incontrovertibly on the up and up---it is extremely possible that the 1919 Reds (whom history owes a great deal of apology for undermining what was actually an excellent team) could have beaten the White Sox in a completely up-and-up contest. At minimum, the 1919 Reds outpitched the 1919 White Sox prior to their fateful World Series (the 1919 White Sox team ERA: 3.04; the 1919 Reds: 2.23---that is a considerable difference).

Unfortunately, we will never really know.

[Chi-townChief]

Well, the 2006 White Sox certainly appear to be throwing a few games in the last week or two, intentional or not.

[GaryL]

Thanks for your interesting comments. I'm also from Chicago and a lifelong baseball fan.

This is the 50th anniversity of the Sporting News interview with Chick Gandil in which he makes the claims that I've highlighted in my essay, e.g., they conspired with the gamblers, they took dirty money, they deserved what they got (being banned from baseball); but they basically "chickened out" of actually throwing the games and played all games to win. By the way, in my research, I've discovered that all eight players have made this same claim at one time or another.

The Gandil article started me to rethnking the entire sordid episode, and my only point now is that the possiblity that all the games were played to win is worth investigating. That certainly appears to be the consensus of the contemporary observers (as I mention in the essay).

It's a fascinating article and if you or anyone else would like to see it, I can either post it here or get it to you one way or another.