Batt: The greatest gambling scandal in American history turns 100
From Tony Batt at Gambling Compliance on March 28, 2019, with mention of SABR members Daniel Nathan and Bruce Allardice:
As Major League Baseball (MLB) prepares for the 2019 season with its earliest opening day ever on Thursday, MLB plans to ignore the
100th anniversary of the gambling scandal which continues to haunt the sport after almost destroying it.
“You are correct,” MLB chief communications officer Pat Courtney told GamblingCompliance this week after being asked to confirm there will not be any ceremonies this year acknowledging the Black Sox Scandal of 1919.
The Black Sox included eight members of the Chicago White Sox who were accused of conspiring to deliberately lose the 1919 World Series in exchange for a then-hefty payout of $100,000.
Contrary to popular belief, gamblers did not seduce the players. It was the players who approached the gamblers, according to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
“The [Black Sox Scandal] contributed to changing Major League Baseball’s governance structure and affected the way millions of Americans thought and felt about baseball,” said David A. Nathan, a professor of American studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
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Originally published: March 29, 2019. Last Updated: March 29, 2019.