Crawford: You think you know the story of the 1919 Black Sox? Think again

From Sean Crawford at NPR Illinois on March 27, 2019, with SABR member Jacob Pomrenke:

This baseball season marks 100 years since what may be the darkest moment in the history of our national pastime.

Some members of the Chicago White Sox, including the great Shoeless Joe Jackson, threw the World Series.  The story has become well known through a book, and later a movie titled “Eight Men Out”, named for the number of players later banned from baseball for their roles in the gambling scheme. 

But does that story match reality?  New research sheds light on what took place — and what didn’t. 

Eight Men out by Eliot Asinof was published in 1963. 

“We’ve learned a lot of new information in the ensuing half century,” said Jacob Pomrenke with the Society for American Baseball Research. He’s chaired a committee that has spent years studying what is known as the Black Sox scandal.  The panel has put together an online project called “Eight Myths Out.”

Read the full article here: http://www.nprillinois.org/post/you-know-story-1919-black-sox-think-again#stream/0



Originally published: March 27, 2019. Last Updated: March 27, 2019.