Kallman: Did Shoeless Joe Jackson play to win in the 1919 World Series?
From SABR member Jeff Kallman at Called to the Pen on January 21, 2020:
Last year was the anniversary of the 1919 World Series. The season to come will be the centenary of season-long rumors exploding into actuality, when a published accusation led to a grand jury, to White Sox owner Charles Comiskey suspending seven players accused of conspiring with gamblers to throw the Series (an eighth, Chick Gandil, retired before the 1920 season after a contract dispute), and to pitcher Eddie Cicotte confessing to the grand jury, detonating the scandal in earnest.
Enough of the mythology around that Series and the scandal to follow has been debunked profoundly by the Society for American Baseball Research. (Fair disclosure: I’m a member myself, and I authored an essay for their Black Sox Scandal Committee’s newsletter in December 2018, arguing that the 1919 Cincinnati Reds could have won the Series if it was played straight, no chaser.) You can (and should) read it elsewhere.
This past weekend, according to ESPN reporter Dan Van Atta, who produced a Backstory segment on players banished from baseball for life, someone from MLB (Van Atta didn’t identify him) suggested death might actually end such banishment, but someone else from the Hall of Fame said not so fast. Two players who would-be Hall of Famers otherwise remain on the list. One remains dead, the other is alive and 78 years old, and gambling was their downfall.
Read the full article here: https://calltothepen.com/2020/01/21/shoeless-joe-jackson-play-win-1919-series/
Originally published: January 22, 2020. Last Updated: January 22, 2020.