Black Sox Scandal Research Committee
The Black Sox Scandal Research Committee aims to do, encourage, organize, and make accessible research that will increase our understanding of “baseball’s darkest hour” — the events surrounding the fixing of the 1919 World Series.
- 2019 Centennial Symposium: Listen to highlights from the SABR Black Sox Scandal Centennial Symposium, held on September 28, 2019, at the Chicago History Museum to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1919 World Series.
- Eight Myths Out: Click here to view our project on the most common errors and misconceptions about the Black Sox Scandal
By focusing on this best-known incident of gambling’s influence on baseball, we hope to shed light on its presence during the Deadball Era, as well as its continuing effects in the decades that followed. Our goal is to better understand how ballplayers, management, reporters, and baseball authorities (including the first Commissioner) responded to events, possibly setting precedents affecting MLB today.
The 1919 World Series fix increasingly appears to be a “cold case” in which new evidence continues to be discovered. In 2007, for example, hundreds of documents related to the Black Sox Scandal were acquired and made available to the public by the Chicago History Museum.
- Announcements: To sign up for email announcements from this committee, click the “Announcements” button above, then click “Join Group” (
). All SABR members are eligible to sign up for announcements from any committee. - Newsletters: To find current and past Black Sox Scandal committee newsletters, click here.
- Discussion group: To sign up and participate in our Black Sox Scandal email discussion group at SABRgroups.org, click here.
- Read our Black Sox book: In 2015, SABR published Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox, edited by Jacob Pomrenke, with contributions from 32 members of the Black Sox Scandal committee. Click here to learn more or order the book (e-book or paperback available.)
- SABR BioProject Black Sox articles: Find all SABR BioProject articles related to the Black Sox Scandal on this page.
- Gene Carney’s Black Sox Notes Index: For nearly two decades, our committee founder Gene Carney wrote a semi-regular column called “Notes From The Shadows of Cooperstown” from his home in Utica, New York. Between 2002 until his untimely death in 2009, Carney’s research focused almost exclusively on the ill-fated events of October 1919, the cover-up that followed, and the legal proceedings which put Shoeless Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, and the other Chicago White Sox players involved on the record. Click here to view the entire collection of Gene Carney’s “Notes” columns related to the Black Sox Scandal, along with a Chronological Index and a Subject-Matter Index for those who are interested in digging deeper.
- Infamous America podcast series: Season 2 of the Infamous America podcast series, produced by Black Barrel Media in 2019, focuses on the Black Sox Scandal, using research from our Scandal on the South Side book. Click here to listen to each episode online or on your favorite podcast streaming service.
Contacts:
- Jacob Pomrenke (Chair)
- Rod Nelson (Email list manager)