Despite not having much of an interest in Soccer outside of World Cups, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the rampant corruption indictments last week that hit FIFA. And it got me to thinking a bit about the Black Sox. And I’ve come to this revelation:
The Black Sox scandal may well be the most important thing in the history of American Sports that doesn’t involve race (Jackie Robinson) or gender (Title IX). More important than Babe Ruth, more important than the introduction of the shot-clock in basketball or the forward pass in football, more important than the Miracle on Ice or, really, any other individual game.
Why? Because the Black Sox Scandal was the trial-by-fire for American professional sports when it came to corruption, and it passed, even if it’s methods will forever be argued over.
There had, of course, been plenty of thrown games and shaved points before the Black Sox, and, yes, there were plenty after the Black Sox as well. The off-the-field business of sports to this day is filled with unethical practices- stadiums built without a vote from the people who will (or will not) use them, blackout restrictions that act as if it is still 1950, a disregard in some sports of player health or fan finances. But those, as unethical as they are, are usually legal. Whether they should be legal is, of course, up for extreme debate. But they are legal.
But none of these domestic scandals have been anywhere close to as damaging as the (most definitely illegal) Black Sox scandal.
After all, this was shortly after the First World War. Baseball was by far the most popular team sport in America and its professional players among the nation’s biggest celebrities. The NHL hadn’t left Canada’s borders yet. Football was a college game, it’s few professionals considered ruffians and the NFL (then called the American Professional Football Association, or AFPA) starting the year after the Black Sox had thrown the series-it’s earliest games occurring as a grand jury was in session about the conspiracy. Basketball was an entirely amateur game, played in colleges and YMCAs.
And yet, despite all of this, despite its undisputed popularity, despite the fact that children around America knew names like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ty Cobb and a young Red Sox player named Babe Ruth… gamblers had been able to convince players to throw the World Series.
If the World Series could be thrown… was anything sacred? Why even bother having professional baseball, if even its crown jewel could be corrupted? There was a real chance that baseball would be doomed if this wasn’t dealt with in a strong manner. And, while it certainly wasn’t baseball’s concern, it’s hard to think that anybody would ever give much chance to any other professional team sports that had far less money and publicity than baseball.
Which is why it’s important what happened next. While the “Eight Men Out” were acquitted, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, a despicable man by most accounts, ignored the judgment and just kicked them all out anyway, even though one of them (Buck Weaver) hadn’t even played any part (although he had known what was going on and hadn’t told anybody) and another (Shoeless Joe) might not have been a full member of the conspiracy either (he reportedly never attended any meetings of his fellow players).
It was what today would likely have been called the nuclear option. How justified it was will be argued for as long as people can remember that it happened. But its effects on baseball and professional sports in America were profound, like a vaccination- it led to more-or-less the end of illegal corruption (as opposed to the previously mentioned conduct that is merely unethical or the business equivalent of being an asshole) in top-flight professional sports in America. Those who have lost their positions (whether they were players, managers, referees or executive) for at least a period of time- many of them have suffered the same fate as the Black Sox.
But elsewhere, in countries that didn’t have Black Sox scandals in their “youth”, it remains rampant. In addition to the corruption in FIFA and other international sports organizations like the IOC, match fixing remains a problem in many countries, whether it be the many scandals of Taiwanese baseball or in soccer leagues around the world, ranging from low-division leagues that are almost semi-professional in nature to, according to some, even the World Cup itself. Cricket also has been rocked by game-throwing scandals.
But those scandals aren’t in America. There is no reason to worry that somebody may throw this year’s World Series. Nor is there any concern- deflated balls be damned- that last year’s NFL playoffs were predetermined. Part of this, to be sure, has to do with salaries- I doubt anybody would be able to afford to offer enough money to a bunch of millionaires for them to throw a game. But part of it also stems back to the Black Sox scandal- the original sin of professional team sports in this country… and also the reason why nothing close to that magnitude has ever hit here again.
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LINKS!
Jay Jaffe touches on why Alex Rodriguez technically isn’t the American League all-time RBI leader, even if MLB says he is
David Schoenfield on the worst hitters of all-time
The first time a professional Korean team played an MLB team
Proving that mankind is a resilient and clever species, the Quad Cities River Bandits won’t let floodwaters turning their stadium into essentially an island stop them from playing ballgames!
Rob Neyer brings to our attention a (probably) very short-lived independent league out west
Phil Taylor on Johan Santana a few years after his no-hitter
SELF-PROMOTION OF THE WEEK: On Memorial Day, a tribute to every MLB player who died in service to the USA
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So, this weekend I was watching a lot of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. It might be the most underrated of all baseball events in baseball.
Here’s a few reasons why:
First, there is tons of it. Over the weekend, I rarely was watching one game. Rather, I was watching “Bases Loaded” on the ESPN channels, as they jumped from game to game, going to wherever the most interesting thing was. There was very little down-time, I was able to be introduced to almost all of the teams, see triple plays and walk-off home runs, and then just go almost seamlessly to the next game. Obviously this becomes less true as the tournament goes on, but the fact remains that there is a steady diet of baseball.
Second, you can see some real David vs. Goliath match-ups. Much like the NCAA basketball tournaments, there are some teams that probably have no business being there, but, like in the basketball tournament, that doesn’t stop the underdogs from putting scares into the favorites, and sometimes even beating them. I didn’t know anything about any of the players on Canisius, but when they briefly held a 1-0 lead early in their game against nationally ranked Missouri State, I was hyped. Of course, they ended up losing something like 8 to 1, but still.
Third, sometimes some genuine underdog teams CAN win the whole thing. Sure, Canisius ended up getting blown out in both of it’s games. Most teams that are a 4-seed in regional play (essentially a mini-tournament that is double-elimination to determine who goes to the round of 16) do. But, sometimes not only do those 4-seeds win, but one time they won it all. In 2008, Fresno State ended up winning the whole damn thing despite being a 4-seed that had only gotten into the tournament because they’d won their conference. That’s like any team in the NCAA basketball tournament winning the championship as a 13, 14, 15 or 16 seed.
Finally, it somehow isn’t overcovered. As in, it feels like, when you are watching the College Baseball playoffs, that you are sort of seeing something that is still a well-kept secret. It’s not drilled into your head like other college sports. It feels like you’ve discovered something. And that’s neat.
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As always, you can find my stuff at the Baseball Continuum.
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