Black Sox Scandal - Fallout

Fallout

The rumors dogged the White Sox throughout the 1920 season, as they battled the Cleveland Indians for the American League pennant that year, and stories of corruption touched players on other clubs as well. At last, in September 1920, a grand jury was convened to investigate.

Two players, Eddie Cicotte and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, confessed their participation in the scheme to the Chicago grand jury on September 28, 1920. On the eve of their final season series, the White Sox were in a virtual tie for first place with the Cleveland Indians. The Sox would need to win all 3 of their remaining games and then hope for Cleveland to stumble, as the Indians had more games in hand. Despite the season being on the line, White Sox owner Charles Comiskey suspended the seven White Sox still in the majors (Chick Gandil had conspicuously left the team and was playing semi-pro ball). He said that he had no choice but to suspend them, even though this action likely cost the White Sox any chance of winning that year's American League pennant. The White Sox lost 2 of 3 in their final series against the St. Louis Browns and finished in second place, two games behind Cleveland.

The damage to the sport's reputation led the owners to appoint federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first Commissioner of Baseball prior to the start of the 1921 season. With the unprecedented powers granted to him by the owners, Landis placed all eight accused players on an "ineligible list", banning them from major and minor league baseball. Comiskey supported Landis by giving the seven who remained under contract to the White Sox their unconditional release.

Prior to the trial, key evidence went missing from the Cook County Courthouse, including the signed confessions of Cicotte and Jackson, who subsequently recanted their confessions. The players were acquitted. (Some years later, the missing confessions reappeared in the possession of Comiskey's lawyer.)

Player John F. "Shano" Collins is named as the wronged party in the indictments of the key figures in the Black Sox scandal. The indictment claims that by throwing the World Series, the alleged conspirators defrauded him of $1,784.

Landis was not as forgiving, and was quick to quash any prospect that he might re-instate the implicated players. On August 3, 1921, the day after the players were acquitted, the Commissioner issued his own verdict:

Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.

Landis had not officially described his decision as being "lifetime" or "permanent" suspensions. In the film Eight Men Out Landis (played by John Anderson) is portrayed to have said "no player who throws a ball game... will ever play professional baseball again." however Landis is not contemporarily documented using the word again. Nevertheless, regardless of what Landis' exact words were, following his statement it was universally understood that all eight implicated White Sox would be banned from Major League Baseball for life. Two other players believed to be involved were also banned.

With seven of their best players permanently sidelined, the White Sox crashed into seventh place in 1921 and would not be a factor in a pennant race again until 1936, five years after Comiskey's death. They would not win another American League championship until 1959 (a then-record 40-year gap) nor another World Series until 2005, prompting some to comment about a Curse of the Black Sox.

After being banned, Risberg and several other members of the Black Sox tried to organize a three-state barnstorming tour. However, they were forced to cancel those plans after Landis let it be known that anyone who played with or against them would also be banned from baseball for life. They then announced plans to play a regular exhibition game every Sunday in Chicago, but the Chicago City Council threatened to cancel the license of any ballpark that hosted them.

The 10 players not implicated in the gambling scandal, as well as manager Kid Gleason, were each given bonus checks in the amount of $1500 by Charles A. Comiskey in the fall of 1920 — the difference between the winners' and losers' share for participation in the 1919 World Series.