Reds beat the Black Sox for the 1919 World Series

[00:00:00] On October 9th, 1919, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago White Sox to win their very first World Series, which later became overshadowed by the Black Sox scandal.

[00:00:13] But the series itself was actually relatively close, and we're going to dive into how the Reds actually won the 1919 World Series.

[00:00:28] Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn about sports history to increase your sports knowledge.

[00:00:37] And today's trivia question is, in what year did the eight Black Sox actually get charges brought up against them for throwing the World Series?

[00:00:49] Now before we get to the series, let's see how these two teams actually ended up in the World Series.

[00:00:54] Because at this time, there was not really a playoff, it's just whoever won the National League, whoever won the American League would face off in the World Series.

[00:01:02] So let's first start with the Reds, as they're often forgot about in this series.

[00:01:06] See, in 1919, they were kind of an upstart team, kind of the underdog for most of their time in the major leagues,

[00:01:12] as they had not finished higher than third since 1900.

[00:01:15] And they had only won the National League pennant two times before winning handily in 1919.

[00:01:21] Under new manager Pat Morin, they were able to put together a team with stars such as Eddie Roush, Henny Gore, Jake DeBarrett.

[00:01:29] And they featured three pitchers who had won 19 games or more in Hode Eller, Dutch Rother, and Slim Sally.

[00:01:38] And they finished winning 96 games, which was nine games better than second place than New York Giants.

[00:01:44] And they set a record for attendance that year, drawing more than half a million fans to their home games,

[00:01:51] which was better than their record of 424,000.

[00:01:55] And they would face off against the Chicago White Sox, who had the best record in the American League,

[00:02:01] winning 88 games, beating out the Cleveland Indians by four games.

[00:02:05] Led by Trus Joe Jackson, one of the best hitters at the time, and Eddie Collins.

[00:02:09] They had a great hitting staff, as well as having two pitchers who won over 23 games that year.

[00:02:15] And Lefty Williams and Eddie Seacott, who won 29 games that year.

[00:02:20] So though we often remember it for the scandal of eight White Sox taking money to fix the games,

[00:02:27] Cincinnati could have been thought of as the frontrunner, as they had won more games,

[00:02:31] had more pitchers that were dominant,

[00:02:33] but were just thought of as lesser, as they had been the lovable losers for such a long time.

[00:02:39] But game one happened on October 1st in Cincinnati, in front of 30,000 fans.

[00:02:45] And tickets were going high at the time, as Cincinnati hadn't won the World Series.

[00:02:49] And they were going for as high as $50 a ticket, which is almost $1,000 today.

[00:02:54] Now famously in this game, Seacott came to the mound,

[00:02:58] who reportedly got $10,000 the night before to throw the series,

[00:03:02] hit the Cincinnati's leadoff hitter so that everyone knew the fix was on.

[00:03:08] But it wasn't, but the game was tied 1-1 going into the fourth inning,

[00:03:12] when Cincinnati went on a little bit of a hit streak,

[00:03:15] and scored five runs in the fourth, and took the game 9-1.

[00:03:21] Then game two was played the next day on October 2nd in Cincinnati,

[00:03:24] when Lefty Williams took the mound for Chicago.

[00:03:26] And again, the game was tied 0-0, heading into the fourth inning,

[00:03:31] when the White Sox took the lead, scored three runs,

[00:03:34] when Lefty walked three, who eventually would go on to score.

[00:03:38] And the game would end 4-2 with a win for Cincinnati.

[00:03:41] But game three came the next day in Chicago,

[00:03:45] where Chicago's Dickie Kerr ended up taking the mound,

[00:03:50] who was not a part of the fix.

[00:03:51] And then Chicago won 3-0.

[00:03:54] And in game four, Cincinnati was another hard-fought game.

[00:03:59] But Cincinnati didn't score until the fifth inning,

[00:04:04] when they scored two runs,

[00:04:05] which was the only time anyone scored the entire game.

[00:04:09] The fifth game was actually postponed a day due to rain.

[00:04:12] And both teams were shut out until the sixth inning,

[00:04:17] when Cincinnati, again, went on a run in one inning,

[00:04:20] and scored four runs, finishing the game 5-0,

[00:04:24] taking a 4-1 game lead, heading into game six.

[00:04:27] Now, you may think 4-1, didn't Cincinnati already win?

[00:04:31] At this time, they were playing the series best of nine.

[00:04:35] So Cincinnati needed to win one more game.

[00:04:37] But it wouldn't happen on October 7th in game six.

[00:04:40] As again, Dickie Kerr pitched another dominant game like he did in game three.

[00:04:45] And Chicago came out on a win.

[00:04:47] And despite Cincinnati leading at the end of the fourth inning,

[00:04:51] Chicago came back and scored the next five runs to win the game in extra innings.

[00:04:57] And the following day on October 8th,

[00:04:59] Chicago would again go on to win in a dominant fashion,

[00:05:03] winning 4-0, taking the lead in the first inning, and never looking back.

[00:05:09] So now the series was 4-3 in favor of the Reds.

[00:05:13] But Chicago was on a streak.

[00:05:15] And in Chicago, Cincinnati came out and had Hoyt Heller versus Lefty Williams,

[00:05:22] where Cincinnati scored four runs in the first inning,

[00:05:25] which set the tone for the game,

[00:05:27] where they dominated, scoring 10 runs,

[00:05:30] winning 10-5 and winning their very first World Series.

[00:05:35] And during this game, Joe Jackson hit the only home run of the series.

[00:05:40] So the Cincinnati Reds during the series scored 35 runs to 20 runs by the Chicago White Sox.

[00:05:47] Joe Jackson led all players hitting .375 for the series.

[00:05:51] And Greasy Noel led the Cincinnati Reds hitting .357 for the series.

[00:05:57] And Hoyt Heller pitched two complete games, including one shutout,

[00:06:01] and had an ERA of two with 15 strikeouts, helping lead the Cincinnati Reds to a win.

[00:06:07] And at the time, Cincinnati celebrated.

[00:06:10] And though the White Sox seemed to play a lackluster series,

[00:06:14] everyone celebrated the Red Sox for their win.

[00:06:16] But it wasn't until September of 1920 when a grand jury got together to indict eight of the White Sox players

[00:06:26] for conspiracy to fraud and take bribes to throw the 1919 World Series.

[00:06:32] So it was almost an entire year where the Reds were just enjoying being the champions of the major leagues.

[00:06:40] But it's often forgot about because of the whole White Sox scandals.

[00:06:45] And who knows?

[00:06:46] The Reds were good enough that they could have actually won the series on their own.

[00:06:50] It wasn't a foregone conclusion.

[00:06:52] The White Sox weren't so good that they couldn't have just won outright.

[00:06:57] So it leaves a tarnishment on their World Series win.

[00:07:00] And now no one remembers the 1919 Reds.

[00:07:04] But gambling got in the way.

[00:07:06] And the White Sox cheap owner made their players think that this was the only way for them to make money.

[00:07:11] It was a sad moment in MLB history as those eight players were forever banned from the Major League Baseball,

[00:07:19] all because of money.

[00:07:21] So sometimes when we think about sports today, we think about the pro athletes making tons of money,

[00:07:26] which helps this not be an issue in today's Major League sports,

[00:07:29] as the players are making so much that they're less likely to be bought off.

[00:07:34] But it's a sad moment that money changes.

[00:07:36] It's a great moment for the Reds, who always have a little bit of an asterisk next to their World Series,

[00:07:42] when they really shouldn't have.

[00:07:43] They could have done it on their own.

[00:07:47] And I want to thank you for listening to today's episode.

[00:07:50] If you enjoyed it, please leave us a rating or review wherever you're listening.

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[00:08:03] And come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.

[00:08:07] And the answer to today's trivia question,

[00:08:09] in what year did the eight Black Sox actually get charges brought up against them

[00:08:14] for throwing the World Series?

[00:08:17] It wasn't until September of 1920 that they got indicted by the grand jury,

[00:08:22] meaning it was almost one year after the World Series,

[00:08:25] before everything came crumbling down.