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Burying the Black Sox

By Dr. John D. Eigenauer
May 12, 2006

Just a few days ago, I overheard two fans discussing the 1919 World Series at a baseball game. The fact that they were discussing a World Series from 87 years ago shows how famous it was; after all, no one discusses the 1920 World Series. They were talking about the movie “Eight Men Out,” as if that movie defined the Black Sox scandal. Indeed, most of what most people know about the 1919 World Series comes from the movie or the book of that title.

Enter Gene Carney. Carney’s book Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded, overcomes many myths and oversimplifications engendered by Eliot Asinof’s book, Eight Men Out. He does so by using new research material such as trial transcripts, player testimonies, and diaries that have surfaced since Eight Men Out was published in 1963. Consequently, Carney’s book reads like revisionist history: part narrative, part analysis, and part editor’s notes. The style allows him to go through the story like a detective, assiduously examining each account and each piece of conventional wisdom.

As an example of the careful scrutiny to which Carney subjects Asinof’s work, he points out that Eight Men Out suggests that Eddie Cicotte’s motive for accepting a bribe to throw the World Series was founded in his desire for revenge. Supposedly, Cicotte wanted revenge because he was cheated out of a promised $10,000 bonus when White Sox owner Charles Comiskey ordered Cicotte benched to avoid having to pay the bonus for winning 30 games in 1917. There are several problems with this story, Carney says. First, the movie shifts the 1917 bonus to 1919. Second, Cicotte actually had numerous chances to win 30 games in 1917; he never missed a start, and he appeared in relief in between starts as well. Third, the American League did not even keep official won-lost records until after the 1919 season, and it was common for newspapers to estimate a pitcher’s wins. Fourth, Cicotte was rested for two weeks in 1919 when he won 29 games, but there are numerous contemporary reports confirming that Cicotte had a sore arm; there are none that he was being held out of the rotation against his or his manager’s will. Finally, Carney refers to Cicotte’s “transaction card,” which was a summary of a player’s yearly contracts that Major League baseball kept on every player; the card does not mention a bonus. This evidence indicates that the movie’s portrayal of Cicotte’s bonus is a fabrication. To his credit, Carney does not suggest that Asinof invented the story; he says that in all probability Cicotte told Asinof the story, but Asinof “never checked it out.”

Landis Judge Landis (pictured) had no trouble throwing Joe Jackson and 7 others out of baseball for their roles in the Black Sox scandal. But he made no effort to punish good friend Charlie Comiskey. Photo by George Grantham Bain (colorized by Patrick Mondout).

Carney’s second purpose is to tell the story of the fix’s cover up. While the theme runs throughout the book, the third chapter is dedicated to that topic. When you finish with Carney’s work, you can’t help but agree with the implication behind Marvin Miller’s rhetorical question (that Carney cites): “I’ve always maintained that the question ‘Why isn’t Shoeless Joe in the Hall of Fame?’ should be supplemented with ‘Why isn’t Charles Comiskey out?’” Carney shows that Comiskey had plentiful information even before the Series started that it was fixed, that he demonstrated genuine concern over the issue, and that by the time the Series ended he was as certain as anyone could be that it was fixed, yet he ignored that information in hopes that the scandal would blow over and he could protect his investment. Indeed, Carney shows that Comiskey lied under oath about his knowledge of the fix. It is an excellent chapter that pulls together research from many quarters and reaches reasonable conclusions.

Carney’s book is carefully researched and well documented; he probably knows more about the 1919 World Series than anyone. It succeeds in correcting myths long believed by writers and fans who have too casually accepted uncorroborated accounts of the 1919 World Series’ many tangled events. It does not—to its credit—tell a simple tale. Instead, it draws as many conclusions as the evidence allows and makes no attempt to win readership through hyperbole; if we don’t know the answer, Carney says so.

The book, however, is not a casual baseball book. While you can read it as the story of the 1919 World Series, you will get more out of it if you know the story already. While the prose is occasionally awkward and the ten pages in imitation of Abbott and Costello are gratuitous, it is an excellent piece of scholarship that serious baseball readers will truly enjoy.

John Eigenauer can be contacted at jeigenauer@yahoo.com. A complete list of his reviews and more about him can be found here.