Although gambling scandals have been a part of professional baseball since the sport's beginning, no scandal threatened the game's stature as "the national pastime" more than the revelations that eight members of the Chicago White Sox had conspired to throw the 1919 World Series. Termed the "Black Sox Scandal," the event will go down in history as one of the twentieth century's most notorious sports debacles.

The Chicago White Sox of the World War I period were one of the most popular teams in the major leagues. They were led on the field by "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, an illiterate South Carolinian whose.356 career batting average is the third highest ever, and pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams. The Sox were owned by Charles A. Comiskey, a nineteenth-century ballplayer notorious for paying his star players as little as possible; Cicotte, who led the American League with...