1919 Chicago White Sox
American League Champions
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkComiskey Park
CityChicago, Illinois
OwnersCharles Comiskey
ManagersKid Gleason
← 1918 Seasons 1920 →

The 1919 Chicago White Sox season was their 19th season in the American League. They won 88 games to advance to the World Series but lost to the Cincinnati Reds. More significantly, some of the players were found to have taken money from gamblers in return for throwing the series. The "Black Sox Scandal" had permanent ramifications for baseball, including the establishment of the office of Commissioner of Baseball.

Regular season

1919 Chicago White Sox team photo

In 1919, Eddie Cicotte led the majors with 29 wins and 30 complete games, going 29–7 for the season with a 1.82 ERA (2nd in AL) and 110 strikeouts (7th in AL). He also led the AL in innings pitched with 240 (shared with Washington Senators pitcher Jim Shaw).

Right fielder Joe Jackson hit .351 (4th in AL) with 7 home runs, 96 RBIs (3rd in AL) and had 181 hits (3rd in AL, only 10 fewer than league leader Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers). Shoeless Joe headed an offense that scored the most runs of any team.

Season standings

American League 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Chicago White Sox 88 52 0.629 — 48–22 40–30
Cleveland Indians 84 55 0.604 3½ 44–25 40–30
New York Yankees 80 59 0.576 7½ 46–25 34–34
Detroit Tigers 80 60 0.571 8 46–24 34–36
St. Louis Browns 67 72 0.482 20½ 40–30 27–42
Boston Red Sox 66 71 0.482 20½ 35–30 31–41
Washington Senators 56 84 0.400 32 32–40 24–44
Philadelphia Athletics 36 104 0.257 52 21–49 15–55

Record vs. opponents

1919 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYY PHA SLB WSH
Boston — 9–11 4–15 9–11 10–9 14–6 9–10–1 11–9
Chicago 11–9 — 12–8 11–9 12–8 17–3 11–9 14–6
Cleveland 15–4 8–12 — 8–12 13–7 16–4 11–9 13–7
Detroit 11–9 9–11 12–8 — 8–12 14–6 14–6 12–8
New York 9–10 8–12 7–13 12–8 — 18–2 12–8 14–6–2
Philadelphia 6–14 3–17 4–16 6–14 2–18 — 7–13 8–12
St. Louis 10–9–1 9–11 9–11 6–14 8–12 13–7 — 12–8
Washington 9–11 6–14 7–13 8–12 6–14–2 12–8 8–12 —


Roster

1919 Chicago White Sox
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Ray Schalk 131 394 111 .282 0 34
1B Chick Gandil 115 441 128 .290 1 60
2B Eddie Collins 140 518 165 .319 4 80
3B Buck Weaver 140 571 169 .296 3 75
SS Swede Risberg 119 414 106 .256 2 38
LF Joe Jackson 139 516 181 .351 7 96
CF Happy Felsch 135 502 138 .275 7 86
RF Nemo Leibold 122 434 131 .302 0 26

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Shano Collins 63 179 50 .279 0 4
Fred McMullin 60 170 50 .294 0 19
Byrd Lynn 29 66 15 .227 0 4
Eddie Murphy 30 35 17 .486 0 5
Joe Jenkins 11 19 3 .158 0 1
Hervey McClellan 7 12 4 .333 0 1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Eddie Cicotte 40 306.2 29 7 1.82 110
Lefty Williams 41 297.0 23 11 2.64 125
Dickey Kerr 39 212.1 13 7 2.88 79
Red Faber 25 162.1 11 9 3.83 45
Win Noyes 1 6.0 0 0 7.50 4
Charlie Robertson 1 2.0 0 1 9.00 1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Grover Lowdermilk 20 96.2 5 5 2.79 43
Bill James 5 39.1 3 2 2.52 11
Frank Shellenback 8 35.0 1 3 5.14 10
Erskine Mayer 6 23.2 1 3 8.37 9
Roy Wilkinson 4 22.0 1 1 2.05 5
John Sullivan 4 15.0 0 1 4.20 9

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Dave Danforth 15 1 2 1 7.78 17
Joe Benz 1 0 0 0 0.00 0
Tom McGuire 1 0 0 0 9.00 0
Pat Ragan 1 0 0 0 0.00 0
Reb Russell 1 0 0 0 0.00 0

Awards and honors

League top ten finishers

Eddie Cicotte

Happy Felsch

Joe Jackson

Buck Weaver

Lefty Williams

1919 World Series

Main article: 1919 World Series

NL Cincinnati Reds (5) vs. AL Chicago White Sox (3)

Game Score Date Location Attendance
1 Chicago White Sox – 1, Cincinnati Reds – 9 October 1 Redland Field 30,511
2 Chicago White Sox – 2, Cincinnati Reds – 4 October 2 Redland Field 29,690
3 Cincinnati Reds – 0, Chicago White Sox – 3 October 3 Comiskey Park 29,126
4 Cincinnati Reds – 2, Chicago White Sox – 0 October 4 Comiskey Park 34,363
5 Cincinnati Reds – 5, Chicago White Sox – 0 October 6 Comiskey Park 34,379
6 Chicago White Sox – 5, Cincinnati Reds – 4 (10 innings) October 7 Redland Field 32,006
7 Chicago White Sox – 4, Cincinnati Reds – 1 October 8 Redland Field 13,923
8 Cincinnati Reds – 10, Chicago White Sox – 5 October 9 Comiskey Park 32,930

Black Sox Scandal

Main article: Black Sox Scandal

The Black Sox Scandal refers to a number of events that took place around and during the play of the 1919 World Series. The name "Black Sox" also refers to the Chicago White Sox team from that era. Eight members of the Chicago franchise were banned from baseball for throwing (intentionally losing) games.

The Fix

The conspiracy was the brainchild of White Sox first baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil and Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, who was a professional gambler of Gandil's acquaintance. New York gangster Arnold Rothstein supplied the major connections needed. The money was supplied by Abe Attell, former featherweight boxing champion, who accepted the offer even though he didn't have the $80,000 that the White Sox wanted.

Gandil enlisted seven of his teammates, motivated by a mixture of greed and a dislike of penurious club owner Charles Comiskey, to implement the fix. Starting pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams, outfielders "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Oscar "Happy" Felsch, and infielder Charles "Swede" Risberg were all involved. Buck Weaver was also asked to participate, but refused; he was later banned with the others for knowing of the fix but not reporting it. Utility infielder Fred McMullin was not initially approached but got word of the fix and threatened to report the others unless he was in on the payoff. Sullivan and his two associates, Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy Maharg, somewhat out of their depth, approached Rothstein to provide the money for the players, who were promised a total of $100,000.

Stories of the "Black Sox" scandal have usually included Comiskey in its gallery of subsidiary villains, focusing in particular on his intentions regarding a clause in Cicotte's contract that would have paid Cicotte an additional $10,000 bonus for winning 30 games. According to Eliot Asinof's account of the events, Eight Men Out, Cicotte was "rested" for the season's final two weeks after reaching his 29th win, presumably to deny him the bonus. In reality, however, Cicotte started the White Sox's last game of the season, September 28th against the Tigers. But, with a 1-0 Chicago lead, Chicago manager Kid Gleason took Cicotte out of the game following the second inning, which assured Cicotte could not get his 30th win.

External links

American League champions
1919 MLB season by team
Black Sox Scandal
Chicago White Sox
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