1919 Chicago White Sox season

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.

1919 Chicago White Sox
American League Champions
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Charles Comiskey
Manager(s)Kid Gleason
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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 less 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 8852 0.629 — 48–22 40–30
Cleveland Indians 8455 0.604 3½ 44–25 40–30
New York Yankees 8059 0.576 7½ 46–25 34–34
Detroit Tigers 8060 0.571 8 46–24 34–36
St. Louis Browns 6772 0.482 20½ 40–30 27–42
Boston Red Sox 6671 0.482 20½ 35–30 31–41
Washington Senators 5684 0.400 32 32–40 24–44
Philadelphia Athletics 36104 0.257 52 21–49 15–55

Record vs. opponents
1919 American League Records

Sources:
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYY PHI STL WSH
Boston —9–114–159–1110–914–69–10–111–9
Chicago 11–9—12–811–912–817–311–914–6
Cleveland 15–48–12—8–1213–716–411–913–7
Detroit 11–99–1112–8—8–1214–614–612–8
New York 9–108–127–1312–8—18–212–814–6–2
Philadelphia 6–143–174–166–142–18—7–138–12
St. Louis 10–9–19–119–116–148–1213–7—12–8
Washington 9–116–147–138–126–14–212–88–12—

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
CRay Schalk131394111.282034
1BChick Gandil115441128.290160
2BEddie Collins140518165.319480
3BBuck Weaver140571169.296375
SSSwede Risberg119414106.256238
LFJoe Jackson139516181.351796
CFHappy Felsch135502138.275786
RFNemo Leibold122434131.302026

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
Fred McMullin6017050.294019
Shano Collins6317950.27904
Byrd Lynn296615.22704
Eddie Murphy303517.48605
Joe Jenkins11193.15801
Hervey McClellan7124.33301

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 Cicotte40306.22971.82110
Lefty Williams4129723112.64125
Dickey Kerr39212.11372.8879
Red Faber25162.11193.8345
Win Noyes16007.504
Charlie Robertson12019.001

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 Lowdermilk2096.2552.7943
Frank Shellenback835135.1410
Erskine Mayer623.2138.379
Bill James539.1322.5211
Roy Wilkinson422112.055
John Sullivan415014.209

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 Danforth151217.7817
Joe Benz10000.000
Tom McGuire10009.000
Pat Ragan10000.000
Reb Russell10000.000

Awards and honors

League top ten finishers

Eddie Cicotte

  • MLB leader in wins (29)
  • MLB leader in complete games (30)
  • Equal AL leader in innings pitched (240)
  • #2 in AL in ERA (1.82)
  • #2 in AL in shutouts (5)
  • #7 in AL in strikeouts (110)

Happy Felsch

  • #6 in AL in RBI (86)

Joe Jackson

  • #3 in AL in RBI (96)
  • #3 in AL in hits (181)
  • #4 in AL in batting average (.351)
  • #4 in AL in on-base percentage (.422)
  • #4 in AL in triples (14)
  • #5 in AL in slugging percentage (.506)

Buck Weaver

  • #4 in AL in runs scored (89)
  • #7 in AL in stolen bases (22)
  • #7 in AL in hits (169)

Lefty Williams

  • #2 in AL in shutouts (5)
  • #2 in AL in complete games (27)
  • #3 in AL in wins (23)
  • #3 in AL in strikeouts (125)
  • #9 in AL in ERA (2.64)

1919 World Series
Main article: 1919 World Series

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

GameScoreDateLocationAttendance
1Chicago White Sox – 1, Cincinnati Reds – 9October 1Redland Field30,511
2Chicago White Sox – 2, Cincinnati Reds – 4October 2Redland Field29,690
3Cincinnati Reds – 0, Chicago White Sox – 3October 3Comiskey Park29,126
4Cincinnati Reds – 2, Chicago White Sox – 0October 4Comiskey Park34,363
5Cincinnati Reds – 5, Chicago White Sox – 0October 6Comiskey Park34,379
6Chicago White Sox – 5, Cincinnati Reds – 4 (10 innings)October 7Redland Field32,006
7Chicago White Sox – 4, Cincinnati Reds – 1October 8Redland Field13,923
8Cincinnati Reds – 10, Chicago White Sox – 5October 9Comiskey Park32,930

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.

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