If you're a baseball fan, or even if you're not, you probably know that there are two teams in baseball known as the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. In 1919, the Chicago White Sox played the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, and lost 5 games to 3.
There were a number of things about this setup that are a bit odd to a modern onlooker. First of all, it was a 9 game tournament instead of the 7 game series used before and after.
The most famous thing about that series however, was the Black Sox incident -- the fixing of the game by gamblers. The players in those days were poorly paid, if they were paid at all, and under the thumb of the owners. One player on the Chicago team was pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who had a clause in his contract that would give him a $10,000 bonus if he won another game forr a total of 30). But the owner, Charles Comiskey had benched him for 2 games, despite Cicotte's undoubted skill, making him a good target for a bribe. But as Wikipedia reports, a combination of bribery and threats were used.
In the end, the players, including legendary player Shoeless Joe Jackson, escaped criminal penalty, but were banned from baseball for life (this happened in1920 after the criminal trial was over).
This is about the 1919 World Series.
Now the Chicago History Museum is showing a deposition by Cicotte on its website (see insert) that the 1918 World Series, which the Boston Red Sox won against the Chicago White Sox 4-2, was also tainted. See the Christian Science Monitor for details.
If you consult the Wikipedia page on the 1918 World Series, you find not only other suspicions about the 1918 Series, but suspicions about the 1917 series.
These days, of course, professional athletes, at least in baseball, are paid far more, even allowing for inflation. This is good, but not just to prevent fixing of games.
Cast your mind back, if you will, to the OJ Simpson trial, to the part where evidence was presented about Simpson making some low-impact exercise videos.
The evidence presented showed that Simpson, previously a star athlete, was unable to even do low-impact exercises designed for senior citizens and others who have never previously been athletic.
The impact of this evidence on his guilt or innocence in that particular trial is negligible since you don't need to be physically fit to have uncontrollable jealousy.
However, it was a rare display of how the rigours of being a professional athlete, particularly an American football player, can degrade your health -- and therefore make you need a lot of money -- you may not be able to earn money after you leave the sport.
Postscript: Simpson's armed robbery conviction in Vegas shows how even a football star may need money.
No comments:
Post a Comment