October marks the centennial of what remains by far the greatest scandal in American sports history. When eight members of the Chicago White Sox—known forever after as the Black Sox—threw the 1919 World Series, the betrayal reverberated far beyond the burgeoning sports industry. Occurring as it did in a moment of dizzying social change in America, it jolted the nation’s idea of itself. Indeed, in retrospect, the affair stands as one of those signal events that define an era. Americans were never quite so innocent again about sports—or anything else.
Thanks largely to the films Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams, the Black Sox are now firmly embedded in popular culture. As dramatic storytelling, the saga has all the elements: not just avarice and betrayal, but unexpected heroism, genuine poignancy, and moral complexity, with the perpetrators just as easily seen as victims. “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” the heartbroken little boy’s plea to fallen star Shoeless Joe Jackson, was probably a sportswriter’s invention, but it’s not for nothing that it still tugs the heartstrings of even those who don’t know Hank Aaron from Aaron Judge.
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