Baseball Gambling Stories! Batter Up!

“The White Sox”

Anyone who is familiar with the game of baseball knows a thing or two about specific facts or stories associated with the sport. One particularly infamous story besides the Pete Rose scandal involves the White Sox. Most people who are acquainted with baseball know about the story and the consequences it had on the game of baseball. The game that made history will forever hold a place in the world of sports betting, as its outcome affected the players and people not involved in the actual game alike.

The Black Sox

The game in question was the 1919 World Series game that was played between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. The idea was that since the game of baseball was increasing in popularity at this point in history and was especially considered to be profitable, the players would fix the outcome of the game so that the jackpot could be won and in effect, fix the odds of the gamble. The two masterminds behind the scandal were William Thomas “Sleepy Bill” Burns and Billy Maharg. Burns was described as being an ex-major league pitcher while Maharg was supposed to be the gambler in the partnership.

These men approached other players on the team to put a total of eight men involved in the betting scandal. In the end if all went as planned, the players on the team would have over $100,000–a lot of money in 1919—to split among themselves. After the two men had achieved getting the minimum amount of players necessary–too few players and their plan could not carry through–they continued play in the World Series. They lost the game as planned despite the valiant efforts of some other players on the team, and the men were paid from their bets.

However, since it was such a big game, many people who were betting on the game or otherwise involved with it knew about the fix. Someone eventually ratted on the players, and their scheme was uncovered. The eight players who had participated in the scandal became known as the Black Sox, and they were all indicted in 1920. The players were banned from baseball and a chance of entering the Hall of Fame. Yet some of the players, most famously Shoeless Joe Jackson, began to garner support for being reinstated back into the world of baseball.

Sadly, Jackson was not given that honor until after his death. Yet many players who were part of the infamous Black Sox remain a part of one of the biggest schemes in baseball history.

This gambling story courtesy of: GamblingLore.com


	I'm Lloyd Hewitt, gambling aficionado and gambling story collector. I hope you like this compilation of gambling stories. I'm always interested in hearing new ones, so if you have a gambling story you'd like to tell, just , and I'll add it to my site as soon as I can.