Red Leggings and Black Sox

            One of the more infamous incidents in the history of American baseball was the Black Sox scandal.  During the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, it seemed obvious that the well-favored Chicagoans would prevail.  Yet, as the series progressed, the inconceivable happened: the White Sox lost to the Reds.  While it was revealed  that key members of the White Sox took bribes to throw the Series in the following months, the euphoria that Cincinnati initially felt at besting the supposedly superior team was unbridled.  Indeed, the front page of the first issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer that followed the home team's victory was emblazoned with "Reds End Series With Slaughter of Sox Pitchers, Winning Baseball Classic, Five Games to Three."[1] 

            For a city that has not had occasion to celebrate in the past several decades insofar as professional sports are concerned (college sporting hardly counts, after all), it is perhaps unsurprising that the majority of the newspaper in question is dominated by various articles covering different aspects of the World Series.  Ironically, the Reds' victory is chalked up to "clean, hard hitting and speedy base running."[2]  As the months passed, however, the story broke that the Reds supposedly superior skills at baseball were not the ultimate reason for their victory; they were simply the team that benefitted from the greedy actions of the soon-to-be-termed "Black Sox".  The Cincinnati Reds "won" the 1919 World Series, this is technically correct.  Yet, their victory will remain tarnished in the eyes of the fans, with only the few newspaper articles covering the euphoria of the early days that can recapture the excitement of a dominant performance.  

Ryder, Jack and THE ENQUIRER SPECIAL DISPATCH TO. "Reds End Series with Slaughter of Sox Pitchers, Winning Baseball Five Games to Three."  Cincinnati Enquirer (1872-1922), October 10, 1919. 1. https://search-proquest-com.research.cincinnatilibrary.org/docview/865917229?accountid=39387 

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[1] Ryder, Jack and THE ENQUIRER SPECIAL DISPATCH TO. "Reds End Series with Slaughter of Sox Pitchers, Winning Baseball Five Games to Three." Cincinnati Enquirer (1872-1922), October 10, 1919. 1.

[2] Ibid, 1.