• Eight Myths Out: Check out the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee’s online project debunking the most common misconceptions about the 1919 World Series fix.
• SABR Black Sox Scandal Centennial Symposium: Listen to highlights from our special SABR symposium to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Black Sox Scandal at SABR.org.
• 2019 Year in Review: Click here for highlights, stories, and clips from our centennial coverage of the Black Sox Scandal in 2019.

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If you read Eight Men Out any time in the last 50 years or watched the Hollywood film based on that book, you may be surprised to learn:

The Black Sox Scandal is a cold case, not a closed case.

I’ve been researching the story of “baseball’s darkest hour” for more than half of my life. And in that time, we’ve learned a lot more about the fixing of the 1919 World Series and its aftermath. A lot of new information has been uncovered in recent years that is changing our understanding of the Black Sox story. All of these new pieces to the puzzle have provided definitive answers to some old mysteries and raised other questions in their place.

It’s a story that continues to fascinate baseball fans, writers, and researchers all over the world. And the Black Sox Scandal continues to be a relevant part of the sports world in the 21st century. In 2015, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred rejected the longstanding efforts to clear the names of Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver.

That same year, the Society for American Baseball Research published a collaborative book I edited, Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox, which included full-life biographies of everyone associated with baseball’s most infamous team. (Click here to read the introductory chapter from our book.)

If you’re interested in learning more about the Black Sox Scandal, I encourage you to join our SABR research committee dedicated to the subject and read our biannual newsletters. With the centennial anniversary of the 1919 World Series, we’re learning more about this fascinating story all the time. Check out some of my articles below to dig in!

Below, watch my interview about Scandal on the South Side on Arizona PBS:

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A sampling of my Black Sox-related research:

Eight Myths Out: Check out the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee’s online project debunking the most common misconceptions about the 1919 World Series fix.

SABR Century: 1921 Black Sox Trial: American culture still reverberates with the ruling made in August 1921 by the newly hired commissioner of baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banning eight disgraced Black Sox players for life after they were caught fixing the 1919 World Series. Landis’s actions — which continue to play out in popular culture through films such as Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams — helped establish his authority in a new role and changed the landscape of baseball’s power structure forever. (SABR.org)

The Black Sox Scandal: A Cold Case, Not A Closed Case: A summary of the new information that has come to light in recent years about the Black Sox Scandal. (The National Pastime Museum)

1919 American League salaries: It’s often reported that the 1919 White Sox threw the World Series because they were dissatisfied with their low salaries. We now have accurate salary information that challenges the idea. (Scandal on the South Side)

No ‘Solid Front of Silence’: The Forgotten Black Sox Scandal Interviews: Debunking a longstanding myth that the 1919 World Series participants refused to talk about the scandal because of shame or fear from gamblers. Click here for the full list of interviews via Google Docs. (SABR Baseball Research Journal)

Closing the Door on Black Sox Reinstatement: After a century of efforts to clear the names of Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver, MLB may have finally closed the door — for good. (The National Pastime Museum)

Rare footage of 1919 World Series discovered in Canadian archive: An unlikely discovery in the Yukon leads to an invaluable newsreel film on YouTube. (SABR.org)

SABR BioProject: Lefty Williams: The life story of the White Sox’s left-handed ace in 1919, from his childhood in Missouri through his checkered major-league career, and beyond. (SABR.org)

SABR BioProject: Fred McMullin: The life story of the Eighth Man Out, the utility infielder whose role in the Black Sox Scandal may have been much more significant than anyone realized. (SABR.org)

SABR BioProject: John Sullivan: This talented left-handed pitcher only played four games for the White Sox in 1919 before a heart condition forced him out of the major leagues, but he later became known as the Strikeout King of Chicago. (SABR.org)

Call the Game! The 1917 Fenway Park Gamblers Riot: The most farcical game-fixing incident of the Deadball Era shows just how entrenched gambling was in baseball culture during the early 20th century — and nearly made heroes out of the future Black Sox. (Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game)

The Whitewashing of Hal Chase: Baseball officials looked the other way for years as the game’s “black prince” made a career of bribing his teammates and opponents alike. (The National Pastime Museum)

Gambling in the Deadball Era: Part one of a three-part series looking at gambling’s influence on baseball in the years just prior to the Black Sox Scandal. (The National Pastime Museum)

The Culmination of Corruption: The Black Sox and the Deadball Era: The unsavory stench of corruption remained a constant presence in baseball during the Deadball Era, bubbling under the surface year after year until it finally boiled over with the fixing of the 1919 World Series. The Black Sox Scandal launched a crisis of confidence within the sport that ultimately defined this period and changed the game forever. (SABR Deadball Era newsletter)

Walking Off To The World Series: In September 1919, Shoeless Joe Jackson stepped to the plate with a chance to make history — and clinch the American League pennant for the White Sox. (The National Pastime Museum)

The 1919 White Sox’s Pitching Depth Dilemma: Even if the White Sox’s star pitchers, Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams, had been at their best, they might have struggled to beat the Cincinnati Reds in an expanded best-of-nine World Series. An injured Red Faber, hero of the 1917 fall classic, might have turned the tide. (Scandal on the South Side)

The Black Sox: After the Fall: Following their banishment from the major leagues, the Eight Men Out fanned out across the country and made a living the only way they knew how: by playing baseball. (The National Pastime Museum)

Bringing Home the Bacon: How the Black Sox Got Back Into Baseball: The story of a 1921 Illinois town-team game involving banished Black Sox players Eddie Cicotte, Swede Risberg, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. (Journal of Illinois History; reprinted in The National Pastime magazine)

Losing teeth, losing games: Eddie Cicotte and Swede Risberg fight on 1922 Black Sox tour: One year after they were banned from Organized Baseball, five Black Sox players embarked on a baseball tour of the Midwest in 1922. It did not end well. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

Birds of a feather: Darby Rathman and the Black Sox baseball ban: At 24 years old, Darby Rathman played on a traveling team organized by Eddie Cicotte and Swede Risberg in 1922. Later in life, he claimed he had been barred from playing professional baseball by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis because of his association with the Black Sox. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

Branded by the Black Sox: Ed Brandt’s unlikely rise to the big leagues: For a few years, Ed Brandt was one of baseball’s best left-handed pitchers, winning 68 games between 1931 and 1934 with the Boston Braves. A decade earlier, Brandt’s major-league career was nearly derailed before it began — after he found himself on the same field as Chick Gandil in an “outlaw” game in Oregon. As a result, he was suspended from Organized Baseball for one season and barred from playing in the Pacific Coast League when he was 21 years old, the only future major-leaguer known to be punished because of his association with the Black Sox. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

An Opening Day Ovation for a Black Sox Exile: In 1938, exiled Black Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte was invited by the Detroit Tigers to participate in Opening Day ceremonies at Briggs Stadium. It’s the only known instance of a Black Sox player standing on a major-league field during an official baseball function. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

Dickey Kerr: The Man Who Made ‘The Man’: The “honest” hero of the 1919 World Series shaped the career of a young future Hall of Famer: Stan Musial. (The National Pastime Museum)

A Rose by Another Name: Ray Fisher’s Ban From Baseball: The story of a Cincinnati Reds player who was permanently expelled from baseball decades before Pete Rose. (The National Pastime Museum)

Shoeless Joe and the ‘Lost’ Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame: The story of Shoeless Joe Jackson’s 1951 induction in the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame, the major leagues’ first team museum, at Municipal Stadium. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

The enduring myth of the ‘stolen’ Black Sox confessions: In 2013, the Lelands.com auction house offered a $1 million reward to anyone who could produce “signed confessions” from Eddie Cicotte, Shoeless Joe Jackson, or Lefty Williams. But those documents do not exist and they never have. (The National Pastime Museum)

Awaiting Trial: The Black Sox at White City Amusement Park: In the months leading up to their criminal trial in the summer of 1921, the eight Black Sox players faced a more tedious dilemma than the prospect of a prison sentence. Before they could face conspiracy charges in a Cook County courtroom, they suddenly found themselves out of work. So they went looking for a game — and found one at a popular South Side amusement park. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

Diamond Joe and the Black Sox jury celebration: After the Black Sox were acquitted on August 2, 1921, the players, their attorneys, and members of the jury celebrated the verdict with a late-night party at an Italian restaurant on the west side of Chicago. Where did this wild party take place? (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

The Boxer, The Ballplayer, and the Great Black Sox Manhunt: The legal case to indict the Black Sox players for conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series hinged on the cooperation of two small-time gamblers and former major-league players, Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy Maharg. But first, prosecutors had to find them both. (The National Pastime Museum)

Helen Cook Weaver, A Star on the Vaudeville Stage: Helen Cook and Buck Weaver were married for more than four decades. Before he reached the major leagues, she was already a star on the vaudeville circuit with her singing siblings, the Cook Sisters. Her story is told here for the first time. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

Lyria Williams, Wife of a Baseball Exile: Decades after her Mormon pioneer ancestors moved west in search of a better life, Lyria Williams struck out on her own, too. When Lefty Williams’s baseball career ended in disgrace, Lyria’s independent spirit and resourceful nature carried her husband through his lowest moments. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

The Black Sox and the ‘Dirty Laundry’ Theory: One of the lingering questions about the 1919 World Series scandal is how exactly the name “Black Sox” came to be associated with the Chicago White Sox. The shameful name became prominent only after the scandal was publicized in the fall of 1920. But rumors persist that the Black Sox name was bestowed a few years earlier, because of the team’s reputation for wearing dirty uniforms on the field. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

In the Middle (Name) of a Joe Jackson Mystery: A fellow SABR member has discovered evidence that Shoeless Joe Jackson’s given name at birth may not be “Jefferson” after all. It may be Walker … or Wofford … or, well, nobody’s too sure because the Jackson family Bible, which may have cleared up this birth name mystery, was lost in a fire many years ago. Here’s what we do know. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

Brush With Greatness: Football Pioneer Kenny Washington and Baseball Outcast Bill McMullin: In the 1930s, two teenagers with famous baseball fathers were teammates on an integrated high school baseball team in Los Angeles. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

A Comeback for the Ages: The 1912 White Sox: Before the 2004 Boston Red Sox rallied from a three-games-to-none deficit in a postseason series, the Chicago White Sox did it first, thanks to Ed Walsh and Buck Weaver. (The National Pastime Museum)

Eight Men In — the same box score: All eight Black Sox players appeared in the same box score on just two occasions in the major leagues. (SABR Black Sox newsletter – PDF)

Swede Risberg: More educated than you think: Article revealing Swede Risberg’s time at Hancock Grammar School in San Francisco. (SABR Black Sox newsletter – PDF)

Bill Burns: Running for the border: Article on the final years of Sleepy Bill Burns, former major league pitcher and one of the gamblers in the Black Sox Scandal. (SABR Black Sox newsletter – PDF)

The Man Who Replaced Shoeless Joe: A brief profile of Bibb Falk, who stepped in to fill Shoeless Joe’s, uhh, shoes as the Chicago White Sox left fielder in 1921 and hit .314 over 12 seasons in the big leagues. He then coached the University of Texas baseball team to two College World Series championships and 20 Southwest Conference titles. Also includes a 1988 oral history interview by Tom Willman. (SABR Black Sox newsletter – PDF)

Black Sox’s historic success in late innings: Article on the 1919-20 White Sox’s record-setting performance in games that were decided after the seventh inning. (SABR Black Sox newsletter – PDF)

By Any Other Name: Black Sox Teams in Baseball History: Before and after the fixing of the 1919 World Series, many other amateur, semipro, and professional teams used the same name. None of those teams had any connection with the Chicago scandal, let alone the disgraced players who were banned from the game. Here are some of their stories. (SABR Black Sox newsletter – PDF)

Judge Landis and the Forgotten Chicago Baseball Bombings: A previously unknown story about labor unrest in 1923 that affected Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park. (The National Pastime Museum)

Meghan Markle, the Royal Wedding, and the Black Sox: The Royal Wedding between Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle in 2018 had a baseball connection: Markle’s great-great uncle was a Negro Leagues outfielder named Bill “Happy” Evans, who played at least nine games against the banished Black Sox players during the 1920s while with the Gilkerson Union Giants. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)

A Mexican Standoff — Black Sox Style: One week after the 1919 World Series ended, William Jenkins — the older brother of White Sox catcher Joe Jenkins — was kidnapped by Zapatista rebels in Mexico. He was later accused by the Mexican president of staging his own kidnapping, setting off an international incident between the United States and Mexico. (SABR Black Sox newsletter)