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In 1919, Arnold "Chick" Gandil came up with the idea to throw the World Series against the Reds.  He was connected with Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, a proffesional gambler, Arnold Rothstein, a New York gangster that supplied the money to the players through Abe Attell, a former featherweight boxing champion.
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Gandil started meetings with players that banded together through their mutual dislike towards owner Charles Comiskey.  Comiskey payed players a very low salary, but they had to take it, or not play at all.


The group of players that attended the meetings also disliked starting pitcher Red Faber.  Originally, Eddie Cicotte, Claude"Lefty" Williams, Oscar "Happy Felsch, and Charles "Swede" Risberg attended the meetings.  Apart from the mutual resentment of Comiskey and Faber, Eddie Cicotte had his own reason for wanting to throw the series.  His contract had promised him a bonus of $10,000 if he won 30 games, but he was "rested" after he won his 29th game.​​ George "Buck" Weaver also attended the meetings, but he decided not to take part.  Therefore, he did not receive any payment.  Fred McMullin also got word of the plan and threatened to go to authority if he didn't get any money, so he was included.  Somehow gamblers heard about the plan as well, so they bet on the Reds to win.  However, many didn't believe that the White Sox could actually pull it off.  In fact, a poem was published in the Philadelphia Bulletin on the day of Game One, October 2nd:



Still, it doesn't really matter,

After all, who wins the flag.

Good clean sport is what we're after,

And we aim to make our brag

To each near or distant nation

Whereon shines the sporting sun

That of all our games gymnastic

Base ball is the cleanest one!



The players involved were unsure themselves if theycould succeed, because Red Faber was supposed to be the starting pitcher for Game One.  However, he got the flu and was unable to start, therefore giving his position to Eddie Cicotte. On the second pitch of the series, Cicotte beaned the Reds' first batter, Morrie Rath in the back, signaling the White Sox's willingness to throw the series.  The White Sox ended up losing the series, having won only three games to the Reds' five.



The White Sox continued playing into the 1920 season, with rumors circulating them.  On September 28, 1920, Eddie Cicotte and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson confessed that they participated in the plan to the Chicago grand jury.  After they confessed, Comiskey suspended them and their five teammates that were involved with the scheme (Chick Gandil was no longer in the major leagues).  Losing eight of their players caused the White Sox to lose the American League pennant to the St. Louis Browns.



Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed as the Commissioner of Baseball before the start of the 1921 season.  He took it upon himself to ban all eight players accused for fixing the series from playing major or minor league baseball, placing them on an "ineligible list."



After being banned, Risberg and a few of the other Black Sox players tried to start a baseball team.  They were stopped after Landis let them know that anyone who played on their team or against their team would also be banned from baseball for life.  They then tried to have a game every Sunday in Chicago, but the Chicago City Council threatened to put any ballpark that hosted them out of business.

The Throwing of the 1919 World Series