One For The Road: The 1921 Verdict Delivered In Black Sox Case

By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 2, 2012 10:30PM

A 1921 group portrait of baseball players (left to right) Chick Gandil, Williams, Williams, Charlie Risberg, Eddie Cicotte, George "Buck" Weaver, and Joe Jackson, of the American League's Chicago White Sox, and attorney Nash sitting in a courtroom in Chicago. Attorneys O'Brien and Max Luster and two unidentified men are standing in the background. Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum.

On this date in 1921, a Chicago jury found the eight "Black Sox" not guilty of "conspiracy to defraud the public, conspiracy to commit a confidence game, and conspiracy to injure the business of team owner Charles A. Comiskey." The Encyclopedia of Chicago writes, "The trial lasted 14 days, and on August 2, 1921, the jury found the players not guilty, clearing them of all charges. Despite their acquittal, newly appointed baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis expelled all eight players from major league baseball in an attempt to assure the American public of the purity of the game.

From an ESPN Flashback, here's what Landis had to say:

Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ballgame; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame; no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are planned and discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.