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Anticipating a poor season at the gate, major league owners decided to open a reduced one-hundred forty game season. Despite the lack of close races, attendance remained high all year and every club managed to show a profit at the end of the year.
The 1919 World Series ignited the infamous "Black Sox" scandal after eight members of the participating White Sox including pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude (Lefty) Williams, outfielders Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver and reserve infielder Fred McMullin were all charged with conspiring to fix the outcome of the Fall Classic against the Cincinnati Reds. Cynics were tipped off before the Series even started when the pre-game betting odds swapped shortly before the first game. Despite the rumors, most fans and members of the press accepted the games to be true, but all that would change in 1920 as suspicions turned into confessions. To this day participants in the conspiracy have been denied entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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