1. Baseball in the 1920’s By: Louis Mariere

2. Gambling on Sports Gambling has been apart of everyday life ever since there has been currency. Gambling upon sporting events is one of the most popular types of gambling there is. In the 1920’s, baseball was heavily infected with gambling and served as a significant problem. Baseball owners and managers made it a priority to exterminate any gambling within their ball parks.

3. World Series Scandal In the 1919 world series (White Sox vs. Reds), there was speculation about a large bet bet placed upon the world series. The bet had allegedly involved players from the White Sox who had purposefully attempted to lose the World Series to satisfy a bet. There had been a total of 8 players under specific speculation by the Major League Baseball association(MLB). All of the players under speculation had denied the accusations made upon them but investigation presumed.

4. New Commissioner After the scandal, the MLB had been searching for a new commissioner to help ban gambling upon Major League Baseball games. The investigation of this scandal was continued on throughout the rest of the year onto the year 1920. A man by the name of Kenesaw Landis had been named the new MLB commissioner on November 12, 1920. Landis’ main task as new commissioner had been to restore baseball’s reputation as a clean respectable sport. Before Landis had been the MLB commissioner, he was formerly a Federal Judge.

5. Action taken The new MLB commissioner, Kenesaw Landis took action upon this reported scandal and after much investigation on the 8 players, he found them to be guilty of intentionally losing games due to gambling. Seven of the players were actually involved with this act and the 8 th person had not been directly involved but had knowledge of the situation and took no action upon his knowledge of the situation. Landis had expelled all 8 players involved from the MLB forever.

6. Restoration Landis ruled the MLB with a firm hand which had been no surprise since he had once been a federal judge. Landis had a no-tolerance policy towards gambling within ballparks and made it so that managers during this time would strive towards getting rid of all gambling bookies. Before games, if anyone had been suspected of setting up bets upon a game, they would be immediately removed from the ballpark. Landis also put a ban upon altering the baseball with any type of product. This had put a ban upon the “spitball” and the “shineball”. These pitches were done by applying something to the ball itself, whether it be Vaseline or pine tar.

7. Records The 1920’s was an era home to many baseball legends and hall of famer’s. The great baseball players of this time include, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and Jimmie Foxx. All of these players are in the hall of fame and are known to be some of the best sluggers that the game has ever seen. All of these players hold all-time baseball records, some of which remain unbroken to this day.

8. Statistics Babe Ruth: batting average (BA).342, 714 homeruns (HR), 2,217 Runs batted in(RBI). Lou Gehrig: BA:.340, HR: 493 RBI: 1,995 Ty Cobb: BA:.367, HR: 117, RBI:1,937 Jimmie Foxx: BA:.325, HR: 534, RBI: 1,922 A high batting average in baseball is considered to be anything above.300. (pictures in order of names. )

9. Bonding Time Ever since the beginning of baseball, it has been evident that baseball serves as a bonding tool primarily between father’s and son’s. During the 1920’s, the economy was doing exceptionally well and this resulted in a time for spending and luxury. Baseball was a way that successful people would spend their money and time. A baseball game had been an event that was usually shared between Father and son that served as a time for them to bond with one another.

10. Significance Baseball had become a very popular sport in the 1920’s. During this time, many baseball parks and teams were created and built to serve the demand of baseball in urban cities. Baseball became a huge hit and everyone wanted to go and see it played professionally. It represented the growth of cities along with the automobile and helped to expand cities to larger sizes. Baseball is America’s national sport and is referred to as “America’s National Pastime.”

11. Bibliography 1. "Black Sox scandal." American History. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 23 Oct. 2008. (This site tells of the black sox scandal) 2. "Baseball," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008 © 1997-2008 Microsoft Corporation. 24 Oct. 2008 (This article gives lots of information regarding the development of baseball throughout its entire time.) 3. Holtz, Sean. 2006. 23 October 2008. (info on commissioner Kenesaw Landis) 4. "MUST STAMP OUT BASEBALL GAMBLING." New York Times 11 January 1920: 92.(newspaper article about the white sox scandal, players, search for new commissioner)