Knuckles Cicotte, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Lefty Williams, Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Fred McMullin, Buck Weaver, Happy Felsch… these names are written in the annals of US sporting history. They are remembered not for the glory they created, however, but for the shame they brought upon what is sometimes called America’s national pastime: baseball.
Flick back through the pages of history about 100 years, however, and these were names that were referred to in revered terms. Grown men would have spoken of their exploits as members of the Chicago White Sox team in hushed wonder, while schoolboys would have built newspaper shrines to them on their bedroom walls. You see, before 1919, baseball was seen as something pure, something incorruptible and uniquely American. In the mouths of politicians and preachers, and…
