Portal:Baseball/Selected picture/Archive/1

June 24 to July 21, 2006

The 1919 Major League Baseball season concluded with the 1919 World Series, contested by the Chicago White Sox, pictured, of the American League and the Cincinnati Reds of the National League. Having compiled a regular season record of 88-52, the White Sox were installed as favorites to win the best-of-nine-games series by most bookmakers. Eight players, though, apparently colluded with gamblers to fix the series in exchange for money, and the White Sox lost the series in eight games. In the wake of the so-called Black Sox Scandal, team owners established the office of Commissioner of Baseball and installed federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the league's first chief executive. Landis banned the players, including outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson and starting pitcher Eddie Cicotte, from the Major Leagues for life; none of the banned players has been permitted to be a candidate for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants

MVP Alex Rodriguez awaits a pitch on September 13, 2005.