The Biggest Sports Scandals

“Say it ain’t so, Joe. Say it ain’t so,” a young newspaper boy pleaded with “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. The young boy wanted “Shoeless” Joe to tell him that he and the other seven White Sox really hadn’t thrown the 1919 World Series. He just couldn’t believe that one of his heroes, his idol, could be guilty of foul play during the biggest event in professional baseball.



From the 1919 “Black Sox” World Series scandal through the drug and betting scandals of present day, there have been some notable transgressions on and off the field. I wanted to focus on a handful of those that I felt were absolutely the worst of the worst. Not only were the findings shocking in some instances, but I also found a few that I had forgotten about in all the years that I’ve paid attention to sports.



1919 Chicago “Black Sox”



In 1919, the life of professional baseball almost ended because of a betting scandal surrounding the Chicago White Sox and the World Series. Eight members of the team took a bribe to throw the series as revenge against owner Charles Comiskey for his “shallow” pockets when it came to compensating his players. First baseman, Chick Gandil in cahoots with Joseph “Sport” Sullivan (a professional gambler), organized the fix and recruited seven other players to involve themselves for a $10,000 per player reward.



In September of 1920, four of the eight members confessed their guilt to the grand jury. Comiskey immediately suspended seven of the players (Gandil was already serving a suspension over a salary dispute). The case went to trial in the summer of 1921, but was dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence on August 3rd, 1921. The very next day, the new baseball commissioner, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis banned the eight players for life. This scandal would have meant the death of baseball as we know it. However, on a single positive note, it set the stage for Babe Ruth to be the “savior” of the sport.



1972 U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball



Arguably the biggest “snow” job in the history of the Olympics, the USA Men’s Basketball team had their streak of victories dating back to 1936 destroyed by a corrupt British FIBA official, who decided to put three seconds back on the clock after time had expired on the game with the US winning 50-49. With three seconds left on the clock. Doug Collins sank two free throws to give the US the lead, despite the horn blowing when Collins was in the midst of his second free throw.



The Soviets failed to score, but an official stopped the game with 0:01 showing on the game clock, claiming that the Soviets were screaming for a time out. The clock was to be reset at 0:03 but instead it displayed 0:50 when play resumed. The Soviet team once again failed to score but R. William Jones, the FIBA Secretary General from Great Britain, vehemently protested and ordered 0:03 to be put back on the clock again, declaring there was an error when the clock was restarted the first time.



Jones had absolutely no authority to intervene in game decisions but because of his reputation, the officials would not disobey him. With the three second “gift” the Soviets in bounded the ball the length of the court where a waiting Soviet player easily made a lay-up, ending the game with the USSR winning 51-50, and the US’ hopes of the gold medal dying.



1989 Pete Rose



Rose consented to a status of “permanent ineligibility from baseball” in August of 1989 (only three years after he retired) this resulting from accusations of gambling on baseball while he was playing for and managing the Reds. Some of the accusations even stated that he had bet against his own team. After years of public denial, Rose eventually confessed to betting on his team, but not against them.



As a result, of his admission, Rose was permanently banned from baseball which remains a contentious topic today because of his amazing career records. Additionally, the Baseball Hall of Fame also voted to ban those on the