No scandal in modern sports had more of a historical impact than the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. The affair began with the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Gambling and gamblers had always been present in baseball but until 1919 any talk of game fixing was usually brushed aside and forgotten. But when gamblers took it upon themselves to fix the biggest sporting event of the year – the World Series – something drastic needed to be done. After a lengthy and very convoluted investigation eight members of the Chicago White Sox wire accused and indicted for throwing the World Series. Though acquitted in the 1920 trial thanks to “lost” confessions and evidence baseball’s new commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis decided to ban all eight players for the good of the game. Throughout the years the eight players tried to get themselves reinstated but Landis did not budge and the men became known as the "Black Sox." As baseball was all they knew how to do most of the "Eight Men Out" played on semi-pro and outlaw teams unaffiliated with professional baseball. Shoeless Joe Jackson the most successful of the banned players traded in his Cooperstown-bound career for a decade-worth of playing under assumed names for obscure teams throughout the south. This unique photograph pairing illustrates the beginning and end of the Black Sox scandal.

The first piece in this collection is a snapshot of two of the main instigators of the fix Gandill and Risberg captured in the same frame with the man who would ban them forever – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. The photo has been cropped to 5.5” by 6” and is stamped on the reverse “1920” with “International News Service” written in blue pen.

The second piece in this group represents the tragic aftermath of the Black Sox fix trial and banishment. The 6” by 8” PSA/DNA Type I certified wire photo captures a 45-year-old Joe Jackson at bat in a 1932 semi-pro textile league game in his native South Carolina. Jackson looks many years older than his age 45 and has gained considerable weight during his forced retirement his once beautiful swing now a lumbering chop. The photo has a tag attached describing the circumstance of the shot and is dated “8/6/32.” The back has many archive stamps including “ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO” as well as handwritten notations added throughout the decades. A historically important pair of wire photos that visually document the Black Sox scandal and its aftermath.

Full LOA from PSA/DNA (Type I) for 1932 photo.