5. Eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox baseball team were accused of conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. When the case was tried in federal court, what was the result?
From Quiz Significant Sports Law Cases
Answer:
All eight were found not guilty
Since there was no law making throwing ballgames a crime, the players were charged with conspiring to defraud the public, and conspiring to injure the business of the American League and of Sox owner Charles Comiskey. The case fell apart when Comiskey's chief financial officer testified that the Sox gate receipts were much higher in 1920 than they had been in 1919. All eight were then found not guilty by the jury after less than three hours of deliberations. Courtroom spectators let out a series of raucous cheers at the announcement of the not guilty verdicts.
However, the day after the verdicts were announced, the new baseball Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, issued a statement saying that "Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ballgame, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball." All eight players were permanently banned from baseball, a ban which remained in effect throughout the lifetimes of the eight players. The last of the eight to die was shortstop "Swede" Risberg, who died in 1975.
Quick Question
=
added recently, 
= Editor's Pick
= Gold Member