A Tough Call
Elementary: Grades 3–4
Story
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My older brother, Dave, laughed. He always laughed at me whenever I got really excited.
"You're right, Dan," my dad agreed, "but Joe lost his moral compass."
"What's that mean?" I asked.
"What he did was a shame," Mom said. She glanced over at me. "All those boys involved put aside what they knew was right, just for the money. That's what your father is talking about."
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"I guess you haven't read up on the Black Sox scandal yet," Dave said. I hadn't. I didn't have a clue what they were all talking about.
"It's all in the second scrapbook, Dan," Dad explained. "You'll find it all in there. But here's the long and the short of it. What would you do if you were in the World Series, and someone offered you money to intentionally lose?"
"What?" I said, stopped in my tracks. I felt like my family's eyes were all glued to me. Before I was forced to say anything more, my brother spoke up.
"The mighty White Sox threw the World Series of 1919, Danny boy. On purpose. For money."
"I haven't really looked at the other scrapbook yet," I replied, but my voice sounded small. I bit into my corn on the cob, crunching down hard.
"The Sox had it in the bag," Dave informed me now. "They would've creamed Cincinnati. But some big gamblers paid eight players to intentionally play bad and lose to the Reds."
"Including Joe Jackson," Dad added, shaking his head. "He took $5,000."
This hit me hard. "But Dave said 'Black Sox,' not White Sox," I spoke up, confused.
"An old legend says the team got nicknamed the Black Sox because Comiskey wouldn't pay for cleaning their uniforms," Dad told me. "The players had to pay out of their own pockets. So apparently they didn't splurge on laundry."
"When the press found out about the payoffs, they had a field day," Dave continued. "Calling them the 'Black Sox' took on a whole new meaning."
"Everybody says Mr. Comiskey treated those boys just terribly," Mom piped up.
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