Lot # 2192: Rare 1919 Chicago White Sox (vs. Cincinnati Reds) World Series Game 8 Program - "Black Sox" Scandal

Rare and historically significant program from Game 8 of the infamous 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, held at Comiskey Park in Chicago on October 9. This is one of the great rarities of all World Series programs and is much scarcer than the 1919 World Series program issued in Cincinnati. While the Reds produced a lavish, large-format, 50-page commemorative program for this series, Charles Comiskey, true to his penurious ways, simply used the club's standard regular-season program (featuring a portrait photo of himself on the cover). The only way this program differs from its regular-season counterpart is that the interior scorecards feature the preprinted lineups for both the Reds and White Sox. The interior scorecards (there is a small tear on the Reds lineup page) have been neatly scored in pencil for Game 8 (the 1919 World Series was a best out of nine contest), which was the final game of the Series. Included in the lineup for Chicago are six of the eight conspirators who were later banned from baseball: Weaver, Jackson, Felsch, Gandil, Risberg, and Williams (his name is written in pencil in the pitcher's spot). The Reds won Game 8 by a score of 10-5 and rumor has it that White Sox starting pitcher Lefty Williams, who was knocked out in the first inning after giving up four runs, had been told by certain interested parties that neither he nor his wife would live past the night should the Reds win the game. This is just the fourth 1919 Chicago World Series program we have offered in the past 22 years. One of the added highlights of this 20-page program is an interior Hillerich & Bradsby advertisement featuring full-length photos of both Joe Jackson and Eddie Collins in endorsement of Louisville Slugger bats. This program is many times rarer than the 1919 Reds World Series program (which is also featured in this auction) and is highly prized by both World Series program and 1919 "Black Sox" scandal collectors today. The program (6 x 9 inches), which has been professionally bound in blue cloth-covered boards with the title and year stamped on both the cover and spine, displays a vertical fold line, light creasing, a corner chip, and staining to the front and back covers. In apparent Fair condition.