Question

2. Which of the following sentences should introduce paragraph 2?
Throwing the series was not easy because the players had to make it look authentic.
Many people cannot understand why anyone would ever want to lose on purpose.
Even though the players threw the series, the gamblers did not pay them what they were promised.
As a result of the 1919 World Series, the White Sox would not win another World Series until 2005.

Answer 1

Say it Ain’t So, Joe

(1) In October of 1919, the Chicago White Sox were thought to be the best team in baseball. They were set to play the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The White Sox had a great pitcher, Eddie Cicotte, the best hitter in the game, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and several other great players. Everyone expected the White Sox to easily beat the Reds. So it was a big surprise when people started betting that the Reds would win. Everyone suspected that the gamblers knew something that the rest of America did not, and it turns out they did. The White Sox were planning to “throw” the series. In other words, they were planning to lose on purpose.
(2) The simple explanation for why the players chose to throw the series is for money. The gamblers stood to make plenty of money since they knew whom to bet on. They arranged to pay the players to perform poorly enough to lose. The players did not get paid nearly as well in 1919 as they do now, and the White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey, was famous for being cheap. Popular stories suggest that Comiskey once forced Eddie Cicotte to sit out games at the end of the season to keep him from earning a bonus at the end of the year. Needless to say, the White Sox felt that they deserved some extra money, and they thought that losing might be the only way to get it.
(3) Everyone knew the series was fixed, and people started calling the team “the Black Sox.” Eight players were banned for life from baseball. Arnold “Chick” Gandil and Eddie Cicotte were the main culprits, and most people agree that they deserved their punishment. However, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and George “Buck” Weaver both played terrifically during the series. Many baseball historians think that Jackson and Weaver were unfairly punished for simply refusing to tell on their teammates. Nevertheless, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis made sure that no one involved in the scandal would ever play professional baseball again.
(4) Baseball had its first commissioner, who had total authority to make decisions for baseball. Furthermore, betting on baseball became the game’s worst crime. Pete Rose, the man with the most hits in the history of baseball, was banned for life from baseball in 1989 for betting on baseball games.
(5) The most important effect of the Black Sox scandal, though, was the impact it had on the public’s view of baseball. People became doubtful of baseball and thought that all the players were crooked. If gamblers were going to decide the outcome of the game, there was no point in paying for a ticket to watch. Eventually, the fans came back to baseball. For many years, though, baseball fans were left with the scene outside the courthouse, where legend states that a heartbroken young boy approached "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and said, “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”