Total Classics 1919

Total Classics 1919
By Jim825 & dennisjames71
 

With the end of World War I in 1919, both baseball and the nation as a whole returned to business as usual.  For some ballplayers during the 1919 baseball season, "business as usual" unfortunately meant plotting with gamblers to fix games.  Gambling-related scandals had been a part of baseball going back to the mid-19th century, but in 1919 the national pastime suffered the ultimate corruption: the intentional throwing of the 1919 World Series by eight members of the Chicago White Sox.

In a season limited to 140 games by a baseball establishment still worried about its patriotic image, Cincinnati compiled a 96-44 record to run away with the National League pennant by 9 games over second-place New York.  The Reds had a two-prong attack.  They had Edd Roush, Heinie Groh, Jake Daubert, and little leadoff hitter Morrie Rath; and they had a staff that allowed the fewest runs in the league and included 20-game winners Slim Sallee and Hod Eller, as well as Dutch Ruether, who recorded the third-lowest ERA in the league at 1.81.

In the American League race, an illusory powerhouse in Chicago had an unexpectedly difficult time shaking Cleveland and New York -- or perhaps the group later responsible for the 1919 World Series fix was dumping games for money down the stretch -- before finally finishing at 88-52, 3-1/2 up on Cleveland.  The White Sox offense was powered by the .351-hitting Joe Jackson, Eddie Collins and Happy Felsch. Their pitching staff allowed the second-fewest runs in the league thanks to 29-game winner Eddie Cicotte and 23-game winner Lefty Williams.

The Reds won the crooked best-of-nine 1919 World Series five games to three.  The most dramatic moments -- seen in retrospect, as the scandal didn't break until the following year -- came in games three and six, when pitcher Dickie Kerr overcame the best efforts of his eight dishonest teammates to win 3-0 and 5-4.

The best-known player in on the fix, Jackson, always maintained afterward that he was innocent. He pointed to his 1919 World Series-high .375 batting average and six RBI, although he never explained why he accepted money from the conspirators beforehand with free knowledge of their plans.

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The Total Classics 1919 mod brings you the sights and sounds of the 1919 baseball season.  Besides rosters, portraits, uniforms and audios, the mod provides themed menu and loading screens, stadium select screens with actual stadium photos, 1919 jukebox and batter walkup music, an accurate 1919 schedule and correct 1910's era stadiums for every team.  The mod also includes OTBJoel's great Legends from the Booth audio.

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