1919 World Series

The 1919 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the 1919 season. The 16th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League champion Chicago White Sox against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. Although most World Series have been of the best-of-seven format, the 1919 World Series was a best-of-nine series (along with 1903, 1920, and 1921). The National Baseball Commission decided to try the best-of-nine format partly to increase popularity of the sport and partly to generate more revenue.

The events of the 1919 World Series are often associated with the Black Sox Scandal, in which several members of the Chicago franchise conspired with gamblers, allegedly led by organized crime figure Arnold Rothstein, to throw the series. This led the various franchise owners to install Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first Commissioner of Baseball in 1920.

In August 1921, despite being acquitted from criminal charges, eight players from the White Sox were banned from organized baseball for either fixing the series or having knowledge about the fix without alerting the league. Dickey Kerr, another player on the team who was not involved in the scandal, was later suspended after holding out for more pay, but was eventually reinstated. The nine banned players were the first official players banned in the modern MLB era, as well as by Landis throughout his tenure as commissioner. However, the bans that were once considered permanent by the MLB (like those of the Black Sox and Dickey Kerr) officially ended on May 12, 2025 by commissioner Rob Manfred due to him ruling that people that were banned from the league would no longer represent a threat to the game of baseball upon death. The nine players that were once banned by the MLB (most notably Shoeless Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte) are now considered eligible for entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame by as early as 2027.