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Lot # 992: October 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" Dinner Banquet Menu w/Team Photo

Starting Bid: $200.00

Bids: 18 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2024 Winter Classic",
which ran from 2/25/2024 10:00 AM to
3/16/2024 10:00 PM



Displayed is a very unusual item - a 1919 banquet menu, with a team photo of the Chicago White Sox, entitled, "Third White Sox World's Series Pilgrimage." The card stock menu also reads, "Woodland Barbs of Chicago/October 1, 1919/Hotel Havlin/Cincinnati, O." The White Sox that season had an 88-52 record and they met the home team Cincinnati Reds at Redland Field on that Oct. 1st day in the opening game of the '19 World Series. Apparently, the "pilgrimage" referred to in the menu title refers to a contingent of Chicago White Sox rooters making a trip to Cincinnati to root on their Sox. Initially, Chicago was a heavy favorite before the '19 Series, but the odds started to shift in Cincinnati's favor and rumors of a fix began to circulate. Of course, in 1920, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned eight White Sox players from baseball for life for, at the very least, their association with gamblers at which the throwing of games was discussed. But on Oct. 1, 1919, the fixing rumors were not as prevalent as later in that World Series, and at that time in baseball history, fixing rumors were also a part of many events, so perhaps the White Sox rooters at the dinner, at least some of them, remained in blissful ignorance of the impending fix. The offered menu measures 6x9". The menu items included fillets of bass and tenderloin of beef. In the approx. 2x5" Chicago White Sox photo at the top of the menu are the eight banned players: Joe Jackson, Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Williams, and Fred McMullin. Those eight players earned the 1919 White Sox the nickname of the "Black Sox" for the fixing of the Series. Also, in the team photo are some of the honest White Sox, such as Hall of Fame second baseman Eddie Collins, catcher Ray Schalk, and pitcher Dickie Kerr. The menu has a few small, light stains and two creases from the menu being folded. The offered menu serves as an excellent remembrance of the infamous 1919 World Series.

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