This gem from abcnews.com (a photo essay on the supposed ten worst moments in sports history) features at least two whopping errors.
The page on the 1919 Black Sox names Joe Jackson as the player who knew about the fix beforehand but refused to participate. Jackson, while batting fairly well during the Series arguably did not perform at his best, while the player who demonstrably did refuse to participate in throwing games was actually Buck Weaver.
The segment on the Marshall University football team plane crash states that Marshall is located in “Maple Grove, Virginia” about which I can only say, WTF? (Marshall is in Huntington, West Virginia).
Sheesh.
Of course, their picks for ten worst sports moments are debatable to begin with - for instance I’m not sure why the NHL lockout is worse than the baseball strike that knocked out the World Series. It would help though if they could get their basic facts straight.
I sometimes think these countdown/top 10 lists purposely stick a few “WTF” entries in various positions just to engender outrage, and hence discussion, and hence potential viewer interest to see if the next airing will finally get it right, and hence raise advertising revenues.
I think this because more than once, I have been sucked into watching some stupid “Top 10 songs of the 1990s” type of countdown on VH1 or what have you, only because I said to myself, “They put THAT song at #3? What the hell did they pick for #2? … Oh no they didn’t! WTF is #1?”
Hockey has never recovered from the lockout. Baseball and the NFL did.
The US boxing team crashed killing the boxing program in the US for quite a while. That could have been used. Happened in 1980.
Not really an error: Jackson and his supporters have long claimed that Jackson did not participate in fixing – though he knew it was going on and it’s, at best, ambiguous as to whether he went through with it.
The best narrative of the fix was an article by Chick Gandil written many years later. Gandil said, 1) they did agree to fix the game 2) they fixed some of the games, but not all, since the gamblers weren’t paying them off, and 3) they lost the World Series because they were beaten by Cincinnati. Even though the fix was in, the eventual outcome was not due to the fix, since they lost games that they did not fix.
Even under the most favorable construction, Jackson can’t be described as “refusing to participate”. He sat in on the meetings when the fix was arranged, indicated no disagreement, was believed by the ring-leaders to be participating in the fix, and accepted $5,000 in payment. Weaver, in contrast, sat in on the meetings but opted out and afterward was neither offered nor accepted any money.
Did the Tocchet gambling scandal break this year? Because the coverage of that was absolutely shameless. The New Jersey State police said outright that the ring had mafia ties(there weren’t) and the media gleefully tried to tie Wayne Gretsky to sordid mess, and came just shy of lying to do it.
If they meant it to be for U.S. sports, they should have left the 1972 Olympic Massacre off the list. If it’s supposed to be for world sports, they should have included Pierre Levegh’s crash at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans.
I agree, but Jackson’s supporters have argued he did not participate in the actual fix; that he just sat in on the meetings and took the gamblers’ money, but double crossed them and played his best. That’s what could be meant by “refusing to participate,” and since by Gandil’s account the players didn’t fix all the games, it can’t be immediately ruled out. I don’t find it convincing, but the case has been made.
Maybe this is beside the point, but the 1972 Massacre deeply affected Americans, in particular Jewish Americans. I was only 5 at the time and remember it clearly because my family’s reaction. So, while it occurred on the world stage, it had direct American impact.
There was a piece on NPR recently - within a few weeks - about how a trove a papers from a private collection were being auctioned that included some key Black Socks testimonies, etc. I don’t remember the specifics, but a passing reference was made to the fact that Shoeless Joe was definitely in on it - whether he chose to double-cross, etc., kinda isn’t the point, is it?
Fair enough, Ivory, but how about Ben Johnson getting busted for steroids? My point was that they made a token effort to look international, and did a lousy job of it.
My point was this list of worst sports events had an American focus. That is, the worst sports events that Americans would be intersted in. Most took place in America, some took place intertnationally but had impact on Americans.
So I disagree that it was a “token effort to look internationally”, but that the international ones chosen had an affect on Americans.