“Say it ain't so, Joe.” (Pellowski 5). These famous words were uttered by a heartbroken fan outside the Black Sox player's trial courtroom. To understand the deeper meaning behind these words, let's go back to the 1919 World Series of baseball. A historic Chicago White Sox team prepares to face the Cincinnati Reds in what is expected to be a lob matchup tilted towards the White Sox. They had the best player in "Shoeless" Joe Jackson playing the outfield and already had a world championship under their belt since 1917. With all these things to consider in the World Series matchup, fans knew the White Sox would easily pulled off a victory and won the championship. However, little did they know that the White Sox players were painting a bigger picture that would lead to a huge decline in the sport's popularity among players and fans. The Black Sox scandal shocked the denizens of the baseball world, changing the lives of players and tarnishing the sport's reputation. At this time in baseball history, the Chicago White Sox had the best player in the game on their team. Joe Jackson was simply known as a future Hall of Famer and the best to ever play at the time (Chadwick 35). He proved this by hitting .351 throughout the season he led the Majors, as well as hitting .356 his entire playing life, which is still one of the highest averages today (Chadwick 36). However, the White Sox were no one-man show, they also had the league's top two pitchers, Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams (Chadwick 35). By 1919, the White Sox had already made the World Series twice in a row. They had won the 1917 World Series, but lost in a heartbreaker in the 1918 World Series (Chadwick 35). It… half the document… is circumstantial evidence to show that a solution was in place (Chadwick 40). The only option was to declare the eight players not guilty of the scandal and release them back into the crowd (Chadwick 40). The reaction of the crowd in the courtroom was full of happiness and joy when the jury read that the eight White Sox players had been found not guilty due to insufficient evidence to reach a verdict (Chadwick 40). The baseball commissioner, however, did not seem to care too much about what the jury had to say about the case against the players (Chadwick 40). Even though the players were found innocent, the commissioner still handed out lifetime bans to all players involved in the Black Sox scandal, including Joe Jackson (Chadwick 40). Even today, players are kept out of the Hall of Fame due to suspensions and scandal.