The Behringer-Crawford Museum in Covington has just opened a new, temporary exhibit observing (starting slightly early) the 100th anniversary of 1919 Cincinnati Reds winning the World Series. That victory has been forever marred by the revelations that their opponents, the Chicago White Sox, were accused of intentionally losing to the Reds in exchange for a payoff from a gambling syndicate. The resultant “Black Sox” scandal rocked Major League baseball and led to the appointment of baseball’s first commissioner.
The exhibit, loaned by a private collector, includes authenticated player postcards of the full 1919 Reds team from when they won the National League pennant, plus autographs, World Series souvenir programs, scorecards, newspapers and more, according the museum’s press release One section of the exhibit addresses the controversy surrounding the “Black Sox” episode, which led to the expulsion of eight White Sox players.
The “Black Sox” scandal was the basis for the1988 feature film, Eight Men Out, which was partially shot in Cincinnati by director John Sayles and is credited with spurring both the establishment of Cincinnati as an evocative location for filmmakers and the revival of Over-the-Rhine.
The exhibit, which is included with museum admission, will be on display through the opening day of the 2019 baseball season. The museum is located in Devou Park, 1600 Montague Rd., Covington. For more information, call (859) 491-4003 or visit bcmuseum.org.
This article appears in Aug 8-15, 2018.