1919 Major League Baseball season 1919 Major League Baseball season The 1919 Major League Baseball season, is best remembered for the Black Sox Scandal, in which the Chicago White Sox threw (purposely lost) the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, 5–3, in order to illegally gain money from gambling. This scandal resulted in commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banning eight players from baseball for life. The season began on April 19, 1919, when the Brooklyn Robins defeated the Boston Braves 5–2 at Braves Field in the first game of a double header. The regular season ended on September 29 with the New York Yankees defeating the
Babe Ruth completely out of Forbes Field. Ruth was urged to make this his last game, but he had given his word to Fuchs and played in Cincinnati and Philadelphia. The first game of the doubleheader in Philadelphia—the Braves lost both—was his final major league appearance. Ruth retired on June 2 after an argument with Fuchs. He finished 1935 with a .181 average—easily his worst as a full-time position player—and the final six of his 714 home runs. The Braves, 10–27 when Ruth left, finished 38–115, at .248 the worst winning percentage in modern National League history. Insolvent like his team, Fuchs