In 1921, Judge Friend was assigned the Chicago "Black Sox" case; eight ex-White Sox players had been suspended from baseball after being indicted for throwing the 1919 World Series, along with several gamblers and go-betweens. The case had been marked by theft of the incriminating statements made by some of the players to the grand jury. At the conclusion of the evidence, Judge Friend said of the cases against two of the players, Buck Weaver and Happy Felsch, that they were so weak that he doubted if he could let the convictions stand. He was not called upon to do so; all of the defendants were acquitted amid scenes of jubilation, observed by a smiling Judge Friend. The following day, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis issued a statement stating that no player who had agreed to throw a baseball game, or sat in on meetings to that end, would ever play professional baseball thereafter.