After the 1919 season, Boston owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees for $100,000 and a $300,000 mortgage on Fenway park... and the rest is history, Ruth almost single handily brought on baseball's era of the slugger in the 1920's and was a major part of a New York Yankee dynasty.

Babe Ruth

Who knows what would have happened if circumstances hadn't necessitated sticking Ruth in the outfield that fateful summer, he might have remained just what he was... one of the best pitchers in the American League.

The era ended with the game's biggest disgrace... the Black Sox Scandal. In 1919 the Chicago White Sox were the hottest thing in baseball. They won the American League pennant that year with a 88-52 record and were 5-1 favorites to beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.

But even before the Series began there were rumors swirling about that a "fix" was on. And when Cincinnati took the best of nine series - 5 games to 3, it didn't sit well with a lot of baseball fans. One year later a Chicago Grand Jury blew the whole thing wide open naming eight Chicago players as having conspired with gamblers to throw the series.

1919 Chicago White Sox

As it turned out, Chicago's poorly paid players (Owner Charles Commiskey was one of the stingiest men in baseball) were easy pickings for the gamblers who had offered the eight teammates $100,000 (but were actually only paid $10,000) to loose the series.

The most famous conspirator was outfielder "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, an illiterate farm boy from South Carolina, whose lifetime batting average of .356 and outstanding running and fielding abilities would have eventually put him in the Hall of Fame, if it hadn't been for this tragedy.

Shoeless Joe Jackson

Rocked by the scandal, Major League Baseball appointed it's first commissioner, a stern, no nonsense federal judge by the name of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, to try and restore the game's reputation for integrity.

Judge Landis

Landis ruled baseball with an iron fist, and even though the eight players were acquitted in a conspiracy trial (after some of the transcripts of their testimony mysteriously disappeared from court files) Landis nevertheless banned them all from baseball for life.