Rewriting White Sox History: An Old Old Old School C.S.S. / Strat-O-Matic Simulation

The fantasy sports giant imagines the redemption of Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Chicago Sports Stuff

Jul 08, 2025

OKAY, FIRST OF ALL, before you read this article, read this book:

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

Why? Because:

Eliot Asinof was a way better writer than I ever have been or ever will be.
If you’re a Chicago Sports Stuff subscriber, you’re a Chicago sports nerd, and if you’re a Chicago sports nerd, you need to know the full story of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox.

But if you don’t have time to read said full story this morning, here’s the elevator pitch: The Pale Hose got caught up in a gambling ring and threw the World Series.

Asinof fills in the blanks in a brilliant manner, but what Asinof couldn’t do, however, is game out the 1919 World Series had it been played without the sharps calling the shots, because:

There’s no documented proof that Asinof played Strat-O-Matic.
He’s been dead for 17 years.

I, however, am very much alive, and I happen to be pals with the fine folks at Team SOM, so we put our heads together and decided to, y’know, game out the 1919 World Series had it been played the without the sharps calling the shots.

So let’s turn it over to the original fantasy sports gamers for their recreation of what could’ve and should’ve been a magical postseason for the Chicago White Sox.

(Overview and game recaps courtesy of Strat-O-Matic.)

The 1919 Black Sox Baseball Scandal Was Just One of Many

THE BLACK SOX SCANDAL surrounding the 1919 World Series lives in baseball lore. The White Sox, with “clean” stars such as Eddie Collins, Ray Schalk and Shano Collins, as well as “crooked” players Eddie Cicotte, Joe Jackson, and Chick Gandil, are popularly considered to have been huge favorites heading into the series, even though the upstart Reds won eight more games and cleared the National League field by nine games.

But what if the Series was on the up-and-up? Would Chicago fulfill that perceived dominance, or was Cincinnati underrated and might the Reds have won the best-of-nine anyway?

What better way than to have Strat-O-Matic, the market leader in sports simulations, play off the Fall Classic using the newly-released, highly researched Strat-O-Matic Deadball Era Diamond Gems card set? Assuming no loaded dice or altered result charts, Strat-O-Matic will have the final word.