Top 25 MLB pennant races of all time

21. The Black Sox Scandal spills over, 1920

The 1919 World Series is known to most baseball fans for the Black Sox Scandal where a few players on the Chicago White Sox conspired to throw the games. There was plenty of suspicion surrounding their loss as heavy favorites, but nothing had been proven by 1920. The Sox were allowed to bring back the same team and were again considered the favorite to win another AL pennant.

The Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees — with new addition Babe Ruth smashing 54 home runs — were also involved in the race with the White Sox. Chicago had gotten off to a slow start to the season while working through their self-imposed World Series hangover. The White Sox eventually strung together a 40-20 stretch in June and July to put themselves right back in the thick of the pennant race.

Tragedy marred the final stretch of the pennant race. The Yankees and Indians were set to play a key series in New York in mid-August. Yankees ace Carl Mays hit Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the temple with an errant pitch, sending him to the hospital where he would die the next morning. Chapman is the last player to die on an MLB diamond.

The tragic loss of their shortstop sent the Indians into a brief skid and dropped behind the White Sox. Then the White Sox had a skid of their own and lost seven in a row to give the lead back to the Indians.

The Yankees eventually fell back, setting up what should have been a dramatic end of the season for the White Sox and Indians. On September 28, the charges for the scandal finally came down, and the White Sox were forced to play without eight of their best players for the final games of the year. They lost two of three, giving the Indians the pennant. Cleveland defeated the Brooklyn Robins in the World Series enduring one of the strangest pennant races in MLB history.