Have They Checked ebay?

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Dec 6, 2005 9:49PM

Around the time the White Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1917, rare sports newspaper chronicling the infamous "Black Sox" scandal disappeared from the University of Illinois Library.

The bound volumes of Collyer's Eye from the 1920's included articles about the 1919 White Sox scandal, where 8 players allegedly participated in a scheme to throw the Series. It was Collyer's Eye, in fact, that first broke the story just weeks after the 1919 World Series. However, the library's volume containing that issue remains safely in the library.

The loss of the issues pertaining to the Black Sox scandal are particularly troubling to those who have been researching the topic in light of a resurgance in interest about the White Sox.

Gene Carney, whose book "Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded" is expected to be published thsi spring was surprise to learn of the missing papers. "For the research value of this particular event, it's a loss," he said. Particularly since there are no other known copies of these issues in other libraries or even the Baseball Hall of Fame.

If the U of I wants to maintain a collection of White Sox World Series publications, Chicagoist guesses they'll just have to replace the missing Collyer's Eye volumes with this! Or else wait for the Collyer's Eyes to turn up on ebay...