In 1919, American headlines proclaimed the fix and cover-up of the World Series as “the most gigantic wearing swindle in the annals of America.” Within this painstaking review, Eliot Asinof offers reconstructed the complete scene-by-scene story of the scandal, where eight Chicago Light Sox players organized using the nation’s leading gamblers to toss the series to Cincinnati. Asinof vividly details the tense conferences, the hitches in the conniving, the real plays where the Series was tossed, the Grand Jury indictment, as well as the well-known 1921 trial. Shifting behind the scenes, he perceptively examines the backgrounds and motives of the players and the circumstances that produced the improbable fix all too feasible. Far more than a superbly told baseball tale, this compelling American episode will appeal to all those interested in American popular tradition.