Swede Risberg on Baseball 50 Years After the 1919 World Series
The MLB outcast still had strong opinions on the game decades after he was banished from the big leagues
Charles “Swede” Risberg was an up and coming shortstop with the Chicago White Sox when he was one of eight players found to have conspired with gamblers to intentionally throw the 1919 World Series. Forever known as one of the infamous Black Sox, he was banned from professional baseball at the age of 25 but remained a well-known figure in the game, with a reputation of talking, even years after his banishment. In 1970, leading up to that year’s World Series, he agreed to provide some guest commentary for his local paper about the impending action and wound up also delving a bit into his career and life.
Risberg agreed to talk about the 1970 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds for his hometown Red Bluff Tehama County Daily News when he was about to turn 76. His initial thoughts appeared in an October 9, 1970 article.
In a four-year big-league career (1917–1920) with the White Sox, Risberg hit a combined .243 with six home runs and 173 RBIs. he wasn’t a big hitter but had a good glove and saw his production rise with each passing year.
