This book is dedicated to two Black Sox research pioneers, Gene Carney and Mike Nola, who were trailblazers in researching and documenting the events surrounding the 1919 World Series and its ensuing scandal.

Gene Carney

Gene Carney (1946-2009) was the author of a groundbreaking book, Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball’s Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded, and the founder of SABR’s Black Sox Scandal Research Committee. In 2003, as Dr. David Fletcher was starting his Clear Buck campaign with members of Buck Weaver’s family in Chicago, Carney was writing regular dispatches on the scandal in his influential online newsletter, “Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown,” from his home in Utica, New York. Gene was ready to go down the rabbit hole to explore every possible lead regarding the Black Sox Scandal and harnessed the power of the Internet to facilitate his research. Over the next few years, Gene and David exchanged more than 1,000 messages and came together in Milwaukee in 2003 to review the trial transcript at the office of attorney Thomas G. Cannon. Gene’s generous spirit and his diligence to find the answers to long-standing questions about baseball’s darkest days continues to inspire members of the SABR Black Sox committee, now led by Jacob Pomrenke.

Mike Nola

Mike Nola of Tallahassee, Florida, has spent the past four decades working to get the Black Sox story out to the public, primarily through his groundbreaking website dedicated to Joe Jackson, blackbetsy.com. He serves as the official historian for the Shoeless Joe Jackson Virtual Hall of Fame and has served on the Board of Directors for the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum in Greenville, South Carolina. Mike’s interest in Joe Jackson began in 1983. A few years later, he created a free screensaver that educated folks to Jackson’s story, with photos and facts about Jackson’s life and baseball career. He first launched blackbetsy.com in February 1995 and continues to maintain it today. He has been interviewed on MLB Network, ESPN, and many other programs about Shoeless Joe Jackson. In 2010, he joined a panel discussion about Shoeless Joe Jackson at SABR’s 40th annual convention in Atlanta, along with Pomrenke, sports writer Furman Bisher, author David Fleitz, and attorneys Daniel Voelker and Paul Duffy.