Both Scandals were prompted by labor disputes.In 1919 the Black Sox players felt exploited and underpaid. It was primarily for these reasons they became easy targets by gamblers.
It was after the players strike of 1994 and the cancellation of the World Series that many baseball fans lost interest in the game. In danger of permanently losing it's fan base, baseball had to bring fans back to the ballpark. This was primarily accomplished by power hitters and homeruns, brought about by the players use of performance enhancing drugs.
Both Scandals were ignored by the baseball establishment.
Wether it was an attempt to avoid negative publicity or that baseball was in fear of losing money or perhaps a combination of both, the baseball establishment failed to respond to these crises in a timely manner.
or the first time in 85 years, the issue of integrity in professional baseball has been called into question. Dating back to the mid-1990's, the use of performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball has been widely suspected. For nearly a decade, the physiques of some of baseball's most well recognized players have grown to phenominal proportions. With greater frequency, a record number of homeruns have been hit each year causing even more speculation that the game has not been played on the level. By the late 1990's some of baseball's most coveted offensive records began to fall at an alarming rate. People began questioning how and why. Baseball fans and experts tried to explain this surge of homeruns on smaller ballparks, livlier baseballs or the watering down of quality pitching due to expansion. In the winter of 2004 however, the truth had finally been exposed.
