1919 World Series Game 1 Chicago “Black Sox” at Cincinnati Reds Ticket Stub – PSA EX-MT 6 (Highest Graded, Pop 2)

Offered here is a ticket stub from Game 1 of the 1919 World Series, played October 1 at Redland Field in Cincinnati, the very contest widely believed to mark the first game of the Black Sox Scandal, when Eddie Cicotte’s opening pitch to Reds leadoff man Morrie Rath, a fastball that struck him squarely in the back, is said to have been the signal confirming to gamblers that the fix was in.

This Pavilion Seat rain check, priced at $2.20 with war tax included, is printed for “Cincinnati National League Base Ball Club, World’s Series 1919, Redland Field,” and identifies the matchup in the PSA label as “Reds 9, White Sox 1, Oct. 1, Reuther-Cicotte,” documenting the Reds’ lopsided victory behind Dutch Reuther over the doomed Cicotte. The ticket retains bold, legible printing, strong corners, and honest, attractive paper for its age, with a red-numbered serial reading 7750. It is housed in a PSA holder graded EX-MT 6, currently standing as the single highest grade awarded by PSA for this ticket, with only one other example reaching the same level, a population of just two at the top of the census.

Tickets from the 1919 “Black Sox” World Series are exceedingly difficult to locate in any condition, let alone one preserving the exact game in which the conspiracy is traditionally said to have begun. This stub is not merely a piece of ticket ephemera, it is a surviving witness to the opening act of the most notorious scandal in baseball history, a tangible artifact from the day the sport’s innocence began to unravel in front of a live crowd at Redland Field.