Rare Footage of Scandal-Hit World Series Found —in Permafrost

Footage of one of the most shameful episodes in baseball history has been found in one of the last places you'd look for anything—under a disused ice rink in the Yukon. The newsreel film of the infamously fixed 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds was spotted by a documentary maker going through film reels discovered by a work crew at the Dawson City site years ago, the CBC reports. The rare footage of the series known for the "Black Sox" betting scandal was preserved in the permafrost for decades.

'It is a treasure trove,'' a baseball historian tells the Cincinnati Enquirer, which has a detailed breakdown of the four-and-half minutes of footage. ''There is so little footage of that 1919 World Series, this is a huge addition to it. And the quality of it is very, very good," he says. "There are good shots of the Cincinnati crowd watching the game, waving scorecards, cheering, jumping up and down. It's very similar to going to the ballpark today. Some things have changed, but not nearly as much as you might think." (More Black Sox Scandal stories.)