Auctioned Items Could Shed Light on 'Shoeless' Joe Case

Long-lost secrets of the 1919 Black Sox scandal and the subsequent banishment of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson could come to light as thousands of rare documents that supposedly detail the "fixing" of the 1919 World Series are for sale at a Chicago auction house.

"This could be a treasure trove," baseball author Gene Carney, told the Associated Press.

It is unclear exactly how the documents, whose existence was previously unknown, ended up together or where they have been over the past eight decades.

Mastro Auctions declined to reveal the identity of the two sellers and said they most likely purchased the box without knowing exactly what was inside.

The papers, examined by the Chicago Tribune, appear to contain documents from the 1921 criminal trial against eight White Sox players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds as part of a gambling scandal.

Eight White Sox players including Jackson were acquitted, but all were permanently banned from the game by the first commissioner of baseball, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Photo by National Baseball Hall of Fame Library/MLB Photos via Getty Images.

The documents will be up for auction until Dec. 13.