Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series | 
|  | | | Title: | Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series | | Author: | Eliot Asinof
Stephen Jay Gould (Introduction) | | Publisher: | Holt Paperbacks | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 01 May, 2000 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0805065377 / 9780805065374 | | List Price: | $16.00 | | You Save: | $5.12 | | Amazon Price: | $10.88 | |
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Product Description
The headlines proclaimed the 1919 fix of the World Series and attempted cover-up as "the most gigantic sporting swindle in the history of America!" First published in 1963, Eight Men Out has become a timeless classic. Eliot Asinof has reconstructed the entire scene-by-scene story of the fantastic scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation's leading gamblers to throw the Series in Cincinnati. Mr. Asinof vividly describes the tense meetings, the hitches in the conniving, the actual plays in which the Series was thrown, the Grand Jury indictment, and the famous 1921 trial. Moving behind the scenes, he perceptively examines the motives and backgrounds of the players and the conditions that made the improbable fix all too possible. Here, too, is a graphic picture of the American underworld that managed the fix, the deeply shocked newspapermen who uncovered the story, and the war-exhausted nation that turned with relief and pride to the Series, only to be rocked by the scandal. Far more than a superbly told baseball story, this is a compelling slice of American history in the aftermath of World War I and at the cusp of the Roaring Twenties.
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Customer Reviews:
• An Incredible Story And Very Well Told 15 January, 2009
The "Black Sox" scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series was one of the biggest news stories of its time. The powerful Chicago White Sox were expected to swiftly trounce the mediocre Cincinnati Reds. But eight of the best players on the White Sox conspired to lose the World Series; they were to be paid for losing and gamblers would place bets on the Reds at great odds, thus making a fortune.
Rumors ran wild during the Series and at times it looked like the whole deal might fall apart. Players weren't being paid, some of them weren't really even in the loop about which games were to be thrown. The players began to buck the gamblers, only receiving minimal payments to keep the deal from going belly-up. Still, the Sox lost the series and huge profits were made by gamblers.
It took nearly a year for the scandal to truly come to light and go to trial. While a couple players may have initiated the deal, they all ended up the losers. None of them were ever paid the money they were promised by the gamblers. No one ever went to jail, but the eight players were all banned from every playing baseball again. For some, this was fair, but for a couple, they never took a "dirty dime" and never made a dishonest play. But their knowledge of the plan left them all out in the cold.
This story is incredible and the author does a fantastic job of tying everything together. While reading this, it is amazing that the deal ever actually happened. No two hands ever seemed to know what the other was doing. The story is also still relevant today, and is such a fascinating tale that even those who aren't really fans of baseball will enjoy this book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A28YBL28P03P8V
• The Scandal That Changed Baseball Forever 12 June, 2009
Major League baseball in the early part of the 20th century was played by a bunch of hard-nosed guys who literally had to fight their way through each season, snarling and clawing almost like wild animals, on and off the field. They were paid next to nothing; at the mercy of owners who were for the most part, some of the biggest tightwads on the planet.
This helps explain how the whole "Black Sox Scandal" even became a possibility. Certainly, had White Sox owner Charles Cominsky been generous enough to pay his players a fair wage, they wouldn't have been tempted by the few extra bucks those gamblers promised them.
Of course, the players somehow managed to blow the Series to the underdog Reds, even though most of the players weren't even trying to blow it. But they went down in flames, as a new Commissioner of Baseball saw to it no more of this nonsense would be tolerated. That firm stance against anything to do with gambling remains a part of the scenario to this day; just ask Pete Rose.
In the meantime, as Rose whines about his expulsion from baseball, I can't help but feel bad for Shoeless Joe Jackson, who seemed oblivious to what was going on; he only seemed to be doing his job to help his team win, not lose. In the eight games, he hit .375, scored five times, and drove in six. The following season would prove to be his last, hitting .382 with a League leading 20 triples. His career was over at the age of 33, and I'm sure he never really grasped the harsh reality on why it went down like it did; but it did, and he'll never make the Hall of Fame, even with a .356 lifetime batting average.
This is a compelling book and it's a fascinating look at the events and people that forever changed the face of baseball.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3FHSO1SKHU378
• Nice Knitting, But No Yarn 09 May, 2008
That eight members of the heavily-favored Chicago White Sox baseball team conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series in 1919 to the underdog Cincinnati Reds was somewhat in dispute -- until about 1920. After a sensational trial that year and several other investigations the general outline of "the fix" became well known, though Mr. Asinof apparently wasn't satisfied. This baseball-loving author was himself born in 1919 and obsessed enough to gather every detail -- and there's *lots* of detail here -- one would ever want to know about the scandal culled from sources still around in the early 1960s. `Eight Men Out' is the noble 1963 result, which addresses every possible *how* one could ever want about this fascinating bit of history. Too bad it suffers badly when it comes to *why*.
Simply put, Asinof doesn't tell much of a *story* -- at least in the sense of identifying the various character's motives, the fundamental conflicts, and of course how these are finally resolved. We get a smattering of the main character's backgrounds (including a great nugget of the famous gambler Arnold Rothstein pulling a knife on his adorable brother when they were children because the latter got more attention) and are informed, of course, of Sox owner Charles Comiskey's famous stinginess with player salaries but teasing out the motivation for and ultimate consequences of the fix is left largely in the reader's hands. While I can't find much fault with readers drawing their own conclusions -- and especially from a journalistic account this detailed -- `Eight Men Out' unfortunately doesn't quite stay "objective." Perhaps aware that a dry retelling of facts (many of them legal and arcane) makes for a stiff tale, Asinof drops several *hints* to keep his plot moving (e.g., sports gambling was fairly prevalent at the time, many players openly cavorted with gamblers, baseball itself had little to no policing of its players actions) and even makes a few clumsy attempts to recreate obviously apocryphal conversations. (One between Sox manager Kid Gleason and gambling shill Abe Atell is especially painful.)
This compendium of detail punctuated with a little narrative color gets the job done: I now know the undiluted who, what, where, when and how of this famous account. But given its renown and continuing resonance through the sports world I was frankly expecting much more. What were the *real* reasons the players got involved -- especially since at least one of them (third baseman Buck Weaver) clearly didn't "play soft" during the Series and several received no money at all? Was the baseball establishment justified in appointing a take-no-prisoners commissioner (ex-Federal judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis) who subsequently banned -- for life -- all the involved players from the major leagues? Did baseball itself -- with its cheapskate owners, publicity-seeking officials, and infamous "reserve clause" that created near-servitude conditions -- contribute to conditions that tempted the players?
Clearly interesting questions to ponder but Asinof doesn't even frame them terribly well, much less ask or answer them directly. As he admits in his introduction, the author had a difficult time getting the involved parties to talk about the scandal -- even several decades later. Strangely, even after a mountain of fact-gathering, he seems equally reticent to directly question this most damaging episode in American professional sports. I finished his book informed of everything and persuaded of nothing. No terrible thing, really -- but to fill out the story I'd strongly recommend John Sayles' excellent 1988 film of the same name.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AHJ5FLIDAK7QC
• "say It Ain't So, Joe. . ." 17 July, 2008
Eliot Asinof played minor league baseball briefly, but his claim to fame is this riveting account of the 1919 World Series. The heavily favored Chicago White Sox lost the best of nine series to the Cincinnati Reds in eight games. In the following season, the White Sox were engaged in another pennant race when a newspaper expose revealed that several key players had conspired with professional gamblers to throw the World Series (less well known is the fact that a few of the same Chicago players were also implicated in throwing regular season games during the 1920 American League title race).
Asinof did not have the benefit of computerized statistical data bases that are an aid to contemporary baseball historians and researchers, so there are a few mistakes and omissions in the book, but it is nonetheless an important book that remains relevant to this very day.
Film director John Sayles adapted Asinof's book and made the story into a engrossing motion picture that took great care to get the historical details correct, but the screenplay had to compress the material to accommodate the requirements of a conventional movie running time. I suggest you read the book before seeing the movie.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ASAM6EGR6JQ08
• Black-sox Classic 03 May, 2008
Originally published in 1963, rereleased in 1987 to coincide with the "Major Motion Picture" trumpeted on the cover.
The story of the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal, when eight members of the Chicago Sox team of another stripe conspired to throw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, a heavy on-paper underdog. The eight Sox were charged, tried, and acquitted, but immediately banned from organized baseball for life by new baseball commissioner Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, hired specifically for this purpose.
This story is an American tragedy; the reader is drawn to the likable yet gullible baseball players being played for fools by the gambling interests and baseball owners, both with the wherewithal and organization to act to protect their interests and sacrifice the baseball players in a sordid morality tale.
The movie is a faithful recreation of the book, taking very few liberties with the historical account.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2G3U6AM951P6D
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