John Cusack and D.B. Sweeney in Eight Men Out.

In "The Great Gatsby", F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "I remembered, of course, that the World’s Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I thought of it at all I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people – with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe." Eight Men Out tells the story of exactly how that happened. It's not the most entertaining of movies, but  anyone interested in baseball, especially the history of baseball, will find it fascinating.

In 1919, the Chicago White Sox were the best team in baseball. They were also owned by Charles Comiskey, a major tightwad who drastically underpaid his players.  Their bonus for winning the pennant that year was a crate of flat champagne. When aging pitcher Eddie Cicotte was promised a $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games, he was benched when he reached 29 wins. Even given all that, it still doesn't excuse the player's actions, but it does at least make it understandable.

It was Chick Gandil, the Sox first baseman, who was the player's connection to the gamblers, who in turn were bankrolled by mob figure, Arnold Rothstein. Gandil roped in 5 other players, including the two top pitchers on the team. Another player overhears of the deal and demands to be cut in, even though he likely won't play. The eighth player, Buck Weaver, refuses to participate, but he also keeps what he knows a secret.

The games of the world series are filmed entertainingly. These players are no actors and their antics on the field are far too blatant and obvious not to be noticed. Their poor play and rumors of large bets being placed on the Reds combine to cause suspicion among members of the press. Buck and the other players, who don't know for sure about the fix, are also aroused and angry about the lackadaisical play by their teammates.

Shoeless Joe Jackson was probably the team's most famous player, both because he was the team's best hitter and because of the movie Field of Dreams. His participation in the scandal has been disputed in real life, but here in the movie he's shown to be more ignorant and naive than anything else.  You're never really sure how much he knows what's going on around him.

It is Buck who is shown as the most sympathetic of the players. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place. He doesn't participate in throwing the game, but he doesn't want to rat out his players either. All he wants to do is play baseball. His is the most human angle of the entire movie and the most personal. The rest of the movie plays out more like a newspaper story. We learn all the details of what happened, but we're never really drawn in or emotionally invested.  There's very little sentiment involved in the story.

Some baseball movies are universally themed, often using the sport as a metaphor for life. Eight Men Out is much more literal. It still demonstrates a love of the game, especially through Buck, but it's historical rather than metaphorical. It's difficult to see how non fans of the game would find much to enjoy, but for baseball fans, this is at least of historical interest.

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