Eight Men Out - 1988 (1 Viewer)

BLReed

Sergeant Major
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
Messages
1,676
On today and again on the 12th, MGMHD Channel. I guess major league sports has a history of corruption
going back a few years. Money was the name of the game even back then.

"Eight Men Out" recounts the story of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which gamblers paid several players on the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

The 1919 World Series matched the American League champion Chicago White Sox against the National League champion Cincinnati Reds. Although most World Series have been of the best-of-seven format, the 1919 World Series was a best-of-nine series (along with 1903, 1920, and 1921). Baseball decided to try the best-of-nine format partly to increase popularity of the sport and partly to generate more revenue.

The events of the series are often associated with the Black Sox Scandal, when several members of the Chicago franchise conspired with gamblers to throw (i.e., intentionally lose) the World Series games. The 1919 World Series was the last World Series to take place without a Commissioner of Baseball in place. In 1920, the various franchise owners installed Kenesaw Mountain Landis as the first "Commissioner of Baseball."

In 1921, eight players from the White Sox, including superstars Shoeless Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte, were banned from organized baseball for fixing the series (or having knowledge about the fix).




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Men_Out

 
Always liked this movie. Good cast. -- Al

Yes, good cast. I always like D.B. Sweeney. Some trivia:

D.B. Sweeney had played minor league baseball with the Kenosha Twins before a knee injury from a motorcycle accident ended his career. He took up acting just to kill time, but he was soon appearing on Broadway and then in movies, including starring opposite Sheen in 1987's crime thriller "No Man's Land."

Sweeney prepared for his role as "Shoeless Joe" Jackson by going out on the road with a minor league team, at his own expense. "I lost money on that movie," Sweeney told the Allentown, Pa. Morning Call. "I got paid union scale for 10 weeks of work and I spent seven months paying my expenses on the road."

Right-handed Sweeney had to learn to bat left-handed, the way Jackson did. Sweeney has said the filmmakers had considered doing what Gary Cooper did as Lou Gehrig in "Pride of the Yankees" -- have him wear a mirror-image uniform, shoot him running the bases clockwise, then simply reverse the negative -- but they couldn't afford to do so.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top