|
|
31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
National Pastime as Greek Tragedy, July 30, 2004
From the first paragraph to the last sentence of this gripping book, Asinof grabs your interest and doesn't let go. The story he is telling is fascinating - a tale of talented but clueless ballplayers, manipulating gamblers, money-hungry owners, and corrupt politicians, all coming together to create the greatest scandal the world of baseball has known. He tells it with clear, clean prose that keeps the story moving through every detail to its tragic conclusion.
The eight disgraced ballplayers who threw the 1919 World Series have been dubbed the Black Sox for posterity, yet with two exceptions, they are the most sympathetic characters in the whole sordid story. Chick Gandil, the tough first baseman who hatched the scheme, and his friend Swede Risberg, nasty tempered shortstop, who needed no prodding to join in, don't come off well. The rest of the crew, however, seem to have joined in a half-hearted, hapless manner. Particularly tragic are Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of baseball's greatest all-time hitters, whose talent was only exceeded by his naivete, and Buck Weaver, the outstanding thirdbaseman whose only real fault was his loyalty to his friends in not reporting the scheme, as he took no part in throwing the games, and accepted no money. These clueless, grossly underpaid ballplayers, most of who profited little or nothing from the fix, were the only ones punished for the scandal that rocked the nation.
The tale of the gamblers involved is as fascinating as it is telling. Three distinct levels of gamblers were present in the fix. Sleepy Bill Burns was an ex-ballplayer and small time gambler who did the legwork, consulting with the players. He went bust and was double-crossed by both the gamblers above him and Chick Gandil. Abe Attell and Sport Sullivan were a level up on the gambler's food chain - they had some access to the big time boys, but were not part of that exclusive club. Through constant maneuvering and double-dealing, and calculated risk taking, they were able to walk away from the scheme with a tidy profit. Arnold Rothstein was the big time. His money backed the fix, yet he took almost no personal risk, and emerged completely unscathed from the whole nasty affair while turning a huge profit. Big fish eat little fish, no matter what the ocean.
Finally, the least likeable characters of this tragic, real life morality play were Charles Comiskey, owner of the White Sox, and the rest of the baseball owners. For years they had turned a blind eye to the corruption of gambling in the game rather than expose it and risk the popularity of their sport and the profits in their ticket sales. When the fix of the World Series exploded across newspaper headlines, and they could no longer hide their dirty secrets, they used all their wealth and connections, buying off elected officials, and even colluding with the gamblers behind the fix, to protect their reputations and profits. It was their power, their lawyers, their money, that presented eight ballplayers as the scapegoats for national outrage, while willingly sacrificing true justice and exposure of their own hypocrisy. After reading this book, you may be left shaking your head that Charles Comiskey is in the Hall of Fame, and Shoeless Joe Jackson is forever banned from that hallowed hall.
Eight Men Out is a story of baseball, crime, and legal maneuvering. It is a window into the workings of power, and a cautionary tale of the corruption of the American dream and the twisting of justice by powerful interest. Most of all, it is an American tragedy of lives and reputations ruined, dreams shattered, and potential unfulfilled, that is as fascinating as it is sad.
If you are interested in baseball, American history, or the sociology of American society, you should read this book. You will not be disappointed.
Theo Logos
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
a dated classic perhaps, but a classic, December 6, 2000
In its time (1965) this book really blew the lid off the long-sanitized version of the Black Sox scandal available to the public. Its readability, depth and refusal to glorify any of the participants are what make it the starting point for any baseball lover seeking the true story of the whole sordid affair. Its placement in greater historical context is especially well done; the reader is reminded that it did not occur in a vacuum. WWI was just over, Prohibition was coming, and the dominant national mood was 'we're very noble, we won the Great War' (all historical debatability of that point aside). Game-throwing was nothing new to baseball, as Asinof points out, but the idea that a full third of a team would throw a World Series was a body blow to what had become somewhat of an egotistical nation.While some new information has come to light in the last thirty-five years, it has only supplemented what Asinof learned--to my knowledge none of it has been refuted. Considering the number of basements and old offices likely cleared out in the intervening time, and at least one definitely pertinent discovery that I'm aware of (the Grabiner notes), this is quite an accomplishment. Recommended both as baseball history and as a portrait of a lusty, turbulent time.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Recap of Baseballs Darkest Days, June 20, 2001
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I only knew of the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 on a superficial level. This book gives you the details of all the conversations, meetings, and actions that took place between the players, gamblers, and management which led to 8 players of the Chicago White Sox baseball susposedly throwing the 1919 World Series. Asinof has surprising detail of conversations that took place and talks about each person involved as if he knew them personally. You wonder how he received all this info in the age before tape recorders and microphones were prevalent. He certainly did impressive research and the book should be commended for that. What he doesn't do is take sides and seems to write the book as a distant observer. But at the end you seem to feel somewhat sorry for some of the players involved, especially the ones among the eight (Buck Weaver, Joe Jackson) who didn't necessarily throw their games but were banned for life anyway because of their knowledge of the conspiracy. What would you have done in their position? Overall, it's most likely the best summary of one of the most incredible and darkest events in sports history. It's must read for all sports fans.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Simply Amazing, July 19, 2005
I saw the movie, I knew the story, but nothing could have prepared me for this account of it all. The different parts of the whole scandal, all the involved people from Rothstein to Gandil, this book is full of detail. I could not put it down as I wanted to keep learning more and more about what happened and why these players corrupted the game. I started to sympathize for them even though what they did was wrong. They were being cheated by Comiskey and there was no way around that. Well you can read it to find out how and learn more about the scandal as it unfolds.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
This is the Best Book I have ever read, April 17, 2002
Maybe that is an exaggeration. Regardless, the work so effectively completes the picture of the 1919 world series scandal. The writing is clear and vivid. No background information about the scandal or baseball is necessary to enjoy this book. The novel expresses the historical portrait of post WWI and pre depression America, with unregulated gambling and little unionization. The use of media and press in sports and scandal of this trial beckons how media, sports, and scandals are related today. I hope everybody gets a chance to read at least one page, because you can't put it down afterwards.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent, February 26, 2004
Eight Men Out is both an excellent journalistic/historical account of the events surrounding the "Black Sox" scandal and a very good read. Asinof creates vivid and believable portraits of all of the protagonists while being careful to make clear when he's relating facts supporting by verifiable evidence and when he's offering reasonable but unverifiable inferences or conclusions. Far and away the best and most accessible accumulation of research into the scandal, and one of the better books you'll find anywhere focusing on sports history.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The little guys took the fall., May 24, 2007
I saw the movie, but the book explains in more detail the tragedy of the 1919 World Series White Sox (or Black Sox). This book details that the gamblers such as the Little Champ were the real villians in this fiasco. Commisky was also a cheap skate who payed his talented players peanuts and then expected them to win pennants. The victims were the ball players who all expected were rich (they were not) and got duped by a bunch of fast talking gamblers. Shoeless Joe Jackson comes across as a decent man trying to make a go of it in life. These talented people were out matched by more brilliant eastern money men.
This is a great read about the All American pastime. I came away with true respect for the ball players, although not the baseball clubs. This is a tragic story of eight talented players being out hustled by gamblers.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Superb Research, Gripping Tale, November 3, 2001
This gripping expose' captures the feel of America in 1919. Author Elliot Asinof shows how the White Sox players (rather, infielder Chick Gandil) first approached the gamblers, and how the fixed World Series proceeded amidst threats, misunderstandings and double-crosses. We also read about the player's 1921 trial for conspiracy, noting that the gamblers escaped unscathed. I liked the author's portraits of conspiring players Eddie Ciccotte and Shoeless Joe Jackson (who's guilt seems modified), the unfairly banished Buck Weaver, and innocent teammates like Ray Schalk and Eddie Collins. Asinof correctly co-indicts baseball's reserve clause and Sox owner Charles Comiskey. The cold-hearted Comiskey precipitated the scandal by grossly underpaying his talented athletes in that already low-wage era. One senses parallels to modern college point-shaving scandals; bitter athletes fixing scores to grab a slice of the pie unfairly denied them.
Since this book first appeared in 1963, free agency boosted player salaries, the missing grand jury confessions surfaced (in offices of Comiskey's late attorney), and this book's movie plus FIELD OF DREAMS brought the scandal to recent light. One thing hasn't changed; the underdog White Sox still have been in just one one World Series (which they lost)in all the years since 1919.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Baseball History and Good Storytelling, June 24, 2002
Eight Men Out is widely considered one of the better baseball books written. Having recently reread the book, I would concur with this assessment. Asinof's writing and storytelling are excellent, only to be outdone by the thoroughness of his research. Readers are drawn into the culture of 1919 America and the subculture that surrounded (and elevated) baseball in those times. The book offers readers a complete investigation and review of one of baseball's greatest scandals. However, rather than just report facts and findings, Asinof provides a complete and compelling narrative that encompasses all elements of the story. This includes perspectives from the gamblers and players, owners, fans and the baseball hierarchy. Meetings are described, conversations detailed and stories told in such a manner that one might think Asinof was present - not writing nearly fifty years later. The book allows the reader to better understand the prominence of baseball in the American psyche at the time, as well as the damage done to that psyche. This is best exemplified in the myth/legend that Shoeless Joe Jackson has grown into today. Eight Men Out is a must for all baseball fans, but also a thoroughly enjoyable story for any fan of history and Americana. Interestingly, in an era of baseball defined by steroid use and highly paid free agents, many fans often yearn for the older, glory days of the game. Asinof provides a clear and vivid look into some of those glory days. It's far from perfect and a lot darker than the historical blinders may have allowed us to realize. Certainly, the impact of this scandal is still with the game today.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
| | |
