Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof (Holt Paperbacks, 1987), 302 pages

The 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which eight Chicago White Sox players accepted money to ‘throw’ the World Series, is one of the most infamous sporting events of the 20th century.  Eliot Asinof’s book about the episode is acknowledged as the definitive account of all that transpired, both during the event and in the aftermath.

Eight Men Out’s credentials as an essential book for any baseball fan therefore are well established and recent events have only made it seem all the more powerful.

The basic story of the Black Sox scandal, including the mournful ‘Say it ain’t so, Joe’ refrain, are well known.  Indeed, plenty of people at the time were aware, or strongly suspected, that the Series wasn’t being played on the level.  Hugh Fullerton sat in the press box circling plays on his scorecard that didn’t look quite right, catcher Ray Schalk visibly raged at his pitchers failing to perform to their usual standards.  It was the worst-kept secret in town, pushed to one side only due to many deciding not to believe what they heard or saw.

What really happened was less well-known.  Even the players involved didn’t know all the details, not even half of them, of how the fix was put in place and actually carried out.  Our current familiarity with the tale is largely due to Asinof’s feat of tireless research and detective work that culminated in the release of this book in 1963.  Even with court transcripts and mountains of contemporary newspaper coverage, his work in sifting through the rumours and dead-ends to tell a tale that those involved never wanted to be known was a monumental achievement.

Asinof covers the whole affair: how the fix was organized, how the series actually played out, the occasionally farcical court trial that followed and the longer-term impact it had on baseball and those involved.  This edition also includes an introduction from the late Stephen Jay Gould that helps to place both the scandal and this book into context, although any reader will become aware of the wider themes addressed.

There have been several recent high-profile scandals involving allegations of match-fixing and the modern practice of ‘spot fixing’, often leading sports writers to make reference to the Black Sox of baseball’s past.   The English cricket summer was played out under a dark shadow due to allegations against members of the Pakistan cricket team, for instance.  The situation raised the same questions that baseball fans struggled with in 1920 as the sorry saga was revealed: how could it happen and why would players (allegedly) get involved in such things?  The focus rested squarely on the players, who may have been culpable but were mere pawns in a larger game in which the real levers of power always remained out of sight and out of reach.

Eight Men Out isn’t just a textbook study of how the fixing of sporting contests can come about.  It also provides an object lesson in what can happen when a sport is faced with a potentially devastating scandal.  Reading Eight Men Out today, it’s hard not to draw clear parallels with baseball’s recent crisis: the so-called steroid era.

In both cases, plenty of people knew what was happening, but it was easier not to rock the boat and draw negative publicity onto the sport. 

The home-run hitting feats of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds et al were the perfect way for baseball to recapture the hearts of a nation that had questioned its love of the sport due to the 1994/95 labour disputes and subsequent strike.  Fans piled into ballparks once again, just as they had in 1920 when the season was building to an exciting finish.  As Asinof memorable states: “the dirty rumours of last fall had been buried in the excitement of the pennant race.  [White Sox owner Charles] Comiskey counted his money and let them lie”

However, such events refuse to stay secret forever and it’s important to make sure that when the worst does happen, it happens on the sport’s own terms.  That’s ultimately how the ‘Black Sox Scandal’ ended up, with the eight players being acquitted in court but still all banned for life from baseball, leading Asinof to surmise:

“So, in the end, baseball won its battle.  They had rescued the ballplayers from the clutches of the law, only to make victims of them on their own terms.  Baseball, the club owners could boast, had cleaned its own house”. 

The very same thing could be said about MLB’s Mitchell Report into the steroid era: a self-imposed process designed to make scapegoats of a few players and to head-off the potential of someone else doing a thorough investigation instead. 

And there is a final clear link between the Black Sox and the steroid era.  As ballplayers were put in front of Congress while many other tainted sportsmen were left alone, it was claimed that baseball still held a special place in America’s heart and that the players were therefore held to a higher standard than their sporting contemporaries.  So it was back in 1919/1920: “America expected higher morals from ballplayers than they expect from businessmen – or anyone else, for that matter”.

Eight Men Out really is essential reading, not just for baseball fans but for fans of all sports.  It’s a fascinating story, brilliantly researched and written, that still packs a powerful punch because the central themes it explores are as relevant, and as important, today as they were all those years ago.

Have you read “Eight Men Out”? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Can you recommend any other similar books? If so, let us know.