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''Eight Men Out'' is a drama film based on Eliot Asinof's 1963 book ''Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series''. It was written and directed by John Sayles. The film is a dramatization of Major League Baseball's Black Sox scandal, in which six members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series. Much of the movie was filmed at the old Bush Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.〔.〕 ==Plot== The 1919 Chicago White Sox are considered the greatest team in baseball and, in fact, one of the greatest ever assembled to that point. However, the team's owner, Charles Comiskey, is a skinflint with little inclination to reward his players for a spectacular season. When gamblers "Sleepy" Bill Burns and Billy Maharg get wind of the players' discontent, they offer a select group of Sox — including star Knuckleball pitcher Eddie Cicotte who led the majors with a 29-7 win-loss record and has an earned run average of just 1.82 — more money to play badly than they would have earned by winning the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Cicotte's motivation for being involved was because Comiskey refused him a promised $10,000 should he won 30 games for the season. Cicotte was nearing the milestone until Comiskey ordered manager Kid Gleason to bench him for 2 weeks (missing 5 starts) to rest the 35 year old veteran's arm for the series. A number of players, including Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, and Lefty Williams, go along with the scheme. The team's greatest star, Shoeless Joe Jackson, is depicted as being not very bright and not entirely sure what is going on. Buck Weaver, meanwhile, is included with the seven others but insists that he wants nothing to do with the fix. When the best-of-nine series begins, Cicotte deliberately hits Reds leadoff hitter Morrie Rath in the back with his second pitch in a prearranged signal to gangster Arnold Rothstein that the fix was on (Rothstein allegedly financed the fix). Cicotte then pitches poorly and gave up 5 runs in four innings, four of them in the 4th which included giving up a triple to Reds pitcher Walter "Dutch" Ruether. He is then relieved by team manager Kid Gleason, though the Sox lose the first game 9–1. Williams also pitched poorly in Game 2, while Gandil, Risberg and Hap Felsch made glaring mistakes on the field. Several of the players become upset however, when the various gamblers involved fail to pay their promised money up front. Chicago journalists Ring Lardner and Hugh Fullerton grow increasingly suspicious. Meanwhile Kid Gleason continues to hear rumors of a fix, but he remains confident that his boys will come through in the end. A third pitcher not in on the scam, Dickey Kerr, wins Game 3 for the Sox, making both gamblers and teammates uncomfortable. Other teammates such as catcher Ray Schalk continue to play hard, while Weaver and Jackson show no visible signs of taking a dive with Weaver continuing to deny being in on the fix. Cicotte loses again in Game 4. With the championship now in jeopardy, Gleason intends to bench him from his next start, but Cicotte begs for another chance. The manager reluctantly agrees and is given an easy Game 7 win. Unpaid by the gamblers, Williams also intends to win, but when his wife is threatened, he purposely pitches badly to lose the final game. Cincinnati wins the World Series (5 games to 3) to the shock of Sox fans. Even worse, Fullerton exposes the strong possibility that this series was rigged. His findings cause Comiskey and the other owners to appoint a new commissioner of baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, and give him complete authority over the sport. Eight players are indicted and brought to trial. Cicotte, Williams, and Jackson even sign confessions, while Weaver maintains his innocence, and the rest of the Chicago players (along with Weaver and Jackson) are found not guilty. While they celebrate, however, Judge Landis bans the other 6 from professional baseball for life, citing their failure to reveal being approached by gambling interests in the first place. The flim ends during spring training in 1921, with Schalk saying that if pitcher Red Faber had been in good shape, there wouldn't have been a fix, because he would have got some of the starts that were given to Cicotte and Williams. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eight Men Out」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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