Eight Men Out : The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

Eight Men Out is Eliot Asinof’s 1963 book depicting Major League Baseball’s Black Sox scandal of 1919. The full title of the book is Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series. The facts of this episode in sports history have often been wrongly reported. So many people had vested interest in hiding the truth. Conflicting stories abound. Asinof took great care in his factual research and his results are accurate.

What occurred was, eight players on the 1919 Chicago White Sox baseball team conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Their plan had limited success because although they did lose the World Series, the gamblers cheated the players out of most of the money and the players stole money from each other. In the end their actions were exposed and they suffered incredibly harsh punishment.