It has been just over 100 years since this real life scandal took place in professional baseball, and while it has been pretty much forgotten, there was definitely an impact made because of what occurred. There had been movies made about Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, and their lives are well remembered as well as their accomplishments. But this doesn't just deal with one player. It deals with an entire team, the 1919 Chicago White Sox.
The scandal mixes organized crime in with the financial mistreatment of the team which leads them to make a deal with the devil, Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner in a great part), fraud involving the World Series. Owner Clifton James may be unaware of the fraud, but he's equally as responsible because his greediness prompted teammates to purposely throw the series against the Cincinnati Reds. One of the teammates, John Cusack, is uninvolved in the fraud, but is made guilty simply because he's a teammate and evidence points at him that he is guilty.
A good featured cast includes such familiar actors as Charlie Sheen, Christopher Lloyd, Barbara Garrick, D. B. Sweeney and John Mahoney. The film gets more interesting as it really gets into the major plot, but there's a lot of seller. The impact what happens is shown as to how it affects each of the players, particularly Cusack. Of course baseball historians are going to be the most interested in this, but it's also good from a historical standpoint as well. Just a little too long for my taste. A good 20 minutes could have been cut out.
The scandal mixes organized crime in with the financial mistreatment of the team which leads them to make a deal with the devil, Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner in a great part), fraud involving the World Series. Owner Clifton James may be unaware of the fraud, but he's equally as responsible because his greediness prompted teammates to purposely throw the series against the Cincinnati Reds. One of the teammates, John Cusack, is uninvolved in the fraud, but is made guilty simply because he's a teammate and evidence points at him that he is guilty.
A good featured cast includes such familiar actors as Charlie Sheen, Christopher Lloyd, Barbara Garrick, D. B. Sweeney and John Mahoney. The film gets more interesting as it really gets into the major plot, but there's a lot of seller. The impact what happens is shown as to how it affects each of the players, particularly Cusack. Of course baseball historians are going to be the most interested in this, but it's also good from a historical standpoint as well. Just a little too long for my taste. A good 20 minutes could have been cut out.