Spawning a highly successful movie adaption, Eight Men Out is a sports novel written by Eliot Asinof and published in 1963. It is his most popular work.
Eight Men Out centers around the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, when eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of intentionally losing the championship game in the 1919 World Series to receive money from gamblers. The major scandal shook the roots of public opinion about national sporting events' integrity, and caused significant fallout among fans of the team and sports critics. Eventually, a judge banned the eight men from ever playing professional baseball ever again, and subsequently ineligibility for consideration in the Baseball Hall of Fame despite their amazing careers before the incident.
Eight Men Out was adapted into a very well-received movie in 1988, directed by John Sayles and starring John Cusack and Clifton James, among others. The book is recognized as an extremely noted and significant piece of sports writing.
