OPENING - CHICAGO
The context is Chicago in 1919, and we see a kid sprinting in the street and filled with excitement as he and another kid run to see the White Sox. They pay for their tickets and get their seats as one of the Sox is stealing second base. Sayles cuts next to the press booth where we find Charles Comiskey, the owner of The White Sox as he woos the reporters with his words and a lavish spread of food and drink. The talk is about his White Sox being favored in the series 3 to 1, and how any bet against them in the series is a sucker bet. We see Collins being harped on by a couple of his teammates for going to bed so early, and then watch as a couple of guys in the stands asking about Collins, saying “No he’s the only one getting paid what he’s worth.” And with that statement we begin to see these two men go through the Sox roster, trying to figure out who they can get to come on board in their scheme. John Sayles, the director shows us multiple perspectives here. That of the players, the owner, the press, the fans who both idolize the Sox and break them down and the two gentlemen plotting. It shows us the the different views we are going to see throughout the film and their reactions to the scandal. An important detail we learn in the these ball-players aren’t earning the kind of money professionals do today. They are working for a living wage just like anyone else. This hits home most when Sayles shoots the Sox after winning their game come into the clubhouse to receive champagne from Comiskey for their success in the pennant race. The players would rather have their bonus, and the assistant to Comiskey tells them this is their bonus. We see them deflate instantly, and when they pop the corks to the champagne, the bubbly is just as flat as the men. All of this is contrasted with the reporter hailing Comiskey with their crystal champagne glasses. Sayles has set up the audience for what’s to come.
We enter a bar where the players go after the game, and see Arnold ‘Chick’ Gandil negotiating with Joseph ‘Sport’ Sullivan to get $10,000 a piece for each player involved in throwing the series. Chick let’s Charles ‘Swede’ Risberg in on the action just before ‘Sleepy’ Bill Burns and Billy Maharg, the two guys we saw in the stands figuring out who to go after for the fix enter the bathroom to offer them a deal just like Sport did. Chick and Swede decide they are going to take both offers and hedge their bets that neither of the funders will find out they are getting double pay.
NEW YORK - THE SELL
Chick starts to convince guys to take the money and fix the World Series. He starts with Eddie Cicotte, their pitcher whose arm is hurting him more every time he pitches. He’s a family man with a wife and two kids, and after Comiskey turns down giving him his $10,000 bonus (for winning 30 games) because he won 29, he decides to go in with Chick on the fix. The story builds emotionally in the favor of the guys fixing the Series as we learn that Comiskey benched Eddie for two weeks, a timespan which he would’ve won two more games. Comiskey is portrayed as cheap and a bottom line man and Sayles is able to have that get under our skin as much as it does the players, and by doing so we are on their side.
Now in New York, Bill Burns and Billy Maharg seek out Arnold Rothstein who is the big money man they want to pay for the Sox to throw the World Series. We find out from one of Rothstein’s guys, Abe Attell that Burns was a benchwarmer and Billy was a bum fighter. Sayles shows us that these are two guys who never found their place in the arena of sport. Rothstein turns them down initially saying that if people find out that he was betting against the Sox the odds would plummet. We see Abe try to convince Rothstein to do it, and find out that he was a former boxing champ. Rothstein levels him by saying that he ‘was’ the champ, and for every dollar he made getting punched Rothstein made ten. Abe steps out and Rothstein grabs the phone and we see that he already knows about a deal to fix the Sox, but it’s not with Burns and Billy, it’s with Sullivan. We get that, ‘oh crap’ feeling in our stomachs because we know that Rothstein knows he’s being played and it could only foreshadow doom for the team if they go through with it. We next find Abe meeting with Burns and Billy and find him agreeing to terms with them for the fix even though Rothstein said no. Abe has decided to collect debts owed to Rothstein to come up with the $100,000 to back Burns and Billy. All of this while Rothstein has agreed to do the deal with Sullivan and pay out $80,000 to the players, forty up front for them and Sullivan is to keep the other forty until they lose the series. If the fix is on Eddie is supposed to hit the first batter up with a pitch. This message is delivered by Rothstein’s muscle who Sayles shoots from a low angle to make him imposing over Sullivan who he shoots from a high angle to show who’s in charge. Sullivan then takes $30,000 of the money that’s meant to go to the players up front and tells his guy Jimmy to lay bets for him; that he is only going to give the players enough up front to remind them of their need. We see that nearly all the players are in, with Buck agreeing to do it only if Shoeless Joe does, but we can see that he doesn’t want to go through with it.
CINCINNATI GAMES 1&2
When Sullivan nor Abe come through with the full upfront money, Chick and Swede decide to give what they get all to Eddie. They do so because, as the pitcher he’ll have the most control on the outcome of the game over any other player. We see Buck alone on the diamond in Cincinnati, that his thoughts are heavy. The Sox manager, William Gleason finds Buck on the field and asks him if anything is up. He declines to reveal anything, and the next day two reporters, Ring Lardner (played by the director, Sayles) and Hugh Fullerton tell Gleason that they hear a fix has been worked out. Gleason denies it, and tells him team in a pre-game speech that no team in his 30 years in the league can hold a candle to them, they can only beat themselves alluding to the fact that he knows something is going on with a fix, even though he can’t prove it. Eddie does what he’s told and hits the first batter with a pitch, the fix is on. But, Buck doesn’t play along. He hasn’t seen a cent and his conscience is eating him up so, Eddie must throw the game on his own and he does.
Ring invites Eddie to his room in the hotel to straight up ask him if they are fixing the series. He tells him they aren’t, and in Shoeless Joe’s room we see Fred bring an envelope of money for him. It’s from the Swede telling him to lay off on playing so well. Joe doesn’t touch the money, but has Fred leave it on the dresser. It’s fitting to have Fred deliver the cash to Joe because he rides the bench. He comes in almost excited by the notion of having a shot to convince Joe to play poorly. This is Fred’s game, the manipulating of everyone else since he doesn’t get to get on the field of play. And, Joe is the opposite; his game is on the field and he’s leveled by the fact that they are doing this. Thus, placing him laying on the bed is a physical indication of what he is feeling at the moment.
We’re taken to Game 2 where Lefty is lobbing pitches over the plate for the Reds batters to destroy. The catcher, Ray Schalk does his best to energize the team with his play as he is the only one not on the take, or not to know about it. As the game progresses a prop plane flies over the field and drops a dummy dressed like a White Sox player right in front of the team’s dugout. After the game Ray punches Lefty for throwing fastballs when he told him to throw curveballs the entire game, and when Chick is laughing after their second loss in a row, Gleason attacks him. We see that the whole team is now fighting against each other, and Sayles transitions into the next sequence which will reveal the same about the other characters working behind the scenes to destroy the Sox. Sayles has everyone staying in the same hotel, Gleason has gone to Comiskey’s room about the fix while Burns and Billy go to Abe’s room down the hall. They find a load of money of the bed and they want to collect the cut for the players, but Abe has decided to put it out for bets and that he will only give $10,000 to the team and that’s it, no more. When Billy moves towards Abe he has a gun pointed in his face and he and Burns have no choice but to take what’s given to them and leave. Suddenly the two guys Abe called bums are the only ones standing up like champs to the former fighter whose ego is more important that keeping his word.
CHICAGO GAMES 3-5 / CINCINNATI GAMES 6&7
Chick starts to make a fool of himself as it’s so obvious that he’s giving the game away with his play that everyone can see it. Sayles is showing us that things are getting a little too loose, and Dickie Kerr is pitching a helluva game. We get to see Kerr with Gleason before the game. In the scene Sayles shows us a kid who has a pure love for baseball. He saw Gleason beat Cy Young when he was a kid with his grandfather. It was the first major league game he ever went to. Placing this scene prior to game three shows the juxtaposition that Sayles set up earlier in the film with the kids; after seeing all of the plagued play from games 1 and 2, we get to see the love return, and the score changes to reflect it as the music is upbeat and full of joy. Dickie closes out game 3 and the Sox have their first victory of the 9 game series.
At home, Buck tells his wife that the team isn’t playing on the level. That none of the guys can look each other in the eye because no one knows who’s playing on the level. Eddie’s back on the mound in game 4 and back to throwing the series. We see on the field that the team is beginning to split apart, and Sayles shows us during this and game 5 what Buck’s told his wife as players look like bushers (players that aren’t ready for the majors), and the ones who aren’t in on the fix begin to clash head on with the ones who are. And, as the night train back to Cincinnati rolls through frame, Ring Lardner sings a tune to the Sox players whom he is riding with about cheating so that the gamblers can win. Game 6 is tied going to extra innings with Chick coming to bat, and as a surprise possibly even to himself he hits a ground ball through the infield to win the game for the Sox. We find Eddie in his hotel room after the game with Lefty. Eddie’s holding a clock symbolizing that time is running out. Lefty and him both know now that it was never about the money, even more so since everyone still hasn’t been paid. And, on the field for game 7 we see Chick trying to convince Buck and Lefty to throw the game, even though he’s admitted that the money’s been lost on bets. It’s an easy choice for them and they are now ready to go kick some ass. Gleason wants to bench Eddie, but is convinced to let him get the start. He let’s him go, and this series of shots by Sayles helps us feel the weight of having cheated themselves of victory, and that it’s paid not a single bit. Again, the music changes to upbeat as Eddie and the team rocks through Game 7 for the win with Eddie blowing everyone away.
GAME 8
After the Sox game 7 win, Rothstein gets on the phone and we see his henchmen dispensed to Sullivan and Lefty. After the joy of winning, it’s cut down when Lefty is told that if they don’t lose tomorrow his wife will be killed. Game 8 is the first time we hear the national anthem played. Ironically showing us that the “land of the free and the home of the brave” is being taken over by thieves, cheats and murderers. Lefty is pulled after the first inning after giving up four runs, and the fiasco continues until the Reds win 10-5, and as TAPS is being played in the stands, Hugh Fullerton is telling Ring Lardner how he is going to prove that the Sox cheated. Sayles shows the newspapers rolling out about the scandal and the whole city of Chicago is reading about it. We also see the kids who idolize the Sox getting folks on the street to sign a petition against the slander in the papers. We see the final paper roll off the presses stating that Comiskey is offering $10,000 for evidence of the fix.
THE TRIAL
We see Eddie Collins as the first to be in Comiskey’s office to tell about the fix, and like that Comiskey gets his lawyer, Alfred Austrian into his office to discuss strategy. They decide that they must have an independent investigation take place so as not to spoil his reputation. The reason being that Comiskey must find a way to get to the truth so as not to harm his ticket sales. The solution is to bring in Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis to clean up baseball. Sayles cuts to Rothstein, Sullivan and Abe all taking off for another country. The money men responsible are all skipping town and leaving the blame to the players, the working class men playing ball for the city. We’re able to see the capitalists control over the working man.
The trial begins with the Sox being cheered into court before the conspiracy charges are read against them. When it comes time to bring the signed confessions to the judge as evidence we learn that they’ve been stolen, a conspiracy put in place by Rothstein and set in motion by Austrian and Comiskey agreeing to do so in order to protect Rothstein and Comiskey’s financial interests for future profits. It’s important to see that the entire team is lumped together, they don’t individualize the their situation. If one player goes down, they all go down. For them, it’s like introducing a cancer into the body, if one organ is affected there is good chance it could affect the rest if not removed and it’s clear this is what’s happened to the team. Before the trial concludes Sayles shoots Buck with the kids in his neighborhood again. We see that the game still makes him feel like a kid, but the world it’s in has a lot of selfish men, and the innocence that one has as a child can very well be taken away without permission by another. Buck goes on to make a statement at the closing of the trial as he was never called to take the stand, and that his stats from the series were never admitted to trial, that the whole thing was a scam. And, with that, the jury finds the Sox not guilty. The irony of the not guilty verdict is that Judge Landis then creates a rule that no player that conspires to fix a game or associates with the conspirators, no matter if they are charged are not, can never play in the major leagues again. They players are done, and Sayles shows us this by cutting to Shoeless Joe, who’s changed his name to Brown playing in the Bush Leagues. Buck is there in the stands and when a few guys from the crowd ask if it’s him, he says, “Nah those guys are all gone.” Sayles shoots this sequence more exposed as the light makes it appear almost like a dream. A dream that Buck wishes they could wake up from. The entire White Sox team was banned from ever playing Major League Baseball. Buck appealed every single year until his death. They were all denied. Seeing Buck in the stands tells us everything we need to know about how he feels. He’s now a regular guy. Just a face in the crowd.
