Chicago White Sox: “Eight Men Out” vs “Field of Dreams”
The Chicago White Sox has had some good movies made with references to them but two stick out. “Field of Dreams” and “Eight Men Out” are classics.
There is no Major League Baseball being played on the field right now, but it will always be in our hearts. That is shown when we watch some of the old baseball classics. There are movies like The Sandlot, Moneyball, 42, and Major League that stick out for a lot of people. Well, the Chicago White Sox have some flavor in these movies as well. There are two movies in particular that feature the Chicago White Sox as a prominent team focus.
Some may remember the fact that the California Angels needed to defeat the Chicago White Sox to win the pennant in Angels in the Outfield, but that isn’t what we’re talking about here. The two biggest White Sox themed movies have to do with the Black Sox Scandal of 1919.
It isn’t a proud history for the team but it is one that has done well for storytellers across the nation who study the game of baseball. With some of the cheater news dominating the world of baseball right now, it is fair to understand why these stories become so big.
The two movies that are associated with these 1919 actions are Field of Dreams and Eight Men Out. They are both completely different films that use that story to fill a plot. One is more of a fictional “feel good” type of story while the other explains some cold hard truths about what happened. So if you had to pick one of the two to represent the White Sox, which would it be?
MLB dot com put a piece out there about the biggest pop culture moments from all 30 MLB teams and Eight Men Out was their choice for the White Sox. Field of Dreams feels like it might be bigger, however, so let’s compare the movies:
Eight Men Out
The Chicago White Sox had an ugly history in the 1910s. They were a very good baseball team but their off the field stuff as an organization is sort of a disgrace to what the organization is today. However, it is a part of their history and it is acknowledged in a few movies. There is nothing happy about the way this all turned out for the White Sox as eight of their players were banned from playing Major League Baseball for the rest of their lives.
The movie tells the tale based on a book called Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series. It documents the events of the 1919 White Sox that were paid by gamblers to purposely lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds who were a far inferior team. That White Sox team was known as one of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled.
Their owner, Charles Comiskey was a bad man who allowed this all to happen. The movie does a very good job of portraying all of this. There are players on the team who were illiterate and didn’t know much about what they were doing but were punished anyway. It isn’t a happy story but it is a very fun movie for people who are interested in the history of the game.
Field of Dreams
If you build it, he will come. Ease his pain. Go the distance. Field of Dreams takes the sad story that you learned about in Eight Men Out and combines it with magic to tell one of the greatest stories ever told. It starts off with Iowa farmer, Ray Kinsella, a die-hard White Sox fan who starts hearing voices. Eventually, he figures out that the voice speaking to him tells him to build a baseball field in his crops so Shoeless Joe Jackson can come back from the dead and play baseball again.
Shoeless Joe was one of the “eight men out” if you will. He was banned from baseball for life for his involvement in the Black Sox Scandal. It is very hard to claim he purposely lost the games, however, as he hit .375, scored five times, had six RBIs, and the only home run of the series for either team. He was still banned and never got to play again or go to the Hall of Fame. He is still banned to this day.
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The movie continues on to let the other seven players banned with Shoeless Joe come back and play along with some other people whose dream it was to play Major League baseball, including Moonlight Graham and Ray’s dad John. It turns out to be a beautiful movie that comes together and makes light of some hardships. The fact that the White Sox are the key team in this movie makes it that much more fun.
The Verdict
Both movies are incredibly good watches for people who like storytelling, movies, and baseball. Eight Men Out is a much more serious movie that details the ugly parts about the White Sox history. Field Of Dreams goes into those dark days of the White Sox but it isn’t necessarily the main focus of the film. Instead, Field of Dreams uses that tough story and tries to bring light to it through magic and compassion.
MLB dot com seems to think Eight Men Out is the better option but for us, it is Field of Dreams. It is more of the “feel good” variety which makes it a much easier viewing. Both of these movies will live on in White Sox culture for a long time as they should. This used to be one of the most powerful franchises in all of baseball and they are now working their way back to that status.
There are other times that the White Sox have made their way into pop-culture but these two movies are the best example. Hopefully, baseball returns sooner than later so we can start to see this team make more memories that could potentially get them more exposed to the big screen or beyond.