Chicago White Sox: “Eight Men Out” vs “Field of Dreams”

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.

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.