Eight Men Out (1988) review

Irate that Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey (Clifton James) isn't paying his formidable all-star team a fair wage, several of the players - including infielder "Chick" Gandil (Michael Rooker), pitcher Eddie Cicotte (David Strathairn) and center fielder "Happy" Felsch (Charlie Sheen) - accept a deal with mobster Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner) and other gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series (against the Cincinnati Reds), while some members of the squad, especially "Buck" Weaver (John Cusack) and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (D. B. Sweeney), have mixed feelings about fixing the games.  At first this seems like a peculiar movie for director Sayles to be interested in making (he even puts himself in there as snarky sportswriter "Ring" Lardner), but it does make sense upon introspection: one of his major themes has been workers' rights, and here we have an internal dispute among professional athletes who weren't as well compensated for their "labor" as they are today.  There isn't much "flourish" to the approach, and it concludes in the courtroom instead of on the diamond (in what amounted to a show trial), but old school fans of the game might find it noteworthy.  I've always wondered why the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown didn't install a "special wing" (perhaps with dimmed lights) for its more notorious figures to give visitors something to debate and discuss, because if you ask me, Weaver and Jackson should definitely be in there ... as well as Charlie Hustle.