Eliot Asinof

Asinof was born into a Jewish family[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/26/culture.obituaries The Guardian: "Eliot Asinof - Author best known for Eight Men Out, about the 1919 baseball scam" by Michael Carlson] 25 June 2008 in Manhattan and lived in and around New York City for much of his life. In his youth, he worked in his family's tailoring business. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1940, then played briefly as a minor-league first baseman in the Philadelphia Phillies' organization.

During World War II, Asinof served in the U.S. Army on Adak in the Aleutian Islands.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061103678.html|title=Obituaries: Eliot Asinof; Author of 'Eight Men Out,' AbCOWSout Chicago Black Sox|last=Holley|first=Joe|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 12, 2008|accessdate=November 20, 2012}}

He was married for five years to Jocelyn Brando, an actress who was the elder sister of Marlon Brando; the marriage ended in divorce in 1955.

Besides playing the game seriously, Asinof wrote extensively about baseball. His 1955 debut novel, Man on Spikes, was based on the experience of a friend, Mickey Rutner, who played minor league ball and twelve games in the majors. The work was chosen as one of "the golden dozen" baseball books by author Roger Kahn.

Asinof's most famous book, Eight Men Out, reconstructed the events of the Black Sox scandal which marred the World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds in 1919. The book was published in 1963; the film Eight Men Out, whose screenplay was co-written by Asinof and director John Sayles, appeared in 1988. An article in the September 2009 issue of Chicago Lawyer magazine argued that Eight Men Out, purporting to confirm the guilt of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, was based on inaccurate information; for example, Jackson never confessed to throwing the Series as Asinof claimed. Further, Asinof omitted key facts from publicly available documents such as the 1920 grand jury records and proceedings of Jackson's successful 1924 lawsuit against Comiskey to recover back pay for the 1920 and 1921 seasons. Asinof's use of fictional characters within a supposedly non-fiction account raised further doubts about the historical accuracy of the book.{{cite web|work=Chicago Lawyer|author=Voelker, Daniel J. and Paul A. Duffy|title=Black Sox: 'It ain't so, kid, it just ain't so'|url=http://www.chicagolawyermagazine.com/Archives/2009/09/01/092009sox.aspx|date=September 2009|accessdate=October 25, 2013}}

Jackson indeed confessed to accepting $5,000 to throw the series and claimed the team threw the second game, though he maintained he played to win the whole time.{{cite web|last=Berkow|first=Ira|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/24/sports/sports-of-the-times-the-signed-confession-of-shoeless-joe.html|title=The Signed Confession of Shoeless Joe|work=The New York Times|date=June 24, 1989|accessdate=December 23, 2020}}

Asinof also worked on other projects related to the scandal, including TV documentaries such as the 2001 ESPN Sports Century Flashback: The 1919 Black Sox Scandal and the 2005 The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the 1919 Chicago White Sox for "Throwing" the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

In 1968, Asinof signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War."Writers and Editors War Tax Protest', January 30, 1968 New York Post

Asinof wrote other novels and nonfiction books unrelated to baseball including The Fox is Crazy Too (1976), the story of skyjacker Garrett Brock Trapnell.

His career as a scriptwriter was curtailed when he was blacklisted for a time during the 1950s.

• 1955 {{citation|title=Man on Spikes|publisher= McGraw-Hill |asin=B0007E0GNU}} [https://books.google.com/books/about/Man_on_Spikes.html?id=EwTxfZT8k10C online preview]
• 1963. {{citation|title=Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series|publisher= Holt Rinehart & Winston |asin=B001JSNOO6}}
• 1971 {{citation|title=Craig and Joan: Two Lives for Peace|year=1971|publisher=Viking Press|location=New York|isbn=0-670-24541-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/craigjoantwolive00asin}}
• 1976 {{citation|title=The Fox Is Crazy Too: The True Story of Garrett Trapnell, Adventurer, Skyjacker, Bank Robber, Con Man, Lover|year=1976|publisher=William Morrow & Co|location=New York|isbn=0-688-02964-7}}
• 1995 {{citation|title=Strike Zone|publisher=Signet Books|last1=Bouton|first1=Jim|authorlink1=Jim Bouton|last2=Asinof|first2=Eliot|year=1995|isbn=978-0451183347}}

• 1988 Eight Men Out (with John Sayles)

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0039362}}
• [https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/eliot-asinof-discusses-his-book-eight-men-out-black-sox-and-1919-world-series Eliot Asinof discusses his book, "Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series], Studs Terkel Radio Archive, May 5, 1963

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Category:1919 births

Category:2008 deaths

Category:Baseball writers

Category:American tax resisters

Category:United States Army soldiers

Category:United States Army personnel of World War II

Category:Writers from Manhattan

Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)

Category:Journalists from New York City

Category:Activists from New York (state)

Category:Sportswriters from New York (state)

Category:Swarthmore College alumni