Eliot Asinof

Eliot Asinof was an American novelist, journalist, and screenwriter whose books included baseball fiction and accounts of sporting scandals. Born in New York in 1919, he attended Swarthmore College and played minor-league baseball before serving in the Army during the Second World War. That playing experience informed his first novel, Man on Spikes.

His best-known nonfiction work, Eight Men Out, examined the fixing of the 1919 World Series and was adapted into a feature film released in 1988. Asinof also wrote about professional football, wider American history, and crime. His television and film work was affected by blacklisting during the 1950s. He died in 2008.

His writing crossed fiction and nonfiction: he used his experience as a player in novels and reported on the conduct of professional sports organizations in documentary accounts.

Baseball Books

Man on Spikes: This novel follows a baseball player’s sixteen-year struggle to reach the major leagues. Professional setbacks and personal problems accumulate as he moves through a system in which ability does not guarantee advancement. Asinof based the central character on a ballplayer he knew. The story examines the relationship between ambition, employment, and the decisions made by the people who control a player’s opportunities.

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series: Asinof reconstructs the scandal surrounding the Chicago White Sox and the 1919 World Series. The account follows players, gamblers, negotiations over the proposed fix, the games, and the investigation and trial that followed. It also considers the players’ backgrounds and working conditions. The book presents Asinof’s reconstruction of the events; subsequent baseball historians have disputed elements of its evidence and conclusions.

1919: America's Loss of Innocence: Asinof examines four major developments associated with 1919: the League of Nations debate, the rise of anticommunism, Prohibition, and the Black Sox scandal. The book places the baseball controversy alongside political and social conflicts following the First World War. Its subject extends beyond the World Series to the changing institutions, expectations, and public disputes that marked the United States during that year.

Strike Zone: Coauthored with Jim Bouton, this baseball novel places two men with conflicting interests in the same game. Pitcher Sam Ward, aged thirty-two, faces a start that may determine whether his sacrifices for a major-league career have been worthwhile. Behind the plate, veteran umpire Ernie Kolacka has reasons to manipulate the contest. Their decisions connect a player’s final opportunity with an official’s power over the result.

Football Books

Seven Days to Sunday: Crisis Week with the New York Football Giants: Asinof follows the New York Giants through a week of preparation for an NFL game. The account moves through meetings, practice, and the work of players and coaches as Sunday approaches. Rather than covering an entire season through its results, the book concentrates on the decisions and routines within one preparation cycle, showing how the organization attempts to turn planning into performance on the field.

Say It Ain't So, Gordon Littlefield: After a confrontation with a professional football team owner, writer Gordon Littlefield devises a plan to manipulate the Super Bowl. The novel turns a private grievance into a scheme involving the outcome of a major sporting event. Asinof uses the attempted fix as a satirical story about revenge, status, gambling, and the behaviour of people who see opportunities in the business surrounding football.