Sets in My Collection: Pacific Eight Men Out

In addition to baseball and baseball cards, I liked baseball movies when I was growing up.  I haven't seen all the main baseball movies, actually -- I hear The Sandlot is considered a classic baseball movie, and I haven't seen it.  I've seen most of A League of Their Own but in bits and pieces, and I've only seen part of Bull Durham.  But Field of Dreams, The Natural, The Bad News Bears, and Major League were favorites.  When it came out on VHS, my family rented Eight Men Out, the movie of the 1918 Black Sox scandal.  I don't really remember the movie very much, but I think I liked it well enough.  Pacific put out a set of 110 cards of the movie, which I have as a complete set.  I should say, I guess, that in case you don't know how the movie came out, or how the scandal came out, this post has spoilers!  Here are a few of the cards:

This Joe Jackson is card #13; the John Cusack is card #12.

A few of the early cards show who plays who, and here we see Joe Jackson and John Cusack.

Card #19.

Most cards are concerned with the plot; here, gamblers conspire to reach Eddie Cicotte.  The gamblers are played by Christopher Lloyd ad Richard Edson.

Card #57.

Another plot card: Where's the money?  This features Michael Rooker playing Arnold "Chick" Gandil and Don Harvey playing Charles "Swede" Risberg.

Hugh exposes the fix. (#64)

The author and actor Studs Terkel plays reporter Hugh Fullerton, who, apparently, exposes the fix.

(#74) The Verdict is.....

Eight Men Out. (#75)

The court verdict comes in for the eight players pictured, and is not guilty, but that's not the end of the story.  Baseball delivers their own verdict: eight men out -- out of baseball, for life.  Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is played here by John Anderson.

Card #110, the real Joe Jackson.

The set closes with some real pictures of the participants in the scandal, with the final card in the set being Shoeless Joe himself.

In all, it's a nice set, but one could question whether 110 cards isn't a bit much.  Going through them makes me want to see the movie again, at least once.