DVD: Eight Men Out (20th Anniversary Edition)

I guess spring is finally here, and you know what that means.

Play ball!

Even the pope couldn't stay out of baseball stadiums during his recent visit. Did you notice?

But if your game is rained out -- a very real possibility the last few days, when I swear I saw a man collecting two of each kind of beast -- then it's time to break out the baseball movies.

And yes, we have baseball movies on hand at Olsson's. Boy, do we have baseball movies: Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees (in a new edition), Kevin Costner and the gang in Field of Dreams (sale-priced), even Geena Davis and Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own (ditto).

But being a hopeless John Sayles fan -- or is that hopeful? -- I'm going to nudge the following DVD forward for your consideration: Eight Men Out, the brilliantly watchable adaptation of Eliot Asinof's account of the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal. MGM has just released the 20th anniversary edition, with some wonderful extras, putting me into a fever of anticipation that someone, even as I write this, is preparing special editions of all the John Sayles movies I've loved. Please tell me that pristine prints of Matewan and Lone Star, with "making of" featurettes to go with them, are on their way.

Even if the above-mentioned titles don't ring a bell, it's a safe bet you're familiar with the work of John Sayles, as well as the careers of some of his earliest film industry colleagues. Sayles has been around the block creatively numerous times and is the kind of quintuple threat -- director, writer, editor, actor, and producer -- who leaves the rest of us feeling hopelessly idle. I mean, any man who midwifed the American independent cinema movement and gave actors Chris Cooper and David Strathairn their first film roles (in, respectively, Matewan and The Return of the Secaucus Seven) has more than earned his daily bread.

And Sayles the director/screenwriter definitely gives viewers something to chew on as well. It's not always clear where he's going to take you with a story -- Will it be romance, character study, ensemble comedy, whodunit? -- but he draws you in as deftly as Scheherazade. Pull up a chair, my friend, because you aren't going anywhere.

It's all down to the storytelling, the casting, the loving attention to the details of each film. I'm never sorry when I sign on to watch a Sayles movie, even if I begin the screening with doubts about the theme. As I said, he draws me in every single time.

That's definitely the case with this movie. To borrow an expression from that legendary rye bread advertisement, you don't have to be a baseball fan to love Eight Men Out. This is a vivid, earthy retelling of one of the legendary scandals of the sports world, and neither knowledge of the story's outcome nor today's even more shattering revelations can detract from the suspense.

And Sayles has assembled one sharp cast to tell that story. Fans will recognize some of his usual ensemble players, such as Gordon Clapp, David Strathairn, Maggie Renzi, and Kevin Tighe, but there are some surprises as well. Yes, that really is Bill Irwin as straight arrow Eddie Collins, opposite more down-to-earth teammates Charlie Sheen (Hap Felsch) and John Cusack (Buck Weaver). And in a provocative but effective bit of casting, Sayles teams up with Studs Terkel to form the movie's sportswriting Greek chorus, Ring Lardner and Hugh Fullerton.

But the boys on the baseball diamond, flawed, even tragic, form the heart of the story. Sayles keeps the pace brisk and the action coming, but be warned: He goes right for the heart in several key scenes. Particularly affecting are Cusack, Strathairn, and the great character actor John Mahoney (Kid Gleason).

And once you've seen the story, you're going to want to know more. In that regard, the extras on the disc are winners all round, no question about it. In addition to the director's commentary, which everyone expects on a special edition anyway, there are no fewer than three engrossing documentary features, ranging from a charming little short with D.B. Sweeney (the Joe Jackson of the film) to a featurette on the White Sox players to a two-part documentary about the making of the Sayles movie. The latter includes perspectives from the filmmaker himself; actors Gordon Clapp and David Strathairn; and Maggie Renzi, Sayles's partner in film and in life. And if you have ever needed pointers on directing Studs Terkel or getting David Strathairn to throw a knuckleball, this is the place to look.

It all provides perspective in other respects as well. For one thing, it's impossible to hear Asinof, Sayles, or Strathairn hold forth without gaining an appreciation for the sheer grit, audacity, and resilience required by the creative process. For another, it's unbelievably poignant to see all those stills of the 1919 White Sox players and acknowledge all the lives affected by this story.

In interviews, Sayles has observed that the characters who people his films are not necessarily heroic, that they may turn cowardly or courageous by turns. In my experience, a Sayles film offers a sense of the push-pull of human motivations and choices, and yet counsels against pat judgments. Eight Men Out hints at that moral complexity, and as such remains a timeless story.