Most scenes together: Sport Sullivan & Chick Gandil (3), Swede Riesberg & Happy Felsch (3), Swede Riesberg & Chick Gandil (2)
Hugh Fullerton Hey Winslow, your boys look sharp.
They're the best I've seen yet. Best white folks team, anyways.
Ring Lardner I say they're the best, Hughey. The best ever.
Hugh Fullerton Time will tell, kid. Time will tell.
Holy mother...
Will you look at it, Jimmy? All spread out like that?
Whose is it?
Who do you think? [hands Jimmy part of the money] Now, I want you to take this 10 grand back to Boston. I want you to go to Mulcahy, you know the password, and I want you to put it all down on Cincinnati for the first game. Tell them it's just a hunch I've got.
Some hunch.
Then, you take this to McGinnis. You tell him that I've sure gone crazy, but I want to place 10 big ones on the Reds for the whole show.
I'm laying bets for Mr. Rothstein?
You're laying bets for me. That thieving Jew, he's just given me a loan.
Then what's left for the players?
Jimmy, do you know what you feed a dray horse in the morning if you want a day's work out of him?
What?
Just enough so he knows he's hungry.
Joe Jackson C'mon, Betsy. We need a big wallop, now. Big wallop. Tell me when, Betsy.
She ever talk back to you, Joe?
Fred McMullin Probably sleeps with it, too.
Lay off, you guys.
Oh, all you crackers stick together, huh?
Hey, ask her for a triple, Joe! You hear me?
Fred McMullin It's been sixty years since the Civil War, Lefty. Ease up.
Besides, you guys lost. It was all in the papers.
Fred McMullin That wouldn't help Jackson, none.
Jackson! Hey, Jackson! Can you spell "cat"? Hey, Shoeless Joe! Can you spell "cat"?
Joe Jackson Hey, mister! Can you spell "shit"?
Ring Lardner I'm forever blowing ballgames, pretty ballgames in the air. I come from Chi; I hardly try. Just go to bat, and fade and die. Fortune's coming my way, that's why I don't care. I'm forever blowing ballgames, and the gamblers treat us fairrrrrrr!
Look at those hands, ladies. You should have been a pug, Chickie.
I did some scrapping. Once, I'm standing there in the ring. My eyes are swollen so bad, I can hardly see. All of a sudden, I bust the guy with an uppercut, he goes down. Somebody stuffs fifty bucks in my hand. Fifty bucks. Now, I'm stepping on something, and it's the other guy's teeth. "What does he get?" I ask. The referee bends over and looks, and says, "From the look of this jaw, he gets the liquid diet for six weeks." Now, what we should've done was waltz around for a few rounds, one of us falls, and we split the fifty dollars even and nobody gets hurt.
Billy Maharg Collins?
Bill Burns Nah. Collins boy is the only one on the club getting paid what he's worth. Had it in his contract when he got traded.
Billy Maharg What about Chick Gandil?
Bill Burns He might do business. Chickie's a sport.
Billy Maharg Buck Weaver?
Bill Burns Bucky's one of the boys, but the thing about Bucky is he don't like to lose. [Weaver grounds out, and then kicks the ground in disgust] Can't stand to lose. Put him on the "maybe" list.
Billy Maharg What about (Ray) Schalk?
Bill Burns Not a prayer.
Bill Burns Eddie's getting old for the game. I know the feeling. You walk out there to the mound, with your arm hanging.
Billy Maharg You couldn't pitch when you were young, Burnsie. [Burns gives him a look]
Bill Burns Eddie's the key. If we don't get Eddie, we forget about it.
Billy Maharg Guy could knock his brains out doing that!
Bill Burns What brains? Shoeless Joe's ignorant; Hap Felsch is just dumb.
Billy Maharg See, Bill, what did I tell ya? It's the little champ!
Abe Attell They don't take nickel bets here, fellas.
Bill Burns Abe Attell, right?
Abe Attell Yeah. And you...you were a ballplayer.
Bill Burns Bill Burns.
Abe Attell "Sleepy" Bill Burns! Strictly bench material.
Bill Burns I won a few games.
Abe Attell Well, you lost a few more. [To Maharg] And you, my friend, didn't get that nose bobbing for apples.
Billy Maharg I'm a fighter, sort of.
Abe Attell Sort of. Let's see...Philly?
Billy Maharg Yeah.
Abe Attell Billy Maharg!
Billy Maharg Yeah! You've seen me fight?
Abe Attell Yeah, I've seen ya - you're a bum!
Billy Maharg Hey!
Abe Attell Yeah. So, what do you two birds want?
Billy Maharg Word is that you work for Arnold Rothstein.
Bill Burns We've got a proposition to make. Could mean big bucks.
Abe Attell Well, I'm Mr. Rothstein's ears, so let's hear it.
Abe Attell It's all out on bets.
Abe Attell Hey! Don't worry, you'll get your money soon enough.
When?
And how much?
Abe Attell A hundred grand, like I said. Twenty after each game.
Wait a minute, that's five games. I thought we were just dumping a few.
Abe Attell No, you lose the first three.
Kerr's pitching the third. He's not with us.
So, what? We don't hit for him, he'll fold. He's a busher!
Abe Attell After that, we gotta play it by ear. We gotta make this look good, fellas....
Look under your pillow.
What?
Compliments of Sport Sullivan.
I thought you were supposed to be in charge of this thing. What happened to Sullivan?
He switched hotels, we can't track him down.
And what happened to Attell?
Shot his wad in the third game when Kerr won; said he's busted.
Well, to hell with them, then.
You two made an agreement!
Hey, we lose one more and it's over. I've dumped four games; I've only been paid for one.
Hey, you don't know what these guys are like. [Williams and Felsch grin and walk off] Once you're in, you're in! You can't welch on these guys! [throws his glove to the ground] Your funeral! Assholes...
They say that six or seven guys. I find that hard to believe.
Arnold Rothstein Doesn't surprise me.
Yeah, but they're the champs.
Arnold Rothstein You were champ, Abe, you went down for the bucks.
This is different.
Arnold Rothstein Look, champ. I know guys like that. I grew up with them. I was the fat kid they wouldn't let play. "Sit down, fat boy'. That's what they'd say "Sit down, maybe you'll learn something." Well, I learned something alright. Pretty soon, I owned the game, and those guys I grew up with come to me with their hats in their hands. Tell me, champ, all those years of puggin', how much money did you make?
The honest fights or the ones I tanked?
Arnold Rothstein Altogether, I must've made ten times that amount betting on you and I never took a punch.
Yeah, but I was champ. Featherweight champeen of the world!
Arnold Rothstein Yesterday. That was yesterday.
No A.R. you're wrong. I was champ, and can't nothin take that away.
You go back to Boston and turn seventy grand at the drop of a hat? I find that hard to believe.
You say you can find seven men on the best club that ever took the field willin' to throw the World Series? I find that hard to believe.
You never played for Charlie Comiskey.
It's about my bonus, Mr. Comiskey. You promised me a $10,000 bonus if I won 30 games this year and I think I deserve it.
Charles Comiskey Harry, how many games did Mr. Cicotte win for us this year?
29, Mr. Comiskey.
You told Kid to sit me down the last two weeks of the season to get ready for the series. That cost me five more starts; I know I would have won at least two more games.
Charles Comiskey We had to get your arm ready for the series.
I deserve that bonus.
Charles Comiskey 29 is not 30, Eddie. You will get only the money you deserve.
It's your ball club Mr. Comiskey.
Hired Killer You're gonna lose tomorrow.
Oh, is that so?
Hired Killer I know it for a fact. That your wife?
Yeah, what's it to you?
Hired Killer You don't lose tomorrow, she dies.
Who sent you?
Hired Killer You made a promise to certain people.
You son of a bitch!
Hired Killer You can't protect her. If I don't do it, somebody else will. First inning, Mister Williams.
Look at those hands, ladies. You should have been a pug, Chickie.
I did some fighting in my time. Once I was fighting a guy, my eyes were all bloody but I landed a lucky punch. The next thing I know I'm steppin' on something and it's the other guy's teeth. The referee raised my hand and someone shoved fifty bucks in my shorts. "What does he get?" I asked. The referee says, "From the looks of this jaw, a liquid diet for six weeks." Now what we should have done is held each other up for thirteen rounds and split the fifty.
