Shoeless Joe Jackson

From New World Encyclopedia

Shoeless Joe Jackson
Outfielder
Born: July 16 1888(1888-07-16)
Pickens County, South Carolina
Died: December 5 1951 (aged 63)
Greenville, South Carolina
Batted: Left Threw: Right
MLB debut
August 25, 1908
for the Philadelphia Athletics
Final game
September 27, 1920
for the Chicago White Sox
Career statistics
Batting average     .356
Hits     1,772
Run batted in     785
Teams
  • Philadelphia Athletics (1908-1909)
  • Cleveland Naps/Indians (1910-1915)
  • Chicago White Sox (1915-1920)
Career highlights and awards
  • World Series champion (1917)
  • 3rd highest career batting average with .356

Joseph Jefferson Jackson (July 16, 1888 – December 5, 1951), nicknamed Shoeless Joe, was an American baseball player who played in the American League of Major League Baseball in the early part of the 20th century. Jackson enjoyed a thirteen year playing career in which he played for the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Naps(now known as the Cleveland Indians), and the infamous Chicago Whitesox.

Although he was not a power hitter, he received acclaim for his performance on the field as well as his ability to hit the ball. Jackson, who played left field for most of his career, has the third highest career batting average in Major League Baseball history, including a record-setting .408 rookie batting average in 1911.

His career was cut short due to his association with the controversial Black Sox Scandal, when members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to throw the World Series. As a result of Jackson's involvement in the scandal, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Major League Baseball's first commissioner, banned Jackson from playing after the 1920 season.[1] To this day, Shoeless Joe Jackson has been banned from receiving any honor associated with Major League Baseball, although there is currently deliberation as to the possibility of posthumously admitting him into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Early life

Joe Jackson was born in Pickens County, South Carolina, the eldest of eight children. As a young child, Jackson worked in a textile mill in nearby Brandon Mill. Jackson's job prevented him from devoting any significant time to formal education. However, he still found the time to make it to the baseball diamond. He played for the mill's team, but when he broke the catcher's arm with his powerful throw he was reassigned to the outfield.

Later,he played for a semipro Greenville team called the Greenville Spinners. During one of the games, mid-inning, he removed the new cleats that were giving him blisters, and a fan of the opposing team yelled out an insult to the shoeless runner as he rounded third base. The intended insult—"Shoeless Joe"—stuck even though Jackson had played without his spikes only one time.[2]

Throughout his life, Jackson would suffer from his illiteracy. It would become a major factor during his major league career, particularly in the Black Sox Scandal, and has even affected the value of his collectibles. While on the Cleveland Naps (Cleveland Indians), he was taken to an upscale restaurant by his teammates and was tricked into drinking from the finger bowl.

Occurrences like these haunted Jackson and caused him to leave the team multiple times. Despite being uneducated, however, he married Katie Wynn, who he often had sign his signature for autographs and memorabilia. Consequently, anything actually autographed by Jackson himself brought a premium when sold.[3]

Professional career

1908 was an eventful year for Joe Jackson. Jackson began his professional baseball career when he joined the Greenville Spinners of the Carolina Association. He married Katie Wynn and eventually signed with Connie Mack to play Major League baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics.[4]

For the first two-years of his career, Jackson had some trouble adjusting to life with the Athletics. As a result, he spent a portion of that time in the minor leagues. Between 1908 and 1909, Jackson appeared in only ten games.[5] In the 1909 season, Jackson played 118 games for the South Atlantic League team in Savannah, Georgia where he batted .358 for the year.

Major League career

Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson in Cleveland, 1913

The Athletics finally gave up on Jackson in 1910 and traded him to the Cleveland Naps. After spending time with the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association, he was called up to play on the big league team. He appeared in 20 games for the Naps that year and hit .387. In 1911, Jackson's first full-season, he set a number of rookie records. His .408 batting average that season is a record that still stands. The following season, Jackson batted .395 and led the American League in triples. The next year Jackson led the league with 197 hits and sported a .551 slugging average.

In August of 1915, Jackson was traded to the Chicago White Sox. Two-years later, Jackson and the White Sox won the World Series. During the series, Jackson batted .307 as the White Sox defeated the New York Giants.

In 1919, Jackson batted .351 during the regular season and .375 with perfect fielding in the World Series. This, however, did not prevent the heavily favored White Sox from losing the series to the Cincinnati Reds. During the next year, Jackson batted .385 and was leading the American league in triples when he was suspended, along with seven other members of the White Sox, after allegations surfaced that the team had thrown the previous World Series.

Career Highlights

  • Set the rookie batting average at .408, a record that still stands today.
  • Led the American League in triples in 1912, 1916 and 1920.
  • Led the league with 197 hits and .551 slugging average in 1913.
  • Won the World Series with the Chicago White Sox (1917).
  • Jackson batted .351 during the regular season and .375 in the World Series to go along with a perfect 1.000 fielding average.
  • Batted .340 or better for eight of his thirteen seasons.
  • Ranked 3rd in All-time batting average with .356.

Black Sox scandal

After the White Sox unexpectedly lost the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, eight players, including Jackson, were accused of throwing the Series. In September 1920, a grand jury was convened to investigate.

During the Series, Jackson had 12 hits and a .375 batting average—in both cases leading both teams. He committed no errors, and even threw out a runner at the plate.[6] Jackson did bat far worse in the five games that the White Sox lost, hitting .286, with no RBI until the final contest, Game 8, when he hit a home run in the 3rd inning and added two more RBI on a double in the 8th, when the White Sox were way behind. Nevertheless, this lower average during the team's losses is not necessarily indicative of anything more than the fact that teams usually fare better when their star players have good games and are more likely to lose when they do not.

The Cincinnati Reds also hit an unusually high number of triples to left field during the series, far exceeding the amount that Jackson—generally considered a strong defensive player—normally allowed.[1] However, it should be taken into account that an eight game series is a very small sample size upon which to make any definitive conclusions based upon outlier statistics.

In testimony before the grand jury, Jackson admitted under oath that he agreed to participate in the fix. He also admitted to complaining to other conspirators that he had not received his full $20,000 share. Legend has it that leaving the courthouse during the trial, a young boy begged of Jackson, "Say it ain't so, Joe." In his 1949 interview in Sport Magazine, Jackson debunked this story as a myth.[7]

Jackson never responded, but in 1921, a Chicago jury acquitted him and his seven White Sox teammates of wrongdoing. Nevertheless, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the newly appointed Commissioner of Baseball, banned all eight accused players, claiming baseball's need to clean up its image took precedence over legal judgments. As a result, Jackson never played major league baseball after the 1920 season.

Was Jackson innocent?

To this day, his name remains on the Major League Baseball Ineligible list. Jackson cannot be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame unless his name is removed from that list. However, he spent most of the last 30 years of his life proclaiming his innocence. He released a statement stating, “Regardless of what anybody says, I was innocent of any wrong-doing. I gave baseball all I had. The Supreme Being is the only one to whom I’ve got to answer. If I had been out there booting balls and looking foolish at bat against the Reds, there might have been some grounds for suspicion. I think my record in the 1919 World Series will stand up against that of any other man in that Series or any other World Series in all history.”[8] In November 1999, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a motion to honor his sporting achievements, supporting a move to have the ban posthumously rescinded, so that he could be admitted to the Hall of Fame.[9] The motion was symbolic, as the U.S. Government has no jurisdiction in the matter. At the time, MLB commissioner Bud Selig confirmed that Jackson's case was under review, but to date, no action has been taken that would allow Jackson's admittance.

In recent years, evidence has come to light that casts doubt on Jackson's role in the fix. For instance, Jackson initially refused to take a payment of $5,000, only to have Lefty Williams toss it on the floor of his hotel room. Jackson then tried to tell White Sox owner Charles Comiskey about the fix, but Comiskey refused to meet with him. Also, before Jackson's grand jury testimony, team attorney Alfred Austrian coached Jackson's testimony in a manner that would be considered highly unethical even by the standards of the time, and would probably be considered criminal by today's standards. For instance, Austrian got Jackson to admit a role in the fix by pouring a large amount of whiskey down Jackson's throat. He also got the nearly illiterate Jackson to sign a waiver of immunity. Years later, the other seven players implicated in the scandal confirmed that Jackson was never at any of the meetings. Williams, for example, said that they only mentioned Jackson's name to give their plot more credibility.[6]

Aftermath

During the remaining twenty years of his baseball career, Jackson played and managed with a number of minor league teams, most located in Georgia and South Carolina. In 1922, Jackson returned to Savannah and opened a dry cleaning business.

In 1933, the Jacksons moved back to Greenville, South Carolina. After first opening a barbecue restaurant, Jackson and his wife opened "Joe Jackson's Liquor Store," which they operated until his death. One of the better known stories of Jackson's post-major league life took place at his liquor store. Ty Cobb and sportswriter Grantland Rice entered the store, with Jackson showing no sign of recognition towards his former teammate. After making his purchase, the incredulous Cobb finally asked Jackson, "Don't you know me, Joe?" Jackson replied, "Sure, I know you, Ty, but I wasn't sure you wanted to know me. A lot of them don't."[10]

Eight Men Out

Eight Men Out, directed by John Sayless, is based on the book, 8 Men Out published by Eliot Asinof in 1963. The film extrapolates the 1919 Black Sox Scandal and sheds light on the players, management, and the organization itself. The film, although receiving positive feedback from the majority of critics for its idealistic enthusiasm, evoked the tragic reality of a team destroyed by controversy.

Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams is a 1989 fantasy film directed by Phil Alden Robinson, and is an adaptation of W.P. Kinsella's, Shoeless Joe Jackson. The impact this movie had in immortalizing the lost legacy of the eight banned White Sox players is immeasurable. One of the most famous lines from the film are delivered by the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the entire group of banned White Sox: "If you build it, he will come." This line refers to building a baseball diamond in a corn field, and in many ways, mirrors Jackson's own journey of struggle and resiliency en route to stardom as a baseball player.

Death

As he aged, Joe Jackson began to suffer from heart trouble. In 1951, at the age of 63, Jackson died of a heart attack. He is buried at nearby Woodlawn Memorial Park.

Legacy

Shoeless Joe Jackson's legacy rests safely as his .356 career batting average, ranking him third in Major League Baseball history. He is remembered for his hitting prowess as well as his stellar defense in left field. For instance, one of the greatest hitters of any generation, Babe Ruth is quoted saying, "I copied (Shoeless Joe) Jackson's style because I thought he was the greatest hitter I had ever seen, the greatest natural hitter I ever saw. He's the guy who made me a hitter." [11] Unfortunately, however, Jackson will be best known for his role in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, in which he and seven other teammates were accused of throwing the World Series in favor of the Cincinnati Reds. To this day, Jackson's role has been controversial at best; however, his legacy continues to suffer as he may be the best player to not be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum and Library

In Shoeless Joe's honor, Jackson faithfuls transformed his former home into a museum in their fight to restore his legacy. His former home will be reopened as the Shoeless Joe Jackson Baseball Museum and Library at 356 Field Street. The “356” is a reference to the legend’s career batting average. Sixty-six year old president of the museum’s foundation, Arlene Marcley, says that, “We want the museum to be Ground Zero for Joe’s election to the Hall of Fame.” [12]


Books

  • "Shoeless: The Life And Times of Joe Jackson", by David L. Fleitz (2001, McFarland & Company Publishers)
  • Shoeless Joe, a novel by W. P. Kinsella
  • 8 Men Out, by Eliot Asinof
  • Joe Jackson: A Biography, by Kelly Boyer Sagert
  • Say It Ain't So, Joe!: The True Story of Shoeless Joe Jackson, by Donald Gropman
  • A Man Called Shoeless, by Howard Burman
  • "Burying the Black Sox" (Potomac, Spring 2006) by Gene Carney
  • "Shoeless Joe & Me" (HarperCollins, 2002) by Dan Gutman

Films and plays

  • Eight Men Out, film directed by John Sayles, based on the Asinof book and starring D.B. Sweeney as Jackson
  • Field of Dreams, film based on the Kinsella book, with Ray Liotta as Jackson

Jackson's nickname was also worked into the musical play Damn Yankees. The lead character, baseball phenomenon Joe Hardy, alleged to be from a small town in Missouri, is dubbed by the media as "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, MO." The play also contains a plot element alleging that Joe had thrown baseball games in his earlier days.

Jackson was also an inspiration, in part, for the character Roy Hobbs in The Natural. Hobbs has a special name for his bat, and is offered a bribe to throw a game. In the book (but not the film) a youngster pleads with Hobbs, "Say it ain't so, Roy!"

Notes

  1. Joe Jackson FAQ. blackbetsy.com.
  2. Humble Beginnings Retrieved August 25, 2008
  3. Signature Sale. jondube.com.
  4. Shoeless Joe: A Major League Player Retrieved August 30, 2008
  5. JoeJackson.com Biography. shoelessjoejackson.com.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Purdy, Dennis (2006). The Team-by-Team Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball. New York City: Workman. ISBN 0761139435. 
  7. Joe Jackson: This is the Truth
  8. Joe's Story Retrieved August 29th, 2008
  9. U.S. House Backs Shoeless Joe. CBS.com.
  10. Ty Cobb & Joe Jackson story. www.pde.state.pa.us.
  11. Ruth on Shoeless Joe Retrieved August 30, 2008
  12. Shoeless Joe Tribute] Retrieved August 30, 2008

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Asinof, Eliot. 1987. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series. New York: H. Holt. ISBN 0805003460
  • Fleitz, David. 2001. Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co. ISBN 0786409789
  • Gropman, Donald. 1979. Say It Ain't So, Joe!: The Story of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316329258
  • Nathan, Daniel A. 2003. Saying It's So: A Cultural History of the Black Sox Scandal. Sport and society. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252027655

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