“Shoeless” Joe Jackson is one of the most famous baseball players in history–and one of the most tragic. He was a fantastic hitter, frequently leading the league in triples, and the legendary Babe Ruth himself drew from his technique.
But the infamous Black Sox Scandal in 1919 put a premature end to his baseball career and has tainted his reputation ever since.
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Early Life and Minor League Career
Joseph Jackson was born in 1887 to a dirt-poor family in South Carolina. They lived in a company town just outside Greenville, and Jackson started working at the local textile mill by the age of six. He never went to school, and remained illiterate his whole life.
Jackson’s baseball career began with the team set up by the textile mill that competed against other mills in the area. He quickly proved himself a good player. He also earned his famous nickname, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, after taking his shoes off and playing in his stockings. He did it because he had not yet broken in the shoes and they irritated his feet. He wasn’t a big fan of the nickname, since he only played shoeless in that one game.
In 1908, Greenville obtained a class-D team called the Spinners, and Jackson signed on with them. Due to his illiteracy, he had to sign the contract with an X. He quickly became the star of the league, and before the season ended, the Philadelphia Athletics purchased his contract.
Being an uneducated country boy, Jackson had difficulty fitting in with the Athletics. During the next two years, he only appeared in 10 MLB games, and spent the rest of the time playing for the minor leagues. In 1910, the Athletics traded him to the Cleveland Naps, but, again, Jackson spent most of the season playing for the minor league New Orleans Pelicans.
Major League Career
In 1911, Jackson finally spent a full season playing for the big leagues. He quickly became a star. Jackson’s .408 batting average was the second-highest in the league, after Ty Cobb’s .420. He swung his bat a bit differently from other players – he would keep his hands together at the base of the bat and take a full, powerful swing – and in 1919, Babe Ruth himself said he copied his swing after Jackson’s.
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In 1912, Jackson led the league in triples (26), and in 1913 he led the league in hits (197) and slugging (a .551 percentage). In 1915, he was traded to the White Sox. In 1917, the White Sox beat the New York Giants to win the World Series.
But in 1918, things began to fall apart. World War I raged in Europe, and the United States had recently joined the conflict. Several White Sox players either enlisted in the army or were drafted. As a married man, Jackson had an exemption from the Greenville draft – at first. After the rules changed, Jackson worked in a Delaware shipyard, building battleships. The government needed such work as essential war service and exempted those workers from the draft.
Some members of the press expressed displeasure with Jackson’s actions, branding him a coward for evading the draft. Jackson went on to play baseball in a league the workers had created for themselves. He led the shipyard league in batting average (.393) and led his team to the shipyard championship.
The 1919 World Series
And then came the 1919 World Series. At this point in time, the White Sox were the best team in baseball, and they were going up against the Cincinnati Reds. In the infamous Black Sox scandal, eight players–of which Jackson was one–were bribed into throwing the series.
Jackson’s guilt in the scandal has long been a topic of fierce debate, with different conflicting bits of information. Supporting his innocence is the fact he still performed quite well during the series (though he hit worse in the games the players threw). Also, Lefty Williams, another one of the conspirators, claimed they just mentioned Jackson’s name to give the plot more credibility.
However, Jackson received $5,000 for the scandal, which he tried to return. He even tried to tell the White Sox’s owner, Charles Comiskey, about the fix, but he wouldn’t meet with him.
Jackson gave a fantastic performance in the 1920 season, batting .382 and leading the league with 20 triples, but his career was about to abruptly come to an end. On September 28, 1920, the eight participants in the scandal appeared before a grand jury. (This is where, according to legend, a small child outside the courthouse told Jackson to “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” but this story is actually false, apparently made up by a reporter.)
Though the conspirators were all acquitted, the newly appointed Commissioner of Baseball, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, banned them from the sport for life. Not only that, but Jackson has been on MLB’s ineligible list ever since, meaning he’s never been inducted into the Hall of Fame despite his skills as a player.
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Jackson’s Life After Baseball
Despite having been kicked out of organized baseball, Jackson would continue to play for some of the unorganized leagues, such as the South Georgia League. There, Jackson led the team from Americus, Georgia to a championship.
He and his wife moved back to Greenville and opened several businesses, including a restaurant and liquor store. Supposedly, Cobb once visited this store, where Jackson treated him like a stranger. When Cobb asked Jackson if he knew him, Jackson replied, “Sure, I know you, Ty, but I wasn’t sure you wanted to know me.”
He tried several times for reinstatement to organized baseball. At the very least, Jackson wanted the chance to get inducted into the Hall of Fame. But it never happened. Jackson died of a heart attack in 1951, more than 30 years after being banned from the sport. He was 64 years old.
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