Shoeless Joe Jackson
Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (July 16, 1889 – December 5, 1951) was a left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. One of the greatest hitters of his era, he was one of eight players banished for life from professional baseball for his alleged participation in the Black Sox scandal, this being the basis for his exclusion from baseball's Hall of Fame.
Born in Pickens County, South Carolina, he is considered to be one of the most outstanding hitters in the history of the game, to the point that Babe Ruth claimed that he modeled his hitting technique after Jackson's. Jackson is the only rookie to have batted over .400; he hit .408 for Cleveland in 1911 (although he would not be considered a rookie by today's definition). His career .356 batting average is the third highest in history, after Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.
The nickname "Shoeless" came from when he played for his mill team before he played in the major leagues. He took his shoes off before he went to hit, and when he got to base a fan started yelling inappropriate and vulgars comments at him. One of the things he was called was a "shoeless son-of-a-bitch". The name stuck with him all the way to the major leagues.
Black Sox scandal
Jackson always maintained his innocence in the Black Sox scandal and insisted that he was playing his best in the 1919 World Series. Supporters point out the World Series statistics show that he maintained a .375 batting average and played well in the field, throwing out five baserunners and handling thirty chances in the outfield with no errors. On the basis of these statistics, they maintain that Joe was obviously not participating in the players' conspiracy.
Jackson's detractors counter that he seemed to have hit well only when there were no runners on base or when games were out of reach, and that he hit poorly at points when he could have helped his team most. In the five games that the White Sox lost (in the best-of-nine Series), Jackson had only one RBI, that coming on a home run in the deciding game 8. Defenders of Jackson say that in order to only try when there was no one on base or the game was lost would mean that Jackson somehow managed to bat at an absurd level when he was actually trying.
Also against his case is the fact that Jackson admitted under oath that he agreed to participate in the fix, and accepted $5,000 as part-payment for his cooperation (a sum he claimed to have attempted to return twice). He also admitted to complaining to other conspirators that he had not received his full share. He was advised by the lawyer of Charles Comiskey during this entire time and was encouraged to admit to the fix in a clear conflict of interest. His banishment was based primarily on these admissions. A jury, however, acquitted him of criminal charges related to the scandal, although the trial itself could also be regarded as having been fixed, key evidence having gone missing from the prosecutor's office shortly before the trial.
Yet another fact that is often cited by anti-Jackson advocates is that the Reds hit an unusually high number of triples to left field during the series, suggesting that Jackson, generally considered a good defensive player, might not have been playing his best in the field.
In the fifth inning of game 4 Jackson made a telling play from left field. With a Cincinnati player on second a single was hit to left field and fielded by Jackson. He then fired the ball towards home plate. Eyewitness accounts say that the ball was heading directly for home plate and would have resulted in an out had pitcher Eddie Cicotte, one of the ringleaders of the fix, not directly interfered with the throw. Because of Cicotte's actions a run scored. The White Sox would lose the game 2-0. The Official Scorer of the 1919 World Series, James C. Hamilton, testified under oath in a later civil trial between Jackson and Charles Comiskey that the throw was honest and that Cicotte jumped up, knocked it down and booted it for an error. Jackson, if indeed in on the fix, could easily have thrown off target. The fact that Cicotte took it upon himself to knock the ball down leads many to conclude that Cicotte knew Jackson was playing honest ball. Further supporting Jackson's innocence is the autobiography of Chick Gandil, another ringleader of the fix. He would admit to yelling at Cicotte to intercept the throw so that the run would score. Many believe that this play shows that both ringleaders of the fix knew Jackson to be playing honest ball and did not trust him to throw the games.
The judge paid to decide the outcome of the case had found Jackson guilty on the charges of not reporting the scandal in the first place. Even though Jackson may have played his best, he was guilty of keeping quiet.
The phrase "Say it ain't so, Joe" is based on a young fan's comment to Jackson at the conclusion of the Black Sox scandal (possibly apocryphal). Jackson denied that there was any such incident, and he was extensively filmed leaving the courthouse without anything of the sort occurring.
After being banned from the majors, Jackson played extensively in semipro leagues in Georgia and South Carolina. He never played under an assumed name as the films Field of Dreams and Eight Men Out suggest. In fact he earned a healthy living as a ballplayer and also as a successful businessman after the ban. In 1929 he and his wife, Katherine, moved to Greenville, South Carolina. By the 1940s, he was working at his liquor store when former adversary Ty Cobb and sportswriter Grantland Rice entered as customers. But Jackson showed no signs of recognition. Following an impersonal transaction, Cobb finally asked, "Don't you know me, Joe?" "Sure, I know you, Ty," replied Jackson, "but I wasn’t sure you wanted to speak to me. A lot of them don't."
Joe Jackson suffered from heart trouble in his later years and died in Greenville in 1951. He is buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park there. Jackson's last words before his death were "I'm about to face the greatest umpire of all and he knows I am innocent".
Career Statistics
see: Career Statistics for an explanation of these statistics.
| G | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | R | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| 1,332 | 4,981 | 1,772 | 307 | 168 | 54 | 873 | 785 | 519 | 158 | .356 | .423 | .517 |
His .356 batting average is the third highest career batting average behind only Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby. His 1911 batting average of .408 is the sixth highest for a season in the twentieth century.
Despite being banned from baseball at what should have been roughly the two-thirds mark of his career, and being excluded from election to the Hall of Fame, in 1999, he ranked Number 35 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
Quotations
- He is the greatest natural hitter I ever saw.
- —Ty Cobb, Hall of Fame outfielder
- I decided to pick out the greatest hitter to watch and study, and (Joe) Jackson was good enough for me.
- —Babe Ruth, Hall of Fame outfielder and slugger
- I am going to meet the greatest umpire of all--and He knows I am innocent.
- Joe Jackson
External links
- Career statistics from MLB · ESPN · Baseball Reference · Fangraphs · Baseball Reference (Minors) · Retrosheet
- Shoeless Joe Jackson's Virtual Hall of Fame
- The Official Web Site
- Shoeless Joe Jackson at Find-A-Grave
Books
- Shoeless Joe, a novel by W. P. Kinsella
- Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof, an account of the 1919 World Series fix
- Joe Jackson: A Biography, by Kelly Boyer Sagert
- Say It Ain't So, Joe!: The True Story of Shoeless Joe Jackson, by Donald Gropman, also includes the Ted Williams and Bob Feller Petition to admit Jackson into the Baseball Hall of Fame
Films
- Eight Men Out, directed by John Sayles, based on the Asinof book and starring D.B. Sweeney as Jackson
- Field of Dreams, based on the Kinsella book, with Ray Liotta as Jackson