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Shoeless Joe Jackson

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Joseph Jefferson Jackson (July 16, 1888 – December 5, 1951), nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American baseball player who played Major League Baseball in the early part of the 20th century. He is remembered for his performance on the field, and for his association with the Black Sox Scandal, when members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox participated in a conspiracy to fix the World Series. As a result of Jackson's association with the scandal, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Major League Baseball's first commissioner banned Jackson from playing after the 1920 season.

Jackson played for three different Major League teams during his twelve-year career. He spent 1908-09 as a member of the Philadelphia Athletics; 1910 through the first part of the 1915 with the Cleveland Naps/Indians; and the remainder of the 1915 season through 1920 with the Chicago White Sox.

Jackson, who played left field for most of his career, currently has the third highest career batting average. In 1911, Jackson hit for a .408 average. That average is still the sixth highest single-season total since 1901, which marked the beginning of the modern era for the sport. His average that year set the record for highest batting average in a single season by a rookie. Babe Ruth claimed that he modeled his hitting technique after Jackson's.

Jackson still holds the White Sox franchise records for triples in a season and career batting average, 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.

Early life

Joe Jackson was born in Pickens County, South Carolina. 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. The absence of a formal education would be prevalent throughout Jackson's life. It would even become a factor during the Black Sox Scandal and has even affected the value of his collectibles. Because Jackson was uneducated, he often had his wife sign his signature. Consequently, any thing autographed by Jackson himself brings a premium when sold. In 1900, at the age of 13, Jackson started to play for the Brandon Mill baseball team.

Jackson gets a nickname

According to Jackson, he got his nickname during a game with the Brandon Mill team. Jackson suffered from a blister on his foot from a new pair of cleats. They hurt so much that he had to take his shoes off before an at bat. Once Jackson was on base, a fan started yelling inappropriate and vulgar comments at him. One of the things Jackson was called was a "Shoeless son of a gun." The name stuck with him throughout the remainder of his life.

Professional career

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

Major League career

File:Cobb Jackson.jpg
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, the Naps called him 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 .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. Unfortunately, the heavily favored White Sox lost 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.

Black Sox scandal

Main article: Black Sox Scandal

After the White Sox unexpectedly lost the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, eight players, including Jackson, were accused of losing games intentionally. In September 1920, a grand jury was convened to investigate. In 1921, A Chicago jury acquitted the eight players of fixing the 1919 World Series. However, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, the newly appointed Commissioner of Baseball, banned all eight players. Jackson never played major league baseball after the 1920 season.

Aftermath

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

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 more well known stories of Jackson's post-major league life took place at his liquor store. Ty Cobb and sportswriter Grantland Rice entered the store to shop. After Cobb finished his purchased, he 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."

As he aged, Joe Jackson began to suffer from heart trouble. In 1951, at the age of 64, Jackson died of a heart attack. He is buried at nearby Woodlawn Memorial Park. 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.

Career statistics

see: Baseball statistics for an explanation of these statistics.

GABH2B3BHRRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLG
1,3324,9811,77230716854873785519158.356.423.517

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
  • Eight 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

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.

Notes and references

  1. "Joe Jackson FAQ". blackbetsy.com. Retrieved 2006-11-23.
  2. During Jackson's time with the franchise, Cleveland was known as the Indians in some years and as the Naps in other years
  3. Although he was in the majors as early as 1908, Major League rules at the time stipulated that a player was considered a rookie until he has had more than 130 at-bats in a season.
  4. "The Baseball Page". thebaseballpage.com/players/jacksjo01.php. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
  5. Listed at .340, his batting average while with the franchise.
  6. "Black Betsy Sale". shoelessjoejackson.com. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
  7. "Signature Sale". jondube.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |access date= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "Joe Jackson Timeline". blackbetsy.com. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
  9. ^ "Chicago Historical Society". chicagohs.com. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
  10. "JoeJackson.com Biography". shoelessjoejackson.com. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
  11. "Ty Cobb & Joe Jackson story" (PDF). www.pde.state.pa.us. Retrieved 2006-11-23.

External links

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