Joe Jackson

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Joseph Jefferson Jackson (Shoeless Joe)

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 200 lb.

Debut August 25, 1908
Final Game September 27, 1920
Born July 16, 1889 in Pickens County, SC USA
Died December 5, 1951 in Greenville, SC USA

BR Page

1 Biographical Information
2 Quotes
3 Notable Achievements
4 Further Reading
5 External Links

[edit] Biographical Information

"I copied 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." - Babe Ruth

Joe Jackson is one of the most controversial major leaguers of all time, with an extremely high lifetime batting average of .356, and a famous history as part of the Black Sox who were banned from baseball as a result of events surrounding the 1919 World Series.

Shoeless Joe received his moniker way back in 1908. He played with a team in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Upon wearing new spikes for only one day, Joe had developed some pretty horrific blisters. He didn't want to play the next game against a team in Anderson, his team needed him though. Joe tried to play through the pain brought on by his new spikes. Unable to take the pain anymore, Joe took off his size 10 1/2 spikes for one inning. He came up to bat with just his socks on and hit a triple. Rumor has it that as he was pulling up at third an Anderson fan hollered "You shoeless son of a gun you!" This name stuck with him his whole "Hall of Fame worthy" career.

Joe named his favorite bat "Black Betsy." It was 36 inches long and weighed 48 ounces. Joe believed bats had only so many hits in them and when he went into a slump, Joe would discard the bat and get a new one. The only bat Joe did not discard was his original Black Betsy. Joe said hairpins brought him good luck and he would pick them up where ever he saw them... the rustier the better. Like the bats, when Joe was going through a slump he would discard his collection of hairpins and start over. Joe would keep the hairpins in the back pocket of his baseball uniform.

Joe Jackson started out as a pitcher on the mill league team, but because he threw the ball so hard and broke the catcher's arm, they placed him in the outfield.

He was an illiterate mill worker when he came to Philadelphia in 1908. Connie Mack traded him away in 1910 for Bris Lord, so Jackson missed out on the 1910 World Series and the 1911 World Series. He hit .408 in 1911 while with Cleveland. Had the same rules been in place then that are in place today, he would hold the record for highest Batting Average ever by a Rookie. Still, his average that year ranks 6th all-time for highest average in a single-season (post-1900).

Joe Jackson was suspended from playing baseball in 1920 for allegations of his involvement in the throwing of the 1919 World Series. Say it ain't so Joe... well it ain't. The famous incident about the kid outside the courthouse saying to Joe "Say it ain't so Joe," never happened; it was made up by Charley Owens of the Chicago Daily News. White Sox owner Charles Comiskey testified under oath three times that he did not believe Joe Jackson had anything to do with the throwing of the 1919 World Series.

In 1921, a Chicago jury acquitted Jackson of aiding to fix the 1919 World Series. But Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, first commissioner of baseball, went against the court's decision and banned Jackson and seven other Chicago players from baseball for life. Although Joe Jackson is ineligible to be a member of the Hall of Fame, there are photographs of him on the walls of Cooperstown. There are even a pair of his spikes in a glass case. However, Ted Williams elected Joe into his Hitters' Hall of Fame.

In 1924, Jackson, along with two other banned players - Happy Felsch and Swede Risberg - sued the Chicago White Sox for back wages left unpaid after Landis banned them from baseball. Jackson's claim was the largest, as he had only completed the first year of a three-year contract at the time, and claimed that it could not be terminated without cause, as the White Sox had allegedly done. While his two teammates settled their case out of court, Jackson's went to trial in Milwaukee, WI, where the White Sox were incorporated. The jury found in his favor, but the presiding judge overturned their verdict, based on the fact that some of Jackson's testimony contradicted what he had told the grand jury in 1921 and thereby constituted perjury. In his deposition prior to the trial, Jackson stated that while he did receive money, he never played at anything but his best level during the 1919 World Series.

After baseball Joe owned and operated a barbecue restaurant and then a liquor store. He died on December 5, 1951 at home in Greenville, SC. His death certificate dated December 9, 1951 lists the cause of death as "coronary thrombosis" caused by "arteriosclerosis" and "cirrhosis of the liver." He is buried at Section V plot 333, Woodlawn Memorial Park in Greenville.

Joe did not choose military service because he had four brothers already in the service... and he was the only man of age in his family that could help support his mother Martha and one of his sisters who was crippled (Joe was sending money to his mother before his shipbuilding days and after). At the urging of his wife Katie, Joe chose the shipbuilding industry over carrying a weapon. Joe went to work for Bethlehem Steel's Wilmington, DE plant (Harlan and Hollingsworth). There were many players who "worked" at this plant and Bethlehem's Charles Schwab saw a great opportunity to create a league of his own... which he did with all this talent he had working for him.

Jackson played his last season in the majors at age 30. He was born in 1889, and other major league players born the same year include Joe Wood, whose career ended in 1922, Hooks Dauss, whose career ended in 1926, Stan Coveleski, whose career ended in 1928, Amos Strunk, whose career ended in 1924, Wally Schang, whose career ended in 1931, Heinie Groh, whose career ended in 1927, and Jack Fournier, whose career also ended in 1927. It is likely that Jackson, had he not been banned, would have played four to seven years more in the majors. Since the lively ball era was starting, his batting average might have risen higher than his lifetime .356, although it is not clear that he would have finished over 3,000 hits.

Even today, there are people pushing for Joe's admission into the Hall of Fame. See, for example, an article called "The Greatest Player Not in the Hall of Fame" - [1]. Of course, either he or Pete Rose is clearly the greatest player not in the Hall, but that's not exactly the question...

There is no player truly similar to Joe Jackson, but the most similar players are Pete Browning and Elmer Flick. Flick is an interesting comparison because he finished out his career with the 1910 Cleveland Naps while Jackson was a youngster trying to become a regular on the same team.

[edit] Quotes

"God knows I gave my best in baseball at all times and no man on earth can truthfully judge me otherwise."

-- Joe Jackson

"When I was up there at the plate, my purpose was to get on base anyway I could, whether by hitting or by getting hit."

-- Joe Jackson

"What a hell of a league this is. Ah hit .387, .408, and .395 the last three years and Ah ain't won nothin' yet!"

-- Joe Jackson

"I felt I was duty-bound under contract to stick with Cleveland, and I can truthfully say, in all my playing days there and everywhere, I never shirked a duty to baseball."

-- Joe Jackson

"I ain't afraid to tell the world that it don't take school stuff to help a fella play ball."

-- Joe Jackson

"Hey, big mouth (yelling out to a heckler), how do you spell triple?"

-- Joe Jackson

"When I walked out of Judge Dever's courtroom in Chicago in 1921, I turned my back completely on the World Series of 1919, the Chicago White Sox, and the major leagues. I had been acquitted by a twelve-man jury in a civil court of all charges and I was an innocent man in the records."

-- Joe Jackson

"As I pulled into third, some big guy stood up and hollered: "You shoeless sonofagun, you!" They picked it up and started calling me Shoeless Joe all around the league, and it stuck. I never played the outfield barefoot, and that was the only day I ever played in my stockinged feet, but it stuck with me."

-- Joe Jackson

"I have no axe to grind, that I'm not asking anybody for anything. It's all water over the dam as far as I am concerned. I can say that my conscience is clear and that I'll stand on my record in that World Series. I'm not what you call a good Christian, but I believe in the Good Book, particularly where it says "what you sow, so shall you reap." I have asked the Lord for guidance before, and I am sure He gave it to me. I'm willing to let the Lord be my judge."

-- Joe Jackson

"Jackson's fall from grace is one of the real tragedies of baseball. I always thought he was more sinned against than sinning."

-- Connie Mack

"I copied 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."

-- Babe Ruth

"Everything he hit was really blessed. He could break bones with his shots. Blindfold me and I could still tell you when Joe hit the ball. It had a special crack."

-- Ernie Shore

"Cleveland fans don't think Joe is as good as Ty Cobb. They are of the unanimous opinion that he is better than the Tigers' star."

-- Sporting Life, April 29, 1911

[edit] Notable Achievements

AL On-Base Percentage Leader (1911)
AL Slugging Percentage Leader (1913)
AL OPS Leader (1913)
2-time AL Hits Leader (1912 & 1913)
2-time AL Total Bases Leader (1912 & 1916)
AL Doubles Leader (1913)
3-time AL Triples Leader (1912, 1916 & 1920)
100 RBI Seasons: 1 (1920)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 4 (1911-1913 & 1920)
200 Hits Seasons: 4 (1911, 1912, 1916 & 1920)
Won a World Series with the Chicago White Sox in 1917

[edit] Further Reading

Howard Burman: A Man Called Shoeless, PublishAmerica, Frederick, MD, 2006.
Gene Carney: "New Light on an Old Scandal", in The Baseball Research Journal, Society for American Baseball Research, Cleveland, OH, # 35 (2007), pp. 74-81.
David L. Fleitz: Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2001.
Harvey Frommer: Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball, Taylor Trade Publishing, Lanham, MD, 1992.
Donald Gropman: Say It Ain't So, Joe! The True Story of Shoeless Joe Jackson Carol Publishing Group, New York, NY, 1992.
Thomas K. Perry: Just Joe: Baseball's Natural, as told by his wife, Pocol Press, Clifton, VA, 2007.