This is a super long post-
Don't say you weren't warned
I've promised myself for a long time that I would write this post.
It runs deep for me.
I've never seen him. I haven't even seen much moving film of him.
I've seen plenty of pictures of him.
Most of the pictures give a glimpse of how much he loved baseball.
But with each picture, the happiness of how he felt during the time of the picture is replaced by my sadness of what happened in real life.
He was born in 1887. Poor. Dirt poor. His daddy was a sharecropper. His mama tended to the family.
Education was an extravagance for poor folks.
At age six, he started work in a mill. He swept floors for workers in 12 hour shifts and bring the little money that he made home to his daddy and mama. He continued working in the mills till at the age of 10, he contracted measles.
During the next two months, he was thought to be at death's door on more than one occasion. His mama nursed him back to health and his life in the mill resumed.
Some of the men at the mill would play baseball after a shift and he would join in. At 10, he was young, but athletic.
The older fellas would marvel that he could do some of the things that men twice his age were not able to do.
At 12, he could throw harder than any man at the mill. Back in the day, these mill teams would challenge and play mill teams from other towns. Some even formed leagues.
At age 13, the owner of the mill approached his mama and asked permission for him to play on the mill team. It would mean an extra $2.50 every Saturday. He loved the game and the extra money was a bonanza for them. He was to get his first taste of 'organized' baseball.
With the most powerful arm at the mill, he pitched. But, he threw so hard that other teams did not want to play them. When he broke the arm of a batter, it was decided that the best place for him would be the outfield. His talent at running, hitting, and throwing the ball overshadowed others.
He went to the highest bidding mill team, a practice that few players were allowed then. Knowing that he came from a poor background, folks started giving him gifts such as new gloves, baseball bats, and new shoes. It was the new shoes that would help in giving him his lifetime nickname.
After wearing the new cleats, he developed blisters on his feet and decided to play in stockinged feet for a couple of weeks. He hit a triple, but upon arriving at third base, an opposing fan heckled, "Ya Shoeless Scum ya!"
By now, you know I'm talking about Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Joe was signed to a professional contract in 1908. It was the start of a perfect year for him. His huge (to him) contract worth $325 in hand, he would start his pro career in the minor leagues close to the very town in which he had grown up.
He performed well and at the end of the year was called up to the Athletics.
Joe was bullied, ridiculed, and hazed over his 'hayseed' ways. He had never been to a big city and had never played with men so different than himself. He left the Athletics after five games and went home.
Over the off season, Joe told Connie Mack that he was ready to quit. Mack asked him to give it another try. That Joe could start off in the minor leagues again, then give the Majors another try.
Joe agreed.
He tore up the minors again, and again was promoted to the Majors.
Joe still felt out of place and told Mr. Mack.
The following off season, Joe was traded to the Cleveland Naps. The name coming from the best player Cleveland had, Napoleon Lajoie. He played most of 1910 where he felt the most comfortable, the south. For New Orleans, Cleveland's highest minor league team, he led the league in batting and in turn, lead New Orleans to a pennant.
Afterwards, he was called up to Cleveland. The Major Leaguers on that ball club treated him as one of their own and he was on his way to a great career.
In his first full season in 1911, Jackson hit .408, steal 41 bases, and have 71 extra base hits. This, during the dead ball era.
Jackson would average close to .400 during the 1911-13 seasons. He finished runner-up to Ty Cobb in batting each year. Back then, the batting champ from each league won a new automobile for winning the batting title. The car was worth more than what a lot of players were being paid. Joe Jackson never did win a batting title. He finished second three times, third twice and would end his career with the highest batting average, .356, to have never won a batting title.
The players that he played against held Jackson in the highest regard. Walter Johnson considered Jackson the greatest natural player he had ever seen. Babe Ruth was so impressed with Jackson that upon breaking into the Big Leagues, he copied Joe's batting stance. Ruth would later say that Jackson was the best hitter he ever saw.
As mentioned before, Jackson never did go to school. His signature was an 'X'. He couldn't read. Since he couldn't read a menu, when ordering food in restaurants, he would wait for other players to order their food, pick out what was best for him from their orders, then tell the waiter his choice. Autograph seekers would get gibberish for an autograph. Autographs sent to his home were signed by his wife.
In 1915, Jackson was traded to the White Sox. His teammates treated Jackson well. They admired his abilities on the field and 'put up' with his backwards background. The Chicago press was less kind. They were a more refined bunch than those from Cleveland and did not take to Jackson at all.
A sportswriter for a Chicago newspaper exclaimed that Joe was a gullible yokul and that it wouldn't surprise him to learn that Jackson had put a down payment on the Brooklyn Bridge.
In 1917, Jackson led the White Sox to a pennant and the World Series. The local press gave him little credit.
In 1918, World War I broke out. The Secretary of War issued a 'work or fight' edict. This meant that every healthy male would be working at home or fighting for their country. There was to be no 'grey area'. It was unknown to most whether baseball was 'a job' or not. Most players had 'real jobs' while playing the game.
So, most of the great players of the day took no chances and took jobs in steel mills and shipyards. In fact, there is a picture of Ruth, Jackson ,and Hornsby in a team picture for Bethlehem Steel.
The Chicago press discredited Jackson in local papers for taking a job in the shipyards, inferring that he was a coward.
In 1919, the coast was clear for players. Baseball was indeed, a job.
The White Sox again won the pennant.
There are a lot of accounts in what happens next.
There are versions and versions of versions.
So many, that almost 100 years later, it could be muckier now than then.
Betting on World Series games were commonplace. It had been done since the early 1910's and had grown each year.
The 1919 White Sox were the perfect team for big time gamblers.
Ed Cicotte, the White Sox best pitcher felt he had been defrauded out of a $10,000 bonus by owner Charles Comiskey.
Comiskey had promised Cicotte a huge bonus if Cicotte won 30 games.
Two games before the year ended, Cicotte started a game, but was pulled with the White Sox leading 2-1 after only two innings. Cicotte was incensed that he did not get a chance to win his 30th game. His Manager stated that he wanted him to rest his arm for the Series. Cicotte did not believe him, instead believing that Comiskey had pulled strings.
The casual fan does not know that the original idea for putting a fix on the '19 World Series did not come from a gambler, but from a player on the White Sox. First baseman Chick Gandil associated with a lot of lower level gamblers. It was his suggestion that the fix would be doable. Too much for small time gamblers, the word was circulated to big time gamblers who provided the funds.
Gandil recruited Cicotte and four others. Another White Sox player was asked but refused. He would later be banned for not reporting it. Another teammate got wind of the story, threatened to report it if he wasn't compensated. He played little during the Series and was also banned afterwards.
Joe Jackson's part in the scheme is the most debated.
Jackson's teammates felt he played at full speed. They did, however, suspect the others. For the White Sox, there was plenty of in-fighting during the Series. The players not in on the fix were steamed at the horrible performances of their teammates. Players on the fix were either quiet or trying to convince teammates that they were doing their best.
The gamblers felt that they had to have the White Sox best player in on the fix. They directed the Sox in on the fix to persuade Jackson.
Most accounts have Jackson refusing. Then later accepting under a bodily harm threat to him and his family.
Some accounts have a teammate in on the fix as getting refused by Joe, but before leaving Jackson's hotel room, hurling the gamblers money at Jackson and closing the door.
Some had Jackson refusing and trying to get a meeting with Comiskey to blow the whistle, but that Comiskey refused meeting with Jackson, knowing what the subject matter was.
All could be true. Parts can be true. What can't be denied is that Jackson had better stats than any other player who took the field during the Series. He hit the Series only home run. He did not make an error. He hit .375, leading all hitters.
Still, in baseball there is room for an argument that ANY player is not giving 100%.
My sense is that Jackson with an IQ well below others, did not understand the ramifications of the situation. Even if taking the money and playing the game as he played every game. He was naive enough to think that no matter how the World Series turned out, that it would all blow over.
A Grand Jury convened near the end of the 1920 baseball season. Cicotte and Jackson both confessed to taking money from gamblers.
It was at this time that a Chicago reporter wrote the infamous, "Say it ain't so, Joe" story from a sad faced kid outside of the court room. The story, as most stories did in Chicago, leaned against Jackson.
Before trial, key evidence, including both confessions, less than mysteriously disappeared and all the players were found innocent.
Later, Mountain Landis, new Commissioner of baseball, hired to clean up the game banished all eight players he felt were involved from baseball forever. Most, including Jackson would play semi-pro ball and other types of baseball. An idea was cooked up to go on tour and play against Major League players, but Landis put a stop to that before it started by stating any player that played with or against them would also be banished from baseball.
In a scene that seemed like was written for a movie, years later, Ty Cobb stopped into the liquor store that Jackson owned in South Carolina. After buying his booze and giving Jackson several looks, Cobb finally said, "Joe, don't you know me?"
To which Jackson replied, "Sure I know you, Ty, but I wasn't sure you wanted to know me. A lot of them don't."
Jackson recanted that Grand Jury confession and to his death denied involvement in the scheme. Later, his teammates all backed Jackson up. They said that his name was included to gamblers to give the scheme more gas with them. All agreed that Jackson never was in a meeting with gamblers or players who were on the take.
Joe Jackson took his punishment quietly.
He did not shout out that he was innocent. If there were stories about Joe after the banishment and his exclusion from the Hall of Fame, it came from the press, not Joe. He's been compared to Pete Rose. Rose has tried every trick possible to be included in the Hall, Jackson none. Is it the measure of the man or the difference in era's?
I don't know.
I do think that Joe Jackson did not have top flight lawyers, or agents, or pr people, or others fighting for his cause. Why?
Because there was no cause. Joe Jackson wanted his name cleared. That's all.
Pete Rose wants in the Hall and could care less what folks think of his name.
Therein lies the major difference between the two men.
I have written to the Hall of Fame several times on behalf of Joe Jackson. His statistics tell us how awesome he was on the field. He may have been the greatest player we never saw.
There is also no proof that Jackson was guilty. It was the decision of one man who's mission was to clean up baseball to ban him. Instead of studying each players participation on a case by case scenario, the usual suspects were all rounded up into a group and banished from baseball.
Joe Jackson's name should be clean and he should be in the Hall of Fame. Not many still go to bat for Jackson.
Heck, Jackson died 60 years ago. But, if a wrong can be righted, no matter how much time has elapsed, it should be done.
