"Shoeless"Joe Jackson and the 1919 Chicago Black Sox Scandal
As Major League Baseball prepares for the post-season and World Series, it is important that we look back at one of baseball's greatest players and the events of 1919. The scandal surrounding the World Series that year would forever change the face of professional sports. "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's professional career was abruptly ended after being banned from baseball in 1921 for his alleged part in fixing the World Series of 1919. I hope to shed some light on Joe's life in and out of baseball and describe the events surrounding his banishment.Joseph Jefferson Jackson was born in Pickens County, South Carolina in 1888. In 1901, at the age of 13 after he worked in a textile mill for 7 years, Joe began playing baseball for the company team. At age 20 he turned professional by playing for Greenville of the Carolina Association, and then briefly for the Philadelphia Athletics of the Major League Baseball Association. (Joe Jackson Timeline, 2002). Joe Jackson was nicknamed "Shoeless Joe" in 1908 when he was playing for his hometown Greenville team. The new baseball cleats that he was wearing hurt his feet so much that he went to bat in the middle of the game in his stocking feet. Upon reaching third base afte
He was criticized for not going overseas and continued to play ball for industrial league teams. The Scandal Prior to the World Series of 1919, a teammate of Jackson's approached him with the notion that seven other players were in cahoots with local gamblers and were planning on fixing the championship. Lefty threw the envelope down in Joe's room and left. Joe declined, and was later offered $20,000, which he also declined. Conclusion "Shoeless" Joe Jackson is regarded as one of the best to have played the game. It would later be revealed that many others knew of the supposed fix, but did nothing to report it. From my research it seems a shame that Major League Baseball will not reinstate him so he can rightfully take his place in Cooperstown in the Hall of Fame. Joe went to White Sox owner Charles A. Gandil used Joe's name with the gamblers because he was afraid the deal would have fallen through if they thought the star player was not involved. If the events of 1919 were to happen today Joe would have had his own lawyer and would have, more than likely, not been banned from the sport he so deeply cherished. In hindsight he should have returned the money to Lefty Williams, but he did not. Comiskey denied his request (The Black Sox, 1999). Joe did not push the issue for fear of being laughed out of baseball.
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