"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
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson is regarded as one of the best to have played the game. 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. 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. 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. Chick Gandil offered Joe $10,000 for his part in the fix. Joe declined, and was later offered $20,000, which he also declined. 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. The gamblers knew that Joe's talent could single-handedly carry the White Sox to victory. Later, he bumped into one of the gamblers in a hotel lobby. The gambler started talking to him about some details of the fix because he wrongly assumed Joe was in on it. Joe went to White Sox owner Charles A. Comiskey with some of the details of the fix and asked to be benched for the whole series to avoid any suspicion that he was involved. Comiskey denied his request (The Black Sox, 1999). It would later be revealed that many others knew of the supposed fix, but did nothing to report it. Joe did not push the issue for fear of being laughed out of baseball. He was afraid that no one would believe an uneducated ballplayer's story regarding something that could not possibly happen (Facts, 2002). Several of Joe's teammates did participate in throwing the World Series causing them to loose to Cincinnati 5 games to 3. Joe clearly was the star of the series, hitting the only home run by either team
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Approximate Word count = 1251
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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